I hope this is the right place to post this as it's not primarily a wood burning question.
Here's my situation: I have a 4800' shop in North Idaho that I will be working in full time. As the thermometer is sitting at 10 degrees this morning I would like to get some heat turned on and soon. Pex is in the floor, just need to get a heat source to it. The long term plan is to install a wood boiler with storage, when I close my eyes and daydream I see a Garn in the attached shed out back. But, due to finances and time that is a project for next year.
Once the wood burner is in I will also want a backup heat source, so I want to put that in now and run it this winter.
Natural gas is not available here so my choice is between propane and electric. Using the calculator on another part of the Hearth.com site it appears my fairly cheap hydro electric will be much more economical. Current propane price is $2.15 a gallon giving a million BTU cost of $28.08 at 85% efficiency. Current electric cost is 6.3 cents per KWH giving a million BTU cost of $18.46 at 100% efficiency. My electrical service has plenty of capacity for a large boiler so that is not an issue. So the question is whether this is as cut and dried as it seems or am I missing any part of the cost equation?
Thanks for any input!
Here's my situation: I have a 4800' shop in North Idaho that I will be working in full time. As the thermometer is sitting at 10 degrees this morning I would like to get some heat turned on and soon. Pex is in the floor, just need to get a heat source to it. The long term plan is to install a wood boiler with storage, when I close my eyes and daydream I see a Garn in the attached shed out back. But, due to finances and time that is a project for next year.
Once the wood burner is in I will also want a backup heat source, so I want to put that in now and run it this winter.
Natural gas is not available here so my choice is between propane and electric. Using the calculator on another part of the Hearth.com site it appears my fairly cheap hydro electric will be much more economical. Current propane price is $2.15 a gallon giving a million BTU cost of $28.08 at 85% efficiency. Current electric cost is 6.3 cents per KWH giving a million BTU cost of $18.46 at 100% efficiency. My electrical service has plenty of capacity for a large boiler so that is not an issue. So the question is whether this is as cut and dried as it seems or am I missing any part of the cost equation?
Thanks for any input!