propane vs natural gas


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Old 07-19-17, 09:31 PM
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propane vs natural gas

I'm upgrading the heating system in my house this summer.High efficiency furnace.Trying to decide whether to go with propane (no delivery charges) or natural gas (delivery charges make up 60% of the bill). Both fuel sources are available.I had a HVAC contractor today tell me that you burn 2 1/2 times as much propane to get the same heat as natural gas.Is this accurate?
 
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Old 07-20-17, 01:50 AM
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It must be different up there. You can get NG delivered? AFAIK down here it's either piped in or you find something else.

I think something isn't right with your contractor. Propane actually has almost 2.5 times the usable heat energy per cubic foot, so you should burn much less than NG.

Now, there may be other factors in play I'm not aware of. You should be able to do a quick search and find a calculator online where you just type in the cost of each product to find the cheaper alternative.

Down here NG is relatively stable (yearly at least) and the extra charges aren't that much, propane can fluctuate in price much more and the delivery charges can be high unless you have a contract which locks you in to one supplier.

Pro's will be around...check back.
 
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Old 07-20-17, 03:37 AM
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I wonder if by natural gas he means LNG (Liquid Natural Gas)? No that isn't practical so it would be CNG but acording to this article http://extension.psu.edu/natural-res...s-for-home-use
in addition, the other major issue is that CNG needs to be pressurized to 3,600 PSI while LP is stored around 200 PSI. So you need much more sophisticated and expensive equipment to store and meter CNG than you need for propane.
 
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Old 07-20-17, 06:02 AM
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First, thanks Ray, interesting as I've never considered NG delivered other than by direct connection.
Monte, upgrading to a high efficiency furnace can be expensive and doesn't always produce the anticipated savings. Example, other improvements are often part of the upgrade process, but when you reduce the homes energy needs by 30% (always good) you also reduce your savings from the new system by 30%. Always good to calculate the heat loss and anticipate those future improvements.

Many threads here about the benefits and pitfalls of installing a new system. There are also discussions about the maintenance issues with the new systems.

Bud
 
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Old 07-23-17, 06:44 PM
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propane vs natural gas

Gunguy45, the natural gas is piped in here too,what I mean by "delivered" is the line on the bill that says "distribution or delivery charge" which here is always higher than the actual cost of the fuel ( often 60% of the bill consists of "other than fuel" charges). Propane will be delivered to my house for free,the cost of the fuel being $0.57/ litre.Natural gas is sold by the gigajoule,presently $2.39/gigajoule.It is fairly hard to do a cost comparison since gigajoules isn't a physical measurement,only a measurement of energy.
 
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Old 07-23-17, 07:02 PM
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Convert both prices to BTUs and compare.
 
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Old 07-23-17, 07:05 PM
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I went searching to see if anyone had published a chart on energy conversion from Residential Energy and found the entire book. Download the book and skim forward to page 284 and see if that chart helps with your conversion. The title is "equalizing heating energy cost chart".
ftp://ip20017719.eng.ufjf.br/Public/...al_Energy5.pdf

Bud
 
 

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