LP gas stove ?

[Mainely Saws]

Hello folks ,
I'm a new member & what a great place for info & sharing ! A little info on my situation . I own a up/down duplex & live on the first floor which is 1000 sq. ft . I have a central brick chimney with a Hampton woodstove & have been burning wood for years & like it very much . I also have a Rinai 1004 LP heater that I set at 50 degree's & has been very dependable over the years . I want to remove the Rinai heater in exchange for a more eye pleasing LP gas stove such as a Lopi Berkshire . I'm looking to do completely do away with an old inefficient oil furnace that I have not used in a long time . I need a backup to the woodstove in case I need to leave the house for a period of time in the dead of Winter . Do you think the gas woodstove along with a couple of electric baseboard heaters would be a good combination to accomplish this ? To replace the oil furnace would be about $7000 including a relining of the chimney that it is on ( I have 2 chimney's ) & it just doesn't seem worth spending all of that money & then not use it . Thanks for any info .

 

[Fsappo]

Let us know the cost per kilowatt that you pay for electricity, the cost per gallon for your LP and if you get your wood for free. If not, what you pay for your wood. This thread may be moved to "Its a Gas" by the mods.

 

[Mainely Saws]

Thanks for the reply , my electric costs about .16 per kilowatt /hour , my current LP gas price is $2.57 per gallon & as far as wood goes I cut some for free & I buy some . This year I bought 2 cords at $200 per cord .

 

[Fsappo]

Using electric baseboard and at your current rates, your paying $46.89 per million btus. Propane in an 80% efficient space would be $35.17 per million BTUs at your current rate. I gotta run right now, but maybe someone else can offer suggestions based on this.

 

[Fsappo]

To me it seems like a nice gas stove and maybe 1 or 2 wall mounted gas heaters may be the way to go. Your saving a lot of energy costs and most of those heaters will run without electricity in the event of a power failure.

 

[Mainely Saws]

My only thing is that I don't want to have gas lines running all over the place . I have already heated the space for about 5 years with different woodstoves & the Rinai heater so I would have the electric baseboard units just in case I was gone for a period of time . I don't get very long burn times with the Hampton 300 ( this is my second heating season with it ) but it does ok & I got it new for $1500 . I know I want a remote thermostat for the proposed gas wood stove & a blower but what about a standing pilot light compared with a pizzo type ignition ? Does the standing pilot use a significant amount of LP gas over a period of time ?
Thanks again for the info ...........

 

[DAKSY]

[quote author="Mainely Saws" date="1263256836"]My only thing is that I don't want to have gas lines running all over the place . I have already heated the space for about 5 years with different woodstoves & the Rinai heater so I would have the electric baseboard units just in case I was gone for a period of time . I don't get very long burn times with the Hampton 300 ( this is my second heating season with it ) but it does ok & I got it new for $1500 . I know I want a remote thermostat for the proposed gas wood stove & a blower but what about a standing pilot light compared with a pizzo type ignition ? Does the standing pilot use a significant amount of LP gas over a period of time ?

For the most part, a standing pilot uses a Piezo igniter.
In order to light the burner, the standing pilot must be on.
An Intermittent Pilot Ignition (IPI) system, generally uses AC voltage -
transformed to DC voltage - to ignite your pilot, which then ignites the burner.
Most IPI systems allow for a battery back-up in case of a power failure, but even
with NEW batteries, you'll get maybe 3 days on a set.
Your standing pilot will use between 500 - 1000 BTU/Hr. We generally use about 800 BTU/Hr as a rule of thumb
for calculating pilot fuel usage...
LP has roughly 91.6K BTU/Gal
divide THAT by 800 BTU/Hr = 114.5 Hr/Gal
divide THAT by 24Hrs/Day = 4.77 Days/Gal
Roughly 30Days/Mo divided by 4.77 Days/Gal = 6.29 Gal/Mo
My last drop (last Firday - 08 Jan) was $2.47/gal,
so one standing pilot (I have 2 + an IPI unit) costs me
6.29 Gal X $2.47 = $15.54 a month...*sheesh*
YMMV...

 

[Mainely Saws]

Thanks for the reply Daksy . So with 2 standing pilots & an IPI you spend well over $30.00 per month just to be able to have the units fire up with a thermostat . Everything seems to cost something . I know LP gas isn't cheap but It's what's available & I like the ease of using it along with low maintenance costs . I like burning wood the most & can get a fair amount of free wood so I have some control over heating costs by choosing what I heat with . Thanks again for the info .................