# Propane stove efficient versus furnace?



## whoppr (Feb 7, 2014)

I know this is a loaded question and there are a lot of 'it depends' variables, but am curious if folks have any insight how efficient a propane stove is.  I have a Majestic RFS42TP and right now keep the furnace turned down and heat the local area with the stove for both ambiance and heat.  It only heats the downstairs but the downstairs is pretty open so its a little tough to limit it to one room.  

The furnace is also propane so am curious whether I am saving or wasting money by running the stove?  downstairs is a little more than half the sq footage of the home (1000 sq feet, maybe 1900 sq feet total)

Thanks


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## DAKSY (Feb 8, 2014)

The efficiency of your gas fireplace is reduced to give you a nice presentation as it burns. Wood burns with yellow flames. Gas burns with blue. A yellow gas flame has the air-to-fuel ratio tweaked making it more inefficient but pretty. Your furnace/boiler doesn't need to look nice. It needs to burn with an efficient blue flame...I think you need to compare the amount of fuel each unit uses. LP has about 92K BTU per gallon. divide that number by the BTU rating of the appliance & that will tell you how long it will take to burn that gallon. Common sense says that a smaller appliance will burn less, but if it's not able to satisfy the thermostat, it will never shut off. So in fact, it may burn MORE. The larger appliance will burn more per hour, but once it satisfies the thermostat & shuts down, it stops using fuel. Every house is different & in order to determine which is better in yours can only be done by careful monitoring (timing) your appliance burn times...Hope this makes some kind of sense...


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## whoppr (Feb 9, 2014)

DAKSY said:


> The efficiency of your gas fireplace is reduced to give you a nice presentation as it burns. Wood burns with yellow flames. Gas burns with blue. A yellow gas flame has the air-to-fuel ratio tweaked making it more inefficient but pretty. Your furnace/boiler doesn't need to look nice. It needs to burn with an efficient blue flame...I think you need to compare the amount of fuel each unit uses. LP has about 92K BTU per gallon. divide that number by the BTU rating of the appliance & that will tell you how long it will take to burn that gallon. Common sense says that a smaller appliance will burn less, but if it's not able to satisfy the thermostat, it will never shut off. So in fact, it may burn MORE. The larger appliance will burn more per hour, but once it satisfies the thermostat & shuts down, it stops using fuel. Every house is different & in order to determine which is better in yours can only be done by careful monitoring (timing) your appliance burn times...Hope this makes some kind of sense...




That makes a lot of sense, thank you.  The stove is able to heat the area and kick off so I will have to check some specs and such. I may have to turn the furnace way down to see how the stove does on its own since it does kick on occasionally when the stove is running.  Thank you.


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