[Greenbuilding] Propane Costs (Lawrence Lile)

[Paul Eldridge]

Here in Nova Scotia, I pay $1.05 per litre ($3.95 /gallon).  In 
addition, my provider charges a $6.00 "transportation fee" and a $3.95 
"hazardous mat handling fee" with each delivery.

Even at $0.1076 per kWh, my ductless heat pump provides heat at roughly 
one-fifth the cost of propane and less than half that of oil ($0.804 per 
litre or $3.02 /gallon).

Cheers,
Paul

>I was just reviewing energy bills, and to my surprise, Propane, with
>traditionally has been much cheaper than electricity around here, is now
>more.  
>
>Last fall I was paying $1.81 a gallon for propane, and about 8c per KWH.
>Today propane is $2.37, a 30% increase!  If you add in some extra
>charges, minimum monthly rates, efficiency of boilers etc, I'm paying
>about $30/MMBTU for propane but only $23/MMBTU for electric KW.  This
>means I could heat my shack with straight electric resistance for less
>than I'm paying for my fancy floor heat!  Propane has never been more
>expensive than electric heat in this area before, AFAIK. Not too long
>ago propane was 75c, and electric was still about 8c per KWH.  
>
>Additionally, since floor heat always loses some heat into the ground, I
>question how efficient a heater they really are.  I have not been really
>successful in turning down my stat with floor heat, as people claim is
>possible. I am wondering if I am paying $$$ to keep the worms warm. 
>
>Obviously heat pumps are more efficient than electric resistance heat,
>and you can work out the economics to see if they are worth it.  But
>Propane being more per BTU than electric KW is just topsy turvy.
>