Propane is the most expensive heating fuel in my area with a cost of $28 per Million BTU. $2.05 gallon contract price with 80% furnace. Heat pump is around $5.50 per million BTU with rates at $.055 Kw for separately metered heat pump. I used 500 gallons of propane from September to February. Very mild winter in a 1650 Sq ft house that is decently insulated. (In Missouri) Getting ready to install a air HP with propane back up. Hope to cut my propane use by seventy five percent. Additional ducting being done with the install. Current 80% propane furnace with 10 SEER 2 ton AC (undersized) New 3 ton AHRI rated HSPF 9.0/ 17 SEER 2 stage heat pump with new variable speed, modulating 80% propane furnace as back up heat.

"@snidely, during the heating months, how many hours is the heater on? I can say that my average usage per day is probably 1.5-2hours. Which leads me to think the usage is excessive." Yes, maybe 1 - 3 hours of actual running per day depending on the weather. Less on weekdays, more on weekends and when entertaining. Most Bay Area houses, other than new and carefully constructed ones. aren't particularly airtight nor well insulated. Older ones can be very wasteful to heat. The good news is that it doesn't get too cold. I've been here a long while and have concluded than other than being sure a good job is done when repair or replacement of equipment is needed, it's a waste of good thinking time to worry about trying to get significantly more efficient. The payback period for any major retrofits is very long. If you have double paned windows and check for big air leaks (like in ductwork), there's little else to do that'll show you any payback besides turning down the temp setting on your thermostat. THAT can make a noticeable difference.

I understand that it is a little late now, but for future reference, in a situation like yours where water use will change drastically, a smaller twin tank softener is much more appropriate. I am also concerned that you have fine mesh resin and a turbulator. Generally, high mesh resins are for waters with dissolved iron, which you don't have. Perhaps there is a reason for the fine mesh resin that I am not seeing here? Turbulators are typically used for waters with iron and/or particulates, which you don't have. Additionally, they shouldn't be used in larger tanks (>12" diameter - yours should be 13") because the resin around the tank edges will see very little, if any, effect from the turbulator. They also are not to be used with fine mesh resin - fine mesh resin has a higher pressure drop, making a turbulator much less effective. If this were my softener, I would remove the resin, get rid of the turbulator, install a gravel underbed and a standard distributor riser tube. If you do not wish to do this, you should invest in a good hardness test and test your water religiously at least once monthly because I suspect you will see problems over time. You may need to regen with a higher salt dosage to try to compensate. Assuming all else is working properly you have some options for softener setting. You could leave the softener regenerating at 6 lb salt per cubic ft of resin, increase the day override and just let it do its thing. No programming would be necessary as you add to your family. Right now it will regen every 9-11 days and it will regen about every 5-6 days when your household population reaches four. You would use about 45 lb salt per month now and 91 later. You could leave it the way it is, regenerating every 8 days at 6 lb salt per cubic ft. Your softener will regen every 8 days and use 56 lb salt per month now and regen every 5-6 days and use 91 lb salt later. No reprogramming is necessary as your family grows. You could set your salt dosage to 4 lb/cubic ft for now and then reset it to 6 when you have three or four people in the house. You would use 38 lb/month salt now and 77 later. If you replace the turbulator as explained above, then I prefer option 1, with one caveat. You will want to monitor your hardness. You softener is so large for your water use right now that you run the risk of channeling. Going longer between regens will somewhat increase this risk. If you monitor your hardness for a couple of weeks, you will know. If you leave the softener as-is, you cannot use option 3. If you modify the softener and then choose option 3, be aware that as we decrease salt dosage, we increase hardness bleed. It is only a few ppm, but some people are sensitive to the feel of that small amount of hardness. You will want to monitor hardness with this option as well. If you leave the turbulator in place option 2 is your only option, and you may need to regen more often or with...

The big reason to use solid vs stranded wire is that solid wire is easier to thread into those terminals. With stranded wire, there can be a problem if a loose strand manages to contact an ajacent terminal. More likely because the terminals in a thermostat are so close together. Just had a problem with our thermostat. It started running 2 degrees past set temperature. (I have it set for a 2 degree temp differential because the heater was constantly kicking on, running for just a bit and then kicking off...which was driving me nutz.) After a bit of sleuthing, I found that the caulking backer rod that I had shoved under an exterior door (across the room from the thermostat) had become unwedged and there was a significant draft from underneath the door. (The backer rod was supposed to be a temporary fix that I did a couple of winters ago but forgot all about it...) Once I got that hole plugged up (with a better temporary fix), the thermostat quit heating past set temp. I don't know for sure if the draft was the reason the thermostat got weird or if it was a coincidence.... Whatever, I did buy a new thermostat to replace the old one but haven't installed it since the problem seems to be resolved. Just tossing my recent experience out there as a potential cause because a new therm hasn't fixed your problem. (Yes, I know my thermostat is in a poor location and should be moved away from drafts from opening/ closing exterior doors. Just no good or easy place to relocate it to and it's a low priority problem.)