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Propane VS Electric Heat

5K views 30 replies 14 participants last post by  37523 
#1 ·
Up here in northern MN, propane is now $6.10 a gallon. At 95% efficiency that's $69 per million Btu's. Electric right out the wall is $29. This is doing a few things. Plenum heaters are 3 weeks out. People are plugging portable heaters into every circuit in these old fuse panels and upping the fuse size. I see fires coming, houses freezing up. It's a mess.
 
#4 ·
347sparky said:
I'm heating with propane, but own my tank. I got the summer fill and contracted 300 extra at 1.70 per gallon. An ounce of prevention....

Maybe in the spring there will be tons of service upgrades coming.
The contracts here have all been cancelled. The propane companies have an out in them. I'll bet if you read yours, you'll find that is true. I own my tank too, 1000 gal and I fill it in the summer when gas is lowest.
 
#5 ·
You got me wondering so I found my paperwork on it. They cannot cancel without approval of both parties, but may not be held liable for failure of vendors or suppliers to perform obligations to the Co-op.

I still have 400 gallons left in mine, so hopefully the shortage gets rectified before I need more. Looks like I contracted at $1.49, not $1.70.
 
#6 ·
347sparky said:
You got me wondering so I found my paperwork on it. They cannot cancel without approval of both parties, but may not be held liable for failure of vendors or suppliers to perform obligations to the Co-op.

I still have 400 gallons left in mine, so hopefully the shortage gets rectified before I need more. Looks like I contracted at $1.49, not $1.70.
I know an insider and he said they all have an out. Most people aren't going to go to court anyway. My brother in law has a contract and they told him they don't have any gas to bring him. Now the politicians here are getting involved. That will really screw it up.
 
#18 ·
meadow said:
Cheapest to most expensive... Im sure it will change in a few hours:laughing:

Solar
Gas
Geothermal
Propane

Oil

Electric het pump

Wood stoves (varies from where yu buy the wood, if it yours its free:thumbup:)

Electric resistance
If your talking cheapest to run, it's more like this

Geothermal @10 cents/kW is $7.00 per million
Wood @ $150/cord is $12 per million
Off peak electric @ 6 cents/kW is $14 per million
Straight electric @ 10 cents/kW is $29 per million
Fuel oil @ $4.20/ gal is $34 per million
Propane @ $6.10/ gal is $67 per million

Solar is a non starter as you would never be able to have a system big enough to heat with.

And as of yesterday propane here is $6.10 a gal.
 
#25 ·
Ordered propane last week Monday, the price was $2.44 a gallon. They delivered it on Thursday and the price was up to $4.08. Lucky me they gave me Monday's price. Tore out my oil furnace last year and installed a high efficiency LP furnace. Should have kept the oil furnace I guess!!
 
#26 ·
wendon said:
Ordered propane last week Monday, the price was $2.44 a gallon. They delivered it on Thursday and the price was up to $4.08. Lucky me they gave me Monday's price. Tore out my oil furnace last year and installed a high efficiency LP furnace. Should have kept the oil furnace I guess!!
Best to have multiple sources. What's electric cost there? Any dual fuel or off peak rates?
 
#27 ·
I think we're at about $.14 right now. The off peak that our local POCO offers hardly pays anymore. Xcel has an off peak usage program but that can stink at times too because they nail you for any usage that isn't off peak.
 
#31 ·
> 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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