Webmaster said:TedNH said:Lets say Propane stays at 2.00$ per gallon.
I could spend 3400$ on 1700 gallons to heat my house or a year/over the winter @ a temp average of 62*.
or
I can spend 1000$ on 4 tons of pellets to heat my house for a year/over the winter @ a temp average of 68*.
Only thing I see there is a 2400$ savings in the first year. If you dont count purchase of the stove.
You are not looking at the BTU comparison!
Also, if I bought a bunch of solar panels for electric and hot water, should I calculate the payback and NOT figure in the initial cost or maintaining them?
1700 gallons of LP = 170 million BTU's
4 tons of Pellets = 65 million BTU
Perhaps you have a terrible furnace, but the price comparison point is this - if you bought an LP freestanding stove and installed it upstairs - using your figures (65 million BTU), you would burn 650 gallons of LP in it.....for the EXACT same heat as the Pellet stove.
There are a lot more reasons than money to buy a pellet or wood stove. However, for the proper education of our readers I think it is important to compare BTU for BTU as opposed to "My friend heats his house to X with x".
TedNH said:A pellet stove on full blast will warm me up better than propane fired baseboard. Dont care how many BTU's per what ever you have. Its about applied BTU's.
TedNH said:elkimmeg said:Ted mazkes a good point but he has given valid reasons money should be spent insulationg and draft proofing homes.
Its one thing to pay for heat but my theory I would like to enjoy it a while longer. What if $250 for additional draft stopping and insulation
saves a ton of pelet burning? What if you can improve the effeciency of your central heating system and it's delivery?
yup.
My house is an open concept with vaulted celings. The baseboards in the house were not able to keep up with the heat loss caused by some huge windows that I had. I say had because I removed them this summer and replaced them with a nice insulated wall and some new Marvin windows and a new slider. I suspect that most of my heat was going out those windows. This winter will be the test. My furnace is 2 years old so the technology is good.
It is very hard to determine where and how you are loosing heat.
Here is a photo of what I was dealing with. Last winter I covered them with plastic.