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Propane VS Electric Heat

5K views 30 replies 14 participants last post by  37523 
> Last I heard, Maine is #1 for homes heated by oil.

Oil is big business here. Or rather a LOT of small businesses. I get mine at No Frills, but there's a half-dozen other trucks I see on my street every week.

My oil burner is tired and one thing and another, I thought to go to propane next spring. Last fall propane in my tank was $2.10 (but $3.30 in the supplier's tank for small quantity). I'm astounded that you are seeing $6. That really means I need to up my tankage and buy while warm.

Residential electricity here is going to 16 cents KWH (was 14c in NJ). Maybe more. (Bizarrely, commercial customers pay more than residential rates on the default plan.) The nukes are shut-down, coal is out of style, folks won't let a wire be run to Quebec hydro, Maine hydro was fully exploited almost a century ago. The power plants in Bangor burn mostly Natural Gas (some oil). And it is a very long thin pipeline from mid-continent where the gas starts.

A plan for mega-tankage at Searsport got shot-down. Blocks the view, might explode (a nearby pipeline blew-off full pressure for most of an hour one night).

I don't see "your own wood" as free. I got 4 acres of trees. But I can't swing an axe that well. Chain-saws (most) are troublesome money-pits. My trees are unmanaged so dropping one without snag or kick-back is a major project. Then dragging the wet wood to the shed. Splitting. Re-stacking. Either way you have chimney cleaning costs you don't get much with oil and nearly none with gas. 20 years ago I burned wood half of every weekend, and it seemed I was spending all my spare time splitting. Yes, it warms you twice. But even "free" I'd rather pay for a cord.

Where I'm at, geothermal is absurd. It's all rock 2 feet down. Pump-to-air is very challenged in this climate, lots of failures.
 
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