Propane v. electricity - Page 3

kelsey17 · ‎04-10-2012

Over the years I have had both...gas & electric....def prefer electric.................

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@hoosieroriginal wrote:
@Mominohio wrote:
We live in the country and are all electric except for a very small propane tank for the stove/oven.

My mom lives next door and has propane for heat, stove, and water heater. She lives alone, and supplements heating with Duraflame heaters. She probably goes through about $1600 per year in propane. And those Duraflame heaters don't increase her electric bill by much either.

In our area, propane is the highest cost of heating. My mom has no other options, as we don't have access out here to natural gas. The only benefit I see to propane is that if you have those really large tanks, once filled, you have your own, paid for fuel source. No monthly bills, and no worries if the electric goes out (you can use a generator/battery system to kick the furnace on) or if there are gas line issues leaving you without heat. Allows one to be slightly less reliant on the grid and delivery systems for the time the tank takes to empty out anyway (for her that is several months, even in a cold winter).
@Mominohio - I disagree with you on Duraflame - it made my electricity soar when I used it.

Sorry you had that experience @hoosieroriginal. Nothing is free (unfortunately!!LOL) but we have about a half dozen Duraflame heaters in our house too, and we cycle them in the colder weather depending on where we are. They allow us to not use our baseboard heat in most areas of the house (unless it gets and stays below freezing) and we are only heating the area we are in.

We have four levels of our home, and I have always found that if we heat the lowest level and let that heat rise, then supplement with a space heater here and there, we can get by much cheaper than putting the baseboards on in each room.

We also have two rooms that have no heat (basement, and the laundry room) so a heater in each of those to use once in awhile makes being there for the short time we need to be now and then, much more comfortable.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@hoosieroriginal wrote:
@2blonde wrote:
@hoosieroriginal Yes, I'm all electric too (large condo). In fact, there are no gas lines on my street. I admit I feel a little safer without any fossil fuels around me, and no need for a CO 2 detector either!

We have heat pumps with back up electric coil heating in the furnace (basement) that kicks in when the temp drops below 20 degrees. I had a friend in the HVAC business replace my old heat pump 2 years ago, and I think there must be no cheaper way to heat my home, especialy with the latest more efficient technology. Last winter, as you know, was mild, but I think my highest electric bill was a little over $100, and I keep my thermostat at 73 when I'm at home, and 72 when I'm gone for while. (Being born in December, I'm an original freeze baby!)
@2blonde - 73 degrees sounds wonderful to me. I'm lucky if my furnace heats my house above 65, and that's running constantly. I have an A frame which has no attic to insulate and it is all roof. It's cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

@hoosieroriginal

Oh, now I get it. Your A frame is the problem for heating costs! Any type of heating you use is going to be straight up and out the top. Those high ceilings won't allow the heat to stay at ground level. Many A frames also have huge banks of windows, many which aren't very energy efficient. Most of the A frames in this area have been built in places with really pretty views in the countryside. I've always thought it would be nice to sit in the great rooms with the fireplace going and look out those huge windows at the view!

We have a more traditional home (not open concept) with lower ceilings, and separate rooms (most with doors to close them off) and we can heat only the room we are in and leave the heat off or way down everywhere else.

I see now how those Duramflames would run your bill up with those high ceilings.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@beckyb1012 wrote:
@SilleeMee wrote:
@beckyb1012 wrote:
@SilleeMee wrote:
I get really nervous when my electricity goes out which does not happen very often and when it does it's usually for no longer than one hour. But it means nothing in my house will work. No heat, no cooking, no cooling...nada! Sure would be nice to have a propane generator as a back-up. Maybe someday.
The longest we ever went without electric here in Texas during an ice storm was three days. I was keeping my fridge items on my deck buried in the snow and ice. By the third day I told my family if I could not run my vacuum cleaner by the next day we were getting on our hands and knees to start the living room floor clean up. It came back on a few hours later to all our relief.
@beckyb1012,
omg three days??!! I would be a wreck. If that ever happened here then I would definitely buy back-up generator. How do you do it?
Divorce. No that time was hard because a few hours after it came back on we lost the water for six hours then the electricity went back off a couple of hours more until the whole ice storm was behind us. I truly wanted to hurt someone that day. We usually lost power for a 24 hour period several times each winter since it was out in the country and we were not high priority. But no traffic no neighbors so you take the good with the bad.

