From Long Island and confused about propane. (how much, house)

[bldginpa]

Have been told it's a good idea to supplement electric heat pump/ac with oil or gas. We don't think natural gas is available in the Promised Land/Pike County area. The next alternative would probably be propane. Can anybody tell us pros and cons to propane, since we are not familiar with it at all (being from LI, all natural gas). Is it expensive; can anyone approximate the cost? Thanks.

[Pensypat]

We use propane for heat, hot water, drying clothes and cooking. My husband and I feel it is a lot cleaner than burning oil. We had no fear putting in a new propane furnace when we bought our house in the country because we were very used to having propane in our travel trailer which we used for many years for our vacation trips. You don't need to have a propane fueled furnace cleaned every year either. We get our deliveries from Suburban Propane and they keep our tank filled without us having to phone and ask them to come. The only bad thing is you have to have a big tank either in your yard or underground for your fuel. We have a 500 gallon above ground tank, but we had it placed out of sight so it is not even visible when you look out the windows of our house. So that was of no concern to us. We also have a coal burning stove in our living room. That is our main source of heat in the winter.....we use the furnace as backup. In other words, we set our thermostates to turn on if the coal stove should go out or is not keeping the house warm enough. For this reason it would be hard to tell you exactly how much propane we use. I can tell you that we would never go back to burning oil. If you are going to live out in the country it is a very good idea to have a backup heat source. A stove that burns either wood, coal or pellets would be a good idea. Then you know if you are ever without electricity for a few days you will still have some heat in the dead of winter. Oh....and that is another reason I personally prefer a gas stove over an electric one. If the electric goes off....I can still cook. Hope this helps you some.