Propane usage

[JustWood]

I use about 100 gal/year for cooking and the furnace coming on occasionally. I haven't used propane 100% for heat in 20 years so I don't remember how many gallons are used in heating season. I'd be willing to bet at least $3000/year at todays prices.

 

[raybonz]

Ray

I do have a blower on my stove but I really don't have to use it. My living space ceiling fan does an excellent job distributing stove heat.

The way my family loves heating with the new stove, I have a funny feeling I will be burning through the 11 face cords of wood that I just bought pretty quick. The true test will come when the mild temps that we are experiencing start to plummet and it REALLY gets cold outside!

Right now the wife has the families washed clothes drying next to our Osburn on a collapsible clothes rack. If anyone doesn't want to pay for electricity and propane costs it is her. If she had her way she would draw a clothes line from across the living room!

Fredo

I wanted to dry laundry but no way wife would allow the "redneck" dryer in this house lol.. I think Dennis dries laundry on a rack or similar and I use a rack to dry jackets etc. that get wet from snow blowing, shoveling etc.. I do have to agree it's rather unsightly and the cellar gets quite cold so the dryer helps a little bit..

Ray

 

[woodmiser]

Woodmiser,

OMG! 5000 for Propane. I think you just gave me a heart attack! You even gave my little polish wife/accountant a heart attack and she is in the other room!

What were you trying to heat? :bug:

Fredo

We are in a 3300 sf long ranch. The heating system is in a cold crawl space but all of the ductwork is well insulated. Unfortunately the ducts are really long due to the design of the home. It's a newer 90+, two stage , 65,000/100,000 btu propane hot air American Standard furnace so we are up to date. We added a 1000sf addition that has it's own 40,000 two stage high efficiency unit. The house is 2x6 wall construction so it's R19 walls. The ceiling are mostly R40 or so but the recessed lights are real heat wasters and there are 45 of those.
This year our monthly budget was to be $415. We don't over heat the house but think about it, propane is about $3.30 a gallon. If the 500 gal tank takes 350 gallons to fill you are looking at $1155 a fillup. Do that four times and you see where I'm going?

 

[Fredo]

Raybonz,

My little polish woman is nothing but Redneck everything! It kills me to even have drying rack along side of stove but it is saving my wife from making a trip to basement to hang clothes on clothes tree. For now I am going to let it go but sooner than later I am tossing that thing in the stove!


Fredo

 

[Fredo]

Woodmiser,

All I can say is since my wood stove was installed this past tuesday my furnace has not kicked on once. I keep a nice bed of coals in stove and just add a small round or two. By doing this, it keeps my stove around 200 and my whole house comfortably warm.


Fredo

 

[Fredo]

variablee,

I like your store. Wish you had some log splitters for sale but that item is probably a HOT item this time of year?


fredo

 

[SlyFerret]

The last couple years I've used about 50 gallons per year. This is just running the furnace in the shoulder season, or when we go out of town.... or maybe I'm just too lazy to light the stove one night after a long day.

This year, with the new baby and the screwy shoulder season, we will probably be closer to 100 gallons for the year.

-SF

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Drying the laundry is not so bad. It does not take that long and although I too do not like the looks of it, the house welcomes the extra humidity and it does help a lot. Therefore I put up with it and why not. The wife has to work harder to do it this way but just like burning wood, it saves us dollars.

 

[rdust]

Woodmiser,

All I can say is since my wood stove was installed this past tuesday my furnace has not kicked on once. I keep a nice bed of coals in stove and just add a small round or two. By doing this, it keeps my stove around 200 and my whole house comfortably warm.


Fredo

Where are you taking the temp reading from? It'll be near impossible for the stove to burn clean if you're truly burning at a 200* stove top. Is that a stove top reading or pipe reading?

 

[Fredo]

Not the best picture but I like it! This is what my house thermostat has been reading since I installed my Osburn wood stove! I just keep a nice bed of coals burning, throw a round or two in my stove and that is all it takes!


Fredo

 

[Fredo]

rdust,


When I throw small diameter round on top of well established bed of coals it ignites quickly, no smoldering. I should be okay, yes? Temp gage is on stack...


Fredo

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Go by stove top temperature. Stack temperature is also important but most reporting is done by stove temperature and not flue temperature.

 

[Fredo]

Dennis, do I need a different kind of temp gage for stove top? I thought if there was no smoldering that there would be no issue concerning creosote build up?

I just put 3 small rounds in my stove and they are buring well with no smoldering. Shouldn't this be okay even though my temps read between 200 to 300?

Fredo

 

[Backwoods Savage]

As far as need, I burned wood for over 50 years before I ever used a thermometer and got along just fine. Now that I've started to use them I'd hate to go without them. When we bought our Fireview, they also included a stove thermometer with it so we started to use it. Later we bought one to put on the flue. We love it. However, if I were to use only one thermometer, I would use it on the stove.

As far as I know there is no difference between a stove and a flue thermometer except for those red marks they like to put on them or show where you might get creosote at some temperature range. Some like the rutland thermometers and this is what most will find in the local hardwares. I've not had good luck with them as the temperature seems to be way off. The condar thermometers seem to be very close to what an IR gun reads so that is what we use. We bought out extra thermometer from Woodstock. www.woodstove.com is their web site if you'd like to look.

 

[Fredo]

Just for the heck of it, I took my Imperial Stove thermometer that was reading 300 degrees on my stove stack and placed it on top of my stove. Wow, the gage shot up to over 400 degrees within seconds!


Could I use imperial thermometer on top my stove until I order another gage even though imperial instructions recommend it be placed on stack?


Fredo

 

[BrotherBart]

Sure. Lots of people use stack thermometers on their stove top. One of'em is me. Just don't pay any attention to those ranges marked on it. Just use the numbers.

 

[Fredo]

Brotherbart,

I just placed my imperial stack thermometer on top of my stove and it's staying there. It is a few inches away from stack and it reads almost 150 degrees difference from stack!

Gage went from 250 to almost 400 degrees in seconds! Knowing that my stove is burning at higher temps makes me feel a whole lot better.

Thanks

Fredo