Propane Heat? (buying a house, buying, maintenance)

[watamensch]

Hi... I am thinking of buying a house in Randolph with propane heat. I've had oil, electric and natural gas in the homes that I have lived in, but never propane.
Two questions:

1. Is propane more or less expensive?
2. I know that propane is explosive. Any issues with that?

[Alex07860]

Just don't shoot the tank and you should be fine, as far as cost, do a side by side comparison w/ all the different types of energy/heat and put in all the variables, i.e size of the home (sq footage)

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by watamensch

Hi... I am thinking of buying a house in Randolph with propane heat. I've had oil, electric and natural gas in the homes that I have lived in, but never propane.
Two questions:

1. Is propane more or less expensive?
2. I know that propane is explosive. Any issues with that?

I have propane and I love it. Price per gallon is less than oil at the moment. I'm at 2.89/gallon and I hear it will be going up over 3.00/gallon this winter. I find it to be much cleaner than oil...less maintenance on the furnace as well. Regarding the "explosion" fear... no more dangerous than Natural Gas is. And the tanks that hold the propane are extremely thick! One word of advice...find out who owns the tank. If the homeowner doesn't own it it means that you are stuck with the propane company that they are using...no shopping around for prices!

[joe moving]

At $3/gallon, 90,000 BTU per gallon it is about the same price as $4.60 oil (which is where I would expect it to be next winter ,if not more) (137,000 BTU per gallon oil).

I would not be surprised to see the point where it's cheaper to use electric than propane and oil but I would not personally try to do a comparison of BTUs to watts in electric since electric heat is 100% efficient (that is, after all of the loss in conversion from coal to electric), cheap heaters, and space heating allowing you to shut off rooms you dont use.

To me it seems like basically it's the same price as oil..... but cleaner and less maintenance. In terms of efficiency it depends on the furnace....

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by joe moving

At $3/gallon, 90,000 BTU per gallon it is about the same price as $4.60 oil (which is where I would expect it to be next winter ,if not more) (137,000 BTU per gallon oil).

I would not be surprised to see the point where it's cheaper to use electric than propane and oil but I would not personally try to do a comparison of BTUs to watts in electric since electric heat is 100% efficient (that is, after all of the loss in conversion from coal to electric), cheap heaters, and space heating allowing you to shut off rooms you dont use.

To me it seems like basically it's the same price as oil..... but cleaner and less maintenance. In terms of efficiency it depends on the furnace....

Great post. We've been getting alot of calls from people with oil and propane wanting to convert their central A/C units into electric heat units in order to save on fuel costs. it's an easy conversion and not that expensive....Not a bad idea....

[rich47buzz]

We just bought a house which uses propane for cooking. (oil for main heat.) The existing dealer, Suburban Propane wants us to sign a contract for propane at $6.70 per gallon with a minimum annual commitment whether we use it or not. I don't know if the deliveryman wears a hold-up mask or not.

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by rich47buzz

We just bought a house which uses propane for cooking. (oil for main heat.) The existing dealer, Suburban Propane wants us to sign a contract for propane at $6.70 per gallon with a minimum annual commitment whether we use it or not. I don't know if the deliveryman wears a hold-up mask or not.

6.70!!!!!!!!!!! I'm locked in at 3.10 with Amerigas. Do you have to use Suburban? Sometime the propane co. owns the tank and you're stuck with them unless you buy the tank or remove it and install a new one. 6.70 is a rip off! I heard another co. out there was at 2.89...old able propane and I don't know their new name. Try priceenergy.com I believe they will show up on that webiste.