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wow, all this stuff makes me wonder if we should get into all of this....would any of you forgo a home just because of propane usage?
It's nothing to lose sleep over. I like gas cooking, but if couldn't get natural gas, I'd go with electric.
We need natural gas for an uninterrupted supply for a standby generator.
so how are u heating your home this winter? surely the gas fireplace isnt enough? we are in NY as well so wondering how much did it cost to heat up your home last winter? is there another alternative ( natural gas isnt available). thanks!
I live in the Northeast too and I completely understand your situation. Where I live only about 40%-45% of the houses in the town have access to natural gas. A lot of the homes in my town are older (a lot of 1950's & 1960's construction) so the most common heating fuel source in town is oil. After that, the most common fuel source is natural gas which is far cheaper to heat with than oil. There's a small percentage of homes in town that do heat with electricity, but my understanding is that heating with electric baseboards would be more costly even than heating with oil. There are some homes around here that have heat pumps. However, here in the Northeast it's hard for heat pumps to function because they're basically pulling whatever heat they can find out of the air outside and pumping it into the house. Some days in the Northeast, there's not much heat to be had outside. My understanding is that the older heat pumps are far worse than modern ones.
I will say when new construction is being built and there is no gas line available propane is starting to become the choice instead of oil. It's cheaper to heat with than oil and allows you the convenience of gas cooking and gas fireplaces. Also, if you ever get a natural gas line on your street generally it's less involved/cheaper to convert your home to natural gas.
Personally if my only two choices are propane or oil, I'm choosing propane every time. Just make sure to find out who owns the tanks. Many times they're leased from the propane company. However, if natural gas is extremely common in the town then I would hold out for a natural gas home unless this is absolutely your dream home.
I had a propane tank where I was living once and if the guy was in the area, he's just stop by and top mine off. It was a good way to know I always had a full or close to full tank and I wasn't paying an arm or a leg to have the whole thing filled up at one time.
But that brings up a question I'm curious about. How far away from your house should a propane tank be? Mine wasn't more than 100 ft away and we were all a little worried during the one electrical storm we had. LOL
We built our current house in 2013. We live in a rural area and couldn't get gas because the main line is too far away. We heat on propane and I LOVE it. The house is always at a warm, ambient temperature. In the winter, we keep it at 71 in daytime, 68 at night. The propane gets delivered on a regular basis through the winter.
We used to live in another rural area and when we first built we had baseboard electric heat. It is absolutely HORRIBLE. I froze in that house the first couple of winters until we finally installed a wood stove in our basement. Our house was warmer, but hauling in wood and stoking the stove was was a PIA!
Then we installed one of those outdoor wood stoves with a furnace/blower in our basement. I hated that method of heating too unless hubby was home on the weekends to keep it stoked up. As the fire burned down, the house would start getting cold. How I hated going out in the snow and ice to fire a bunch of heavy wood into that sucker! Our closest neighbors were a fair distance from our house. When hubby was away, I was always afraid that I'd go out some night and fall. I used to tuck my phone into my pocket for that very reason.
Yes, propane heat is wonderful. Just make sure the furnace is inspected and maintained properly.
I had a propane tank where I was living once and if the guy was in the area, he's just stop by and top mine off. It was a good way to know I always had a full or close to full tank and I wasn't paying an arm or a leg to have the whole thing filled up at one time.
But that brings up a question I'm curious about. How far away from your house should a propane tank be? Mine wasn't more than 100 ft away and we were all a little worried during the one electrical storm we had. LOL
I've seen above ground tanks right next to the house. Around here (MA) new home builds with propane will have an underground tank.
Heating with propane is really not that different than heating with natural gas in terms of efficiency.
The efficiency of heating with propane with depend on the HVAC unit. Propane versus natural gas won't determine efficiency.
In Midwestern rural areas without natural gas about 90% of the homes are heated with propane. In the Northeast, it's around 80% that use propane or heating oil. Those numbers are growing for propane users.
Heating with propane requires one or two phone calls a year to resupply the tank (although the supplier may call you about summer specials). It requires paying the bill once or twice a year.
I think you're worried about what would be a non-issue. We only use propane for cooking, the dryer, and the gas fireplace. The only adjustment required when we moved out of a natural gas area was to install a different type of hook-up on appliances. We simply purchased a cook top built to use propane, a dryer with the required hook-up and the builder made sure the fireplace had the right type of connection. No big deal.
We live in NEPA. We've heated our old farmhouse with a centralized propane fireplace for fifteen years. While our house also has electric baseboard heaters in every room, we rarely use them. Our house is comfy and the cost is much more affordable than using the electric baseboards (which we did the first two winters).
I've never lived anywhere that had access to natural gas, so having a propane tank is second nature to me. As to delivery, the tanks are generally 'leased' to you from whatever company you select. If you decide to switch companies, you need to contact the original company to come remove their tank and the new company will set you up with a new one. Generally, this is a pretty seamless process.
I agree with greyhorsewoman. I also live in NEPA and where I live now is the 1st place I've owned that has natural gas. Propane would be my 2nd choice if natural gas wasn't available.
Maybe it's state laws but tanks cannot be put right next to the dwelling. I think it's 20 feet away? Anyway, your gas company can tell you.
I wouldn't let it be the determining factor when deciding to buy.
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