We have had a couple of multi day power losses in the 22 years we have been in our rural home, and we learned after the first one, a generator is a must if you want to be comfortable during power outages. We have one that runs on gasoline, and keep a supply on hand just in case. We learned that we can get by fine by cycling the generator every four hours (four hours on and four hours off). Keeps freezers and fridge good, allows water to be pumped and heated for showers and laundry, and power for other things like the vacuum, dryer etc.

We have a wood stove for heat in case of very long outages during the winter.

hoosieroriginal · ‎03-04-2012

@Mominohio wrote:
@hoosieroriginal wrote:
@Mominohio wrote:
We live in the country and are all electric except for a very small propane tank for the stove/oven.

My mom lives next door and has propane for heat, stove, and water heater. She lives alone, and supplements heating with Duraflame heaters. She probably goes through about $1600 per year in propane. And those Duraflame heaters don't increase her electric bill by much either.

In our area, propane is the highest cost of heating. My mom has no other options, as we don't have access out here to natural gas. The only benefit I see to propane is that if you have those really large tanks, once filled, you have your own, paid for fuel source. No monthly bills, and no worries if the electric goes out (you can use a generator/battery system to kick the furnace on) or if there are gas line issues leaving you without heat. Allows one to be slightly less reliant on the grid and delivery systems for the time the tank takes to empty out anyway (for her that is several months, even in a cold winter).
@Mominohio - I disagree with you on Duraflame - it made my electricity soar when I used it.

Sorry you had that experience @hoosieroriginal. Nothing is free (unfortunately!!LOL) but we have about a half dozen Duraflame heaters in our house too, and we cycle them in the colder weather depending on where we are. They allow us to not use our baseboard heat in most areas of the house (unless it gets and stays below freezing) and we are only heating the area we are in.

We have four levels of our home, and I have always found that if we heat the lowest level and let that heat rise, then supplement with a space heater here and there, we can get by much cheaper than putting the baseboards on in each room.

We also have two rooms that have no heat (basement, and the laundry room) so a heater in each of those to use once in awhile makes being there for the short time we need to be now and then, much more comfortable.

@Mominohio - I have a woodburning stove in the basement, but unfortunately a couple of years ago when I was having it cleaned they told me I shouldn't use it unless I have it lined. Lining costs more than I can afford. I don't trust baseboard heat at all. I had a small incident years ago in my house. I was in loft sleeping but smelled an awful smell all night. I would get up and check but found nothing. In the morning I let dogs out and opened basement door and could hear an electrical buzzing sound in the wall. I called fire dept. The baseboard heat was turned off, but it was stemming from there. They said if I had the baseboard heat on the whole house would have gone up in flames. I have turned it all off at the electrical box so I don't use it.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

In a camper the hot water heater and the fridge will work on both propane or electric - very convenient. You also have some lights that need an electric hook up and some that run off the batteries. We frequently lose our power during storms as our campground is very old & the mechanics of it are shaky, but it's much easier to get by in a camper without electric. It would be nice to have those same capabilities in a house.

bri20 · ‎03-10-2016

We have electric and natural gas. The heat runs off natural gas. I prefer to cook with gas over electric - I can control it better.

Our dryer and water heater run off natural gas too.

bells4me · ‎03-13-2010

Electricity for heat. I had propane for 28 yrs for heat. Expensive! Would never have an all electric house though.

aubnwa01 · ‎03-09-2010

I use natural gas to heat the house & my hot water & have a gas stove. My laundry room is plumbed so i can have a gas dryer & when my current electric dryer or washer dies, I'll replace with a set that has a gas dryer. My biggest utility bill is my electric bill, which is mostly for cooling since I live in the desert SW. I'm on a budget plan where I pay $118 a month thru out the year for the electric. My gas bill is usually about $20-$25 most of the year, but during the chillier months when I use my furnace & gas fireplace, it can go up to $75-$100 depending on how much i use them.