SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
chas045

General Propane vs Electric and Heat Pump?

chas045
11 years ago

I have some general questions about electrical vs propane heating and hvac. I have a 14 yr. old 2300 sq. ft. two story reasonably well insulated house in central North Carolina. It has two hvac systems, one for each floor. The hvac in the crawl space is 1.5 ton traditional with propane heat while the second floor unit in the attic is a 2 ton heat pump. Both are 10 seer builder grade Goodman. The heat pump most likely has a very slow leak. A couple of you have suggested that the leak combined with low efficiency indicates replacement to be the appropriate course.

Most country hvac here is propane and electric. Since I am considering making changes/upgrades to at least one unit, I am wondering about the practicality of propane (for the downstairs unit and water heater). I see that when this house was built that propane was approximately $1.00/gal and it was almost $3:00/gal the last couple of years. That is a huge increase. I also note that propane in the middle of the country is more like $1.50/gal. It appears that ~ 80% of the charge is for transportation/delivery. Electricity has been $0.104/KW-Hr but is rising to at least 11 cents. If I have read correctly, 10.5 cents is similar to $1.80gal propane so we are WAY over that break even point these days. Unfortunately, there is also the consideration of power failures in ice storms etc. We havenâÂÂt had any serious outages although the power does go out for several hours two times a year or so. However, just a few years before we got here, the power was out for four days I believe.

So, except for power failure, and if I am thinking correctly, it would seem reasonable to heave all this propane stuff into a landfill. Am I missing something? And now on to heat pump vs. conventional (what ever that is) electrical heating. First; I have been told that the heat strips in the heat pump air handler are way less efficient than the heat pump heat. Does anyone know what the difference actually is? I have almost always dropped heat to 60 at night and the next morning carefully increased the mercury tâÂÂstat to not engage the strip heat. Is this just a silly waste of time? This brings me to the heat downstairs. Are conventional electric heat units just heat strips? Does that mean that heat pumps should go everywhere? I DO realize that the low differential of heat would mean a slow response if heat was set low at night. For that matter, they probably appear to blow cool (cold) air all the time. Does this drive everyone nuts and make them throw their heat pumps into the landfill on top of mine??

Thoughts??

Comment (1)

Sponsored
Fineline Deck Builders
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars11 Reviews
Women Owned Construction Company Specializing in High Quality Decks