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Old 12-15-2017, 05:21 PM
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fallen1817 fallen1817 is offline
 
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Default Propane Usage in Home

Hey everyone,

I'm just hoping to get a bit of insight as to my new home. Our future house has Propane as a heat source, with a 1000 U.S. Gal. tank for storage. The house is ~1500 sq.ft, but I don't know the efficiency of the furnace (just that it is a relatively new furnace, within 5 years).

The basement is unfinished, and the attached double garage has a wood stove in it, which will be nice for working on projects out there.

So, by your experience and rough estimate, how long do you figure the tank would last me, assuming weather remains consistent with past years? Would it be worth my while to supplement the home heat with the wood stove, by leaving the man-door open in between the house and the garage, or would the concrete pad be too much of a heat sucker?

Thanks for any input!
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Old 12-15-2017, 05:27 PM
dewalt18 dewalt18 is offline
 
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Just the opposite actually, once you get the slab up to temperature it can hold and release heat for days, hence the benefits of in slab hydronic heating. I can't speak for how long your tank will last, never been on propane personally. Since you already have a woodstove in the attached garage and the resulting insurance premiums, have you considered having a second stove installed in the basement?
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Old 12-15-2017, 05:31 PM
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fallen1817 fallen1817 is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dewalt18 View Post
Just the opposite actually, once you get the slab up to temperature it can hold and release heat for days, hence the benefits of in slab hydronic heating. I can't speak for how long your tank will last, never been on propane personally. Since you already have a woodstove in the attached garage and the resulting insurance premiums, have you considered having a second stove installed in the basement?
I was hoping it would hold heat... I figured if I kept a log in the stove most of the time, it'd maintain heat nicely.

I'll have to look at cost for installing a stove (might be able to do it myself and have it inspected/certified).

Thanks for the info!
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Old 12-15-2017, 08:52 PM
shortaction shortaction is offline
 
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Location: Manitoulin Island, Ontario
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I live in Ontario just above the 45 parallel and I have a 860 sqft home with a crawl space and a garage workshop about the same size, both are heated with a direct vent wall furnace. Our hot water is propane on demand, our dryer runs off it(we dry all our clothes in the dryer) and our kitchen range is propane as well. We burn about 2500 litres a year.

My parents home was built in 2012 and is 1532 sqft with a full finished basement of the same size, heat with a mid to high effieciency propane furnance and they have a 17kw backup generator that runs off propane as well. They have averaged around 1500 liters/year.

Both places are very well insulated R-32 walls, R-80 blown cellulose in the ceilings and both have southern exposure with protection to the north and west.

Last edited by shortaction; 12-15-2017 at 09:04 PM.
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Old 12-15-2017, 09:17 PM
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fordtruckin fordtruckin is offline
 
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Actually one of the aspects of green building includes using amounts of concrete to act as a heat sink. I would assume you will get on a contract with a propane provider where they just show up on a set time and top the tank off. That is what my folks did in Newfoundland when they lived there and how things work down here in Montana.
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Old 12-15-2017, 11:53 PM
fishinmatt fishinmatt is offline
 
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I can't imagine that you'd need to fill up more than twice a year. We have a 1700 sqft house and we probably burn just over 1000 gal a year and keep the house at 20°C throughout fall and winter. It may actually work out cheaper than gas over the course of the year without having to pay line and service fees. Also i think the carbon tax is ~$0.035 on propane and ~$1.00/gigajoule on gas so its a much higher percentage on natural gas currently.
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Old 12-16-2017, 07:09 AM
Vacation Vacation is offline
 
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My ttanks get filled twice a year and really the fills are just top ups. Shop has its own tank and gets topped up once a year. Some top ups have been super cheap in the last few years when compared to the past.
My local provider takes care of it, I don't even hav to monitor my tanks. They come and check and fill as needed. It's pretty nice.
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Old 12-16-2017, 08:54 AM
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Digger1 Digger1 is offline
 
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We have a 1000 sq ft house with full basement with heated floor. House is 10 years old, ICF walls up to the steel roof. Our 1000 gallon propane lasts 22 months to empty average over 4 years now, but we heat mostly with wood. (1 to 1.5 cords of lodgepole pine per winter). Propane is used for stove, propane fireplace rarely, water heater which also does floor heat occasionally, barbecue, triple burner camp stove for canning, and meat smoker. Still cheaper than hooking up the gas line which is on the side of the house. Propane in Septembers has been 25-26 cents a litre but now Nutley stuck on a carbon tax of about 10%.

Last edited by Digger1; 12-16-2017 at 09:16 AM.
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Old 12-16-2017, 09:48 AM
Big Grey Wolf Big Grey Wolf is offline
 
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You will need to be careful in using garage wood heat of slab. Proper building code is garage must be separated from home to eliminate chance of CO getting into your home. The secret to low cost propane is having your own tank and being able to shop the market for lowest price/gallon. Best time to fill is in August when their storage tanks are full and they need to move some product.
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