Propane Furnace

[hobbyheater]

My mother in law is 100 years and still heats her house with wood! ( She still drives and works 3 half days a week) I'm 77 and have all the good toys for getting firewood! But putting up 10 to 15 cords for her and 4 for myself is becoming daunting!
The panel for the house is only a 100 amp service that is pretty much maxed out.
The wood furnace is approaching the end of its life.
We have been considering a propane furnace but don't know much about them. The only propane furnace I've seen was in my wife's Grandfather's house and consisted of a flame bar ( much like you would see in a oven) and the thermostat turned on the gas when heat was called for and a limit switch in the plenum turned on the blower.
I would like to know what the cutting edge now consists of.

 

[Whitenuckler]

My mother in law is 100 years and still heats her house with wood! ( She still drives and works 3 half days a week) I'm 77 and have all the good toys for getting firewood! But putting up 10 to 15 cords for her and 4 for myself is becoming daunting!
The panel for the house is only a 100 amp service that is pretty much maxed out.
The wood furnace is approaching the end of its life.
We have been considering a propane furnace but don't know much about them. The only propane furnace I've seen was in my wife's Grandfather's house and consisted of a flame bar ( much like you would see in a oven) and the thermostat turned on the gas when heat was called for and a limit switch in the plenum turned on the blower.
I would like to know what the cutting edge now consists of.

If you have ducts, then you could get a ducted heat pump system with electric backup. That give you AC also, and the electric is for those really cold days. That combined with a wood stove or pellet stove would be good. 100A service would be too small though. A panel upgrade would be required.

 

[Murray01]

Can’t help with the cutting edge technology on the propane furnace.

Our previous house had a natural gas furnace and only required 110 volts to run the blower motor. I ASSUME propane would be the same.

 

[djlew]

I was on the fence with propane before I realized natural gas was an option in my area. Just to make sure I had heat in time, my installers basically said that you can install the natural gas furnace and convert to propane if need be. I don't think the conversion kits are too much money, but I am unfamiliar with rules/regulations for conversion and if it is a viable option for most NG furnaces. I have a full Trane system now, 2 stage NG furnace that according to them could convert. I'm pretty sure if you look online the NG furnaces will tell you if they are convertible on the manufacturer's website.

My old system was what @Whitenuckler suggested, but since my house was fully electric when it was built I didn't need a panel upgrade. I would also recommend a better heat pump than what I got if you went that route, which basically would freeze up under 35 degrees Fahrenheit and the electric strips would absolutely eat up electricity. Granted, my wood stove does not heat up everything from cold start efficiently lol, so in conjunction with a bigger stove would help. Some days I was eating up to 170kwh in one day. It was crazy.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Can’t help with the cutting edge technology on the propane furnace.

Our previous house had a natural gas furnace and only required 110 volts to run the blower motor. I ASSUME propane would be the same.

I'm sure you could run it on with 5A, 120V. I had some measurements from my NG furnace as I was ready to use an inverter.

 

[Whitenuckler]

My mother in law is 100 years and still heats her house with wood! ( She still drives and works 3 half days a week) I'm 77 and have all the good toys for getting firewood! But putting up 10 to 15 cords for her and 4 for myself is becoming daunting!
The panel for the house is only a 100 amp service that is pretty much maxed out.
The wood furnace is approaching the end of its life.
We have been considering a propane furnace but don't know much about them. The only propane furnace I've seen was in my wife's Grandfather's house and consisted of a flame bar ( much like you would see in a oven) and the thermostat turned on the gas when heat was called for and a limit switch in the plenum turned on the blower.
I would like to know what the cutting edge now consists of.

I don't have any ducts here, but I did look into getting a propane stove or heater for the basement. There is no natural gas here. The costs were going to be ongoing, as you need to rent the tank. If you buy the tank, then it needs to be re-certified after 10? years, and any issues with the tank are your to hire someone to fix. The contracts for gas supply might have a yearly charge, a minimum charge ect. It is nice, but like everything else, expensive to own and operate. The other thing though is you can have multiple loads like the furnace, space heater, fireplace, BBQ, outdoor fireplace ect.