Converting house from baseboard electric to propane heat would INCREASE cost by 55.6%?!

Factual Questions
1

I’ve had baseboard electric heat for years and assumed it was the worst possible heating method as far as expense, and heard propane was best. I got interested enough to try to calculate it carefully and it looks like propane is much more expensive than electricity. Could this be right?

I pay 9.05 cents per kWh now, according to my bill. That’s a month by month average over the past year. They have different rates for summer and winter. I actually consume much more electricity in the winter, when the rate is lower, so my rate is really lower than the 9.05, but that’s pretty close (and I’m not sure how to track down all my old usage numbers, only the payments).

In my area, propane is currently selling for about $3.25 per gallon and going up at $0.15 per gallon per year. Since with typical modern furnaces a gallon of propane delivers the same heat as 23 kWh of electricity, the cost for propane heat is 14.1 cents per kWh. That’s 55.8% more!

Is resistance heating really way cheaper than propane? Or does one of my numbers sound way off?

Given that propane requires tank storage, deliveries, and exhaust flues, what is its appeal at a much higher price?

2

I wrote a small program years ago to make the calculation and ran the numbers using 85% efficiency for the propane furnace.

It says the break even is at $2.06 for the cost of propane. If propane costs more than that electricity is cheaper.

3

Currently, natural gas has the most BTU for the buck.

4

Most propane users cannot get natural gas . The big problem with propane cost is it’s not regulated like natural gas.

Right now natural gas prices are very low in the US but propane tends to track more with the cost of gasoline so the cost is not low.

5

As I understand, natural gas can’t be liquified practically for distribution (its critical pressure is too high), and it is not available as a utility here.

6

Natural gas tends to be cheap, also, because it usually is delivered by pipeline. Once the pipe is installed (usually when the house was built, for newer houses) that infrastructure is in place and very little more needs to be done. By contrast, I imagine a propane service needs a delivery driver to come and manually refill the house tank every month or so. This is a fairly significant extra cost, and I imagine a propane truck and driver( for what - half an hour? An hour?) adds a significant monthly premium to the total.

7

<never mind>

8

In areas where natural gas is available, nothing else even comes close in getting the most bang for your buck. It’s a utility, like water or electricity, and just as convenient. Propane, OTOH, is more like fuel oil in that it has to be trucked out to your location in discreet batches.

Given the way the price of oil has been going, it never ceases to amaze me that the Northeast is still so dependant on it as a heat source.

9

Is your electric really 9 cents, or is that a partial rate? That is, is your total electric bill [# of KWH] * 0.09?

10

Either propane or delivered oil are more expensive than piped NG, and (right now, here) are within a shout of the same BTU price.

It’s the price you pay for not living where you can glance out and see what your neighbor is having for dinner.