Thinking of Forced Air Furnace

After burning coal for the last twenty years, I'm tired. My health is crap and I can foresee a time when I won't be able to carry a bucket of coal.

I would really like baseboard hot water but I can't get under the house and although I haven't gotten any quotes, I think the cost and logistics make that out of the question. My house is already ducted for forced air so that will be the plan. Right now I'm just doing research to figure out my best options.

Because of the size of my back entry is not very big, any fuel supply will have to be outside and I don't want to mess with having the oil mixed so it won't freeze, it looks like propane is it.

Basically, all I really need to get ready is to clean out my bin and my back entry where the furnace will go and locate some of those vent covers or what ever they're called and put them in.

Where the money is going to come from? I don't know, but I'll find a way.

I'll still keep the coal stove as backup and supplemental heat. Coal is in my blood.

No way to build a little semi-heated room for a fuel tank? LP is pricey the less you use but you'll use plenty, everyone that has it does. The efficiency isn't up to par with oil.

When you get very efficient via 90%+ furnaces they are having their own problems with acid eating away at the heat exchangers.

I do wish you luck though.

I think propane isn't that bad on cost ... That's if you fork out the cash and buy your own tank. No availability to natural gas I'm assuming?

Give the good folks at EFM a chance and get a quote on one of their furnaces. Many people don't realize EFM makes regular boilers and furnaces, not just coal stokers.

I think it depends on where you live. I've seen propane prices from around $2.00/ gallon to almost $3.50 a gallon depending on what state you live in. Same with oil. Some are now paying $3.50/ gallon, others $4.50/gallon

You don't have to worry about having the oil "mixed" any more. It's almost universally treated w/ an anti-gel now, they don't blend kero anymore and the one's that do, do it automatically for those w/ outdoor tanks. Go with thermopride furnace and oil heat.

I just got a price on propane.

As of today, if I rent the tank it would be $3.19 and if I own tank $2.78.

A 100 gallon tank and regulator will cost $680 and a $99 installation fee. With a $0.41/gal it would take 1900 gallons payback or about 4 years.

Propane is about a dollar a gallon less than oil.

I'm going to look for other prices on the tank.

More later

You don't compare price per gallon of different fuels.
You must compare price per million BTU heat energy output. Use the "Calculator" top of this page.

BTW : 100 gallon needs refilled often

Berlin advice above is spot on.

If you own a diesel vehicle and have fuel oil,.... and don't get caught, you can pump some of that non highway taxed fuel oil into your car or truck and save a ton of $$$ not that it is legal or that I have ever done it! #2 fuel oil and diesel are the same thing. Only difference is the fuel oil is dyed red.

back in the day I lived in a trailer for a few years that of course had an outside tank. I had the burner on my hot air system fitted with a kero nozzle and got the tank filled with kerosene. I never had a freeze up while others in the trailer park had that issue with their oil tanks.

do they treat the oil year round so that you don't have worry about getting a summer delivery that hasn't been treated?

beemerboy wrote:I just got a price on propane.

As of today, if I rent the tank it would be $3.19 and if I own tank $2.78.

Call around to different suppliers as well. I do this routinely for the church tanks and price/gal varies a lot from dealer to dealer. The guy we used to lease the tanks from is much higher than the supplier we generally go with. Last I called in Aug/Sept low price was I think $1.97 (under $2 for sure) and his price was around $2.75. THose are 1k gallon tanks so the price diff may be greater than for a 100 gal tank.

Any body know out-right cost to buy a 1000 gallon propane underground tank?

i hate oil... but I hate propane more you will put yourself at their mercy (at least with oil you can play games, truck fuel, heat fuel, going here, going their)... propane sound wonderful until you actually HAVE IT

I personally would do anything BUT propane.... just my 2 cents

McGiever wrote:Any body know out-right cost to buy a 1000 gallon propane underground tank?

My house data is old, from 2002, but it was about $1300 for our 1000 gal tank from Southern States. They had the best price at that time in our area. We already had excavation going on for an addition so the backhoe was onsite for the basement and the guy dug it and set the tank for me as part of that price. I bought the regulator and ran the line to the building myself. Interior propane line was run by the HVAC contractor.

The church install, also outdated pricing but interesting just the same, was in 2007 and was a package price. Included were three 1k gallon above ground tanks at the church/parsonage and a 500gal in ground tank at chapel, total installation of all lines and regulators as well as the initial fill of propane. I am going by memory but it was in the neighborhood of $12k. I tracked the price difference from what the leased tank price/gal was to the lowest fill price we were able to get each time I got it filled and we 'paid' for the tanks/install (subtracted out the cost of the initial propane fill) in 2012.

At current pricing in central Pa. electric heat would be cheapest + 100% efficient, if choosing between oil & propain, oil burns but propain can go