Alternatives to propane for home heating?

[Dan Juday]

...Because I really only use two rooms of my house, ...

 

That statement alone makes you a perfect candidate for the type of system I'm talking about.

[jasper]

These systems don't convert electric energy into heat, they move heat. 300% efficiency. They are heat pumps, but unlike any other heat pump you have probably ever seen.

 

I'm thinking in terms of heat loss/gain.

I did all the heat loss calculations for my home, before buying an oil fired boiler, 64k btu/hr..( new in crate, in basement, unused for 5 yrs.) Small by many standards, but the house is well insulated.

The coal stove has a max output of 75k btu/hr , and never been used past half scale.

All the numbers end in BTU's.

When I chose a coal stove, it was because it has the lowest cost per BTU of all commercial fuels, other than free, or cheap wood. ( which is a lot more work)

 

As far as geo thermal, the colder the out door temps, the less eficient it becomes. NOT a good heating choice in the cold climates. I was considering using my extra well as a heat sink for a geo system, might work ok for A/C, but not well for heating.

 

Since I lack a cooling system, and a real zone heating system,I'm interested.

Can you relate BTU/hr to the consumption of a KWH for a cost comparison.

Btu vs 300% eficiency does not relate. Apples/Oranges.

Please to explain and make me a beleiver........Thanks..Tommy

[kiwi303]

BTUs are British Thermal Units, The amount of thermal energy expressed in arbitrary imperialistic British measurement. ex wikipedia

 

"A BTU is defined as amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of liquid water by one degree from 60 to 61 degrees Fahrenheit at a constant pressure of one atmosphere"

 

65K BTU/hour is a hair over 19 KW/H

 

KWs are units of 1000 Watts, a Watt is the energy of one Joule in one second, e.g. the output of one joule for one minute would be 60W.

 

 

While Heat units can be expressed in watts due to the fact they are a measure of the flow of energy used for either cooling or heating an object or area. KW are not primarily a measure of heat energy, while BTUs are. The Calorie is another heat unit, the amount of energy needed to raise one gram of water (one cc, one ml) one degree Celsius, the metric version of the imperial BTU.

[Dan Juday]

...

Can you relate BTU/hr to the consumption of a KWH for a cost comparison.

Btu vs 300% eficiency does not relate. Apples/Oranges.

Please to explain and make me a beleiver........Thanks..Tommy

 

Yes, good points. And you're absolutely right, as the ambient temps drop so does the efficiency of heat pumps. Geothermal has the advantage of having very stable heat source temps. Below about 6' underground the temperature stays about 55*F year round in most places.

 

I'll convert KW to BTUH for electric (resistive) heating and show you how that compares to a Misubishi ductless system. Because your concern is heating I'll use one of their Hyper-Heat systems as an example. A typical heat pump starts losing capacity below about 45*F and produces little to no heat at 0*F.

 

Electric heat: KW=BTUH/3410. We'll use 38,000 BTUH to compare. KW=38,000/3410

=12.063KW

 

Mitsu PUZ-HA36NHA2 (3 ton Hyper-Heat unit):

At 47*F ambient 38,000BTUH=3.150KW (about 400% efficiency)

At 17*F ambient 38,000BTUH=5.400KW (about 225% efficiency)

At 5*F ambient 38,000BTUH=6.100KW (just under 200% efficiency and still 100% capacity)

 

Below 5*F capacity finally begins to taper off, but it is still 31,160 BTUH at -4F*. You have to go geothermal to get better low temp performance than that. And it will cost you many thousands of dollars more than the Mitsu system.

And, just an FYI, things are even brighter on the cooling side. Some of their systems go up to 26 SEER. And remember, that's with no duct losses. Couple that with the fact that you only heat and cool the rooms you occupy and each indoor unit can automatically vary it's capacity to match the requirements of the room, and control humidity. Show me a room by room zoned geothermal unit for less than $50k with virtually no maintenance requirements and then we can talk.

See why I say this is the future?

[Tony D]

I have a rotweiller, alsatian, and 18 chickens. I still say I'm SIL when it comes to cheap heating sources. It's gotta be picked up anyway, why throw it away when you can burn it?

 

This is opposed to what I would do in the midwest, where as a compressor engineer I have access to hundreds of gallons of free, drained and clean ISOVG32 mineral oil.

 

"Waste Oil Heater" comes to mind. And plenty of people would love to not have to pay to dispose of their 'oil change residues'... a tank in my truck and I'm set for the season! Why more of my compatriots don't do this is beyond me---dullards I guess. Even if I lug it out in 5 gallon