Anyone heating with propane or natural gas? Yikes!

[ScoobyRoo]

Quote:
Thats a first>

 

[key west chick]

Before I got my propane heaters, it was a kerosene one! I have no way to get anything electric out to them. And just an FYI, my coop is venilated, no worries about fumes!

 

[ScoobyRoo]

I know this is off the beaten path of the thread. We sure do spoil our chickens! I just gave them warm grits. It is 1 degree here.

 

[PurpleChicken]

My chickens are going through a gallon of propane a day to keep the
264 sq foot barn at 45. Our cost on propane is $3 per gallon and that
is cheap for CT. We heat our house primarily with a propane stove in
our living room and we use about the same gallon or 2 a day to do that.

Our main air handler is all electric and would cost us an easy $250 a month
to heat our 900 ft of living space. Propane does it for half.


I have to differ with a few other comments here.

Propane is almost unlimited since it can be refined from natural gas, oil,
methane produced by waste, or even various biofuels.

Producing enough electricity using solar panels to heat with is not possible.
The physics don't add up. Using thermal solar panels is a much more
effective way to heat a home or hot water and cost a lot less.

 

[greyfields]

We go through 3 - 500 gallon tanks per year here, too. We're on an island so mains gas isn't available.

Our house is 5,000 SF and we also run the AGA off propane. The water heaters are electric, though.

 

[horsejody]

Last year I spent $1300 on propane. Last spring we updated the furnace and put in a heat pump with an electric back up. Nebraska has one of the cheapest electricity costs in the nation, so i hope we come out ahead.

 

[Beau coop]

Quote:
That's it for 5000SF?! What type of furnace do you have? How long is your heating season and what are temps like?

 

[greyfields]

We're on the coast of Washington state. Never hot, never cold, with very few exceptions. It costs me around $1000 per tank fill-up.

 

[ibpboo]

My last propane bill was over $400. That was for 100 gallons. Its around $4 gallon here. Well, the heater went out, so I didn't have it fixed, just went without heat for the winter, its possible to do that here, even though it is quite cold. But, there is not snow on the ground!

 

[beak]

Quote:
We had a heat pump in Ft Worth. They will save quite a bit as long as you don't let the heating elements kick in. Never turn it up more than 2 deg at a time.

We are on propane , refill 5x a year and cost about 300 per refill avg. 3300 sf house. gas WH, gas stove, gas heater. When we moved in it was 1.09 gallon. Natural gas was 2.10 at the time.