Complicated Heating "System" (Looking for General Advice)

[mkmh]

Hello Everyone,

We purchased a 2000 sq foot cape style home (built in 1946) in August 2005. The home is fairly well insulated but features a "challenging" (from a heating and cooling perspective) floor plan which includes a large addition, a finished basement, and an "isolated" bedroom. When we bought the home the following heating system(s).
~ Electric baseboard in the upstairs (Bathroom and 1 bedroom)
~ Old (1960's) forced hot air Oil Burner in the basement which had some "shoddy" ductwork meant to service the main floor of the home and the basement
~ Rinnai 556 propane Unit in the 18X18 addition
~ Empire vented propane unit in an isolated 12X15 bedroom addition
~ Hydrojet 40 gallon tank style LP water heater

During our first 2 years of ownership I have done the following:
~ Installed a Hastings St Croix Pellet stove (roughly 40,000 BTU) to service the main floor of the home and provide pretty decent heat to the upstairs bedroom and bath
~ Replaced the Empire LP unit with a Rinnai 263 Direct vent LP Unit
~ Removed the Old Oil burner and replaced it with a Harman P61A (to heat the basement)

So, this this will actually be my first winter with the Harman and without the #2 heating oil system. Basically I am down to Pellets and Propane...and very minimal (if any) electric heat.
Last year (August 06-July 07) I went through about 385 gallons of LP....2.25 tons of pellets and 220 gallons of #2 Heating oil. Total cost, right around 1800.00
I figure that this winter I will be replacing the 220 gallons of heating oil with about a ton of pellets (since I only need the Harman to heat the 600 square foot basement). I planned accordingly and just had 3 tons of pellets delivered the other day (to add to about 35 bags that I have left from last year).

I guess where I am most frustrated is with my propane situation. No big surprise, but I just found out that i'll be paying about 2.40 per gallon for 400 gallons (pre-buy). This represents about a 10% increase over last years price. I'm also annoyed that the propane company uses the tiered pricing structure where it is clear that I paying far more per gallon that folks that use 1000 gallons per year. Every time I call it seems like they are very secretive about this information....but I know from talking to others that this is just what they do.
So basically I am heating a small bedroom, 18X18 addition...and my water with the 380-400 gallons of LP to the tune of right around 1000 bucks. Everything else will be taken care of with pellet heat to the tune of around 650.00 plus (of course) several hours of my own effort messing around with the pellets and cleaning and maintaining the stoves throughout the season.
One of the ideas I have toyed with is going to electric heat for hot water (possibly a tankless system) and electric heat for the small isolated bedroom. I'd also need to figure something out for the large addition, and this might be another small pellet stove or maybe even a small airtight woodstove. The idea would be to break the (direct) tie with the propane company.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this approach would make sense? I feel like it would have the potential to drop my costs a bit more, and the price of electricity where I am seems to be more stable than the price of propane. My Rinnai units heat very efficiently, but I feel like my lack of buying power as a (small-time) propane customer somewhat negates the efficency (from a $ perspective) by putting me in a spot where i'm unable to negotiate a good price.

Whew...that felt a bit like a rant, so thanks for reading (if you got this far). I know there are some folks out here who are passionate about this stuff, so i'd be interested in hearing any and all thoughts on my situation (Even if your thought is..."Wow, what a lunatic!")

 

[Eric Johnson]

In general I would say that it's always best to keep as many options open as possible, but I would agree that in your case, switching to electric would seem to make sense. One nice thing about electricity is that the pricing is regulated by the govt., so you're not going to see big swings month-to-month (or week to week) like you do with gas and oil. Everybody I know who heats with propane seems to feel that they're getting hosed down pretty thoroughly by the gas company, so you're not alone.

 

[mkmh]

Thanks Eric...yeah I guess a big part of the frustration is the fact that it feels like the propane company can essentially name their price. They own the tank at my house...so I am obligated to work with them for at least one more year. I did a fair amount of shopping before going with them...but i'm still not happy with the situation I am in. I've heard that buying your own tank can help a little, since you can then call around to companies to get the best price (every fill up), but as a smalltime LP user it would probably take a while to offset the front-end cost of the tank.
I realize there is no real "answer" to my situation but I do appreciate the thoughts. I also hear you on keeping optuions open...since you never know what types of market forces will come into play...making one option far better or worse than another. For this reason I still have my my oil tank...and would consider a replacing a pellet stove with a high efficiency oil furnace if say....we discovered the world's largest oil field in Northern Maine....

 

[Eric Johnson]

My sympathies. Nothing quite like being at the mercy of Irving.

One good thing about electricity in Maine is that it has a large component of alternative fuels such a hydro, nuclear and wood--none of which are affected by hurricanes or foreign governments, with the possible exception of Quebec Hydro.