Fuel cost comparison..............I'll see if I can make this work as a copy & paste.It's from a EIA.gov file
Fuel Type Fuel Unit Fuel Price Per Unit (dollars) Fuel Heat Content Per Unit (Btu) Fuel Price Per Million Btu (dollars) Heating Appliance Type Type of Efficiency Rating 4 Effiency Rating or Estimate Approx. Efficiency (%) Fuel Cost Per Million Btu (dollars)
Fuel Oil (#2) Gallon $3.75 138,690 $27.04 Furnace or Boiler AFUE 85.0 85% $31.81
Electricity KiloWatt-hour $0.107 3,412 $31.21 Furnace or Boiler Estimate 95.0 95% $32.86
Air-Source Heat Pump HSPF 5 7.7 226% $13.83
Geothermal Heat Pump COP 3.3 330% $9.46
Baseboard/Room Heater Estimate 100.0 100% $31.21
Natural Gas Therm $1.08 100,000 $10.80 Furnace or Boiler AFUE 90.0 90% $12.00
Propane Gallon $2.59 91,333 $28.36 Furnace or Boiler AFUE 85.0 85% $33.36
Wood / Cord $115.00 21,000,000 $5.48 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 70.0 70% $7.82
Pellets Ton $190.00 16,500,000 $11.52 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 85.0 85% $13.55
Corn (kernels) Ton $215.00 16,500,000 $13.03 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 80.0 80% $16.29
Kerosene Gallon $4.10 135,000 $30.37 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 80.0 80% $37.96
Coal Ton $100.00 24,916,000 $4.01 Furnace/Boiler/Stove Estimate 75.0 75% $5.35
Well kinda like that............When the computer transposed the XLS file to this thread it kinda lost the original format but all the info is here.
Reading each line across you start out with the energy source (fuel), then the unit of measurement in which it is generally sold.
The next figure is the price per unit and I have entered the prices that each fuel is going for here in beautiful uptown Falmouth, Michigan.
After that is the raw BTU per unit of each energy source and the price per million BTU's.
The type of appliance consuming the fuel is listed next although it really has no bearing on the calculation
The efficiency factor is next and actually determines the final figure which is cost per MMBTU figuring appliance losses
Just thought this might shed a little bit of light on the debate regarding fuel types. Many people are shocked to learn that a GSHP is nearly as cheap to operate as cord wood burned in a good gasifier. If you consider the fact that many folks burning wood are getting far less than the 70% listed, it's easy to see that they are spending more on fuel than they would for electricity. Add a couple solar panels for hot water production to a GSHP system and you can drop that cost another 25-30%. Good food for thought when you consider that a lot of these wood burning systems run $8-10K and higher. The caveat of course is that with wood you have a little more control over your price than you do paying the electric utility.
Fuel Type Fuel Unit Fuel Price Per Unit (dollars) Fuel Heat Content Per Unit (Btu) Fuel Price Per Million Btu (dollars) Heating Appliance Type Type of Efficiency Rating 4 Effiency Rating or Estimate Approx. Efficiency (%) Fuel Cost Per Million Btu (dollars)
Fuel Oil (#2) Gallon $3.75 138,690 $27.04 Furnace or Boiler AFUE 85.0 85% $31.81
Electricity KiloWatt-hour $0.107 3,412 $31.21 Furnace or Boiler Estimate 95.0 95% $32.86
Air-Source Heat Pump HSPF 5 7.7 226% $13.83
Geothermal Heat Pump COP 3.3 330% $9.46
Baseboard/Room Heater Estimate 100.0 100% $31.21
Natural Gas Therm $1.08 100,000 $10.80 Furnace or Boiler AFUE 90.0 90% $12.00
Propane Gallon $2.59 91,333 $28.36 Furnace or Boiler AFUE 85.0 85% $33.36
Wood / Cord $115.00 21,000,000 $5.48 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 70.0 70% $7.82
Pellets Ton $190.00 16,500,000 $11.52 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 85.0 85% $13.55
Corn (kernels) Ton $215.00 16,500,000 $13.03 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 80.0 80% $16.29
Kerosene Gallon $4.10 135,000 $30.37 Room Heater (Vented) Estimate 80.0 80% $37.96
Coal Ton $100.00 24,916,000 $4.01 Furnace/Boiler/Stove Estimate 75.0 75% $5.35
Well kinda like that............When the computer transposed the XLS file to this thread it kinda lost the original format but all the info is here.
Reading each line across you start out with the energy source (fuel), then the unit of measurement in which it is generally sold.
The next figure is the price per unit and I have entered the prices that each fuel is going for here in beautiful uptown Falmouth, Michigan.
After that is the raw BTU per unit of each energy source and the price per million BTU's.
The type of appliance consuming the fuel is listed next although it really has no bearing on the calculation
The efficiency factor is next and actually determines the final figure which is cost per MMBTU figuring appliance losses
Just thought this might shed a little bit of light on the debate regarding fuel types. Many people are shocked to learn that a GSHP is nearly as cheap to operate as cord wood burned in a good gasifier. If you consider the fact that many folks burning wood are getting far less than the 70% listed, it's easy to see that they are spending more on fuel than they would for electricity. Add a couple solar panels for hot water production to a GSHP system and you can drop that cost another 25-30%. Good food for thought when you consider that a lot of these wood burning systems run $8-10K and higher. The caveat of course is that with wood you have a little more control over your price than you do paying the electric utility.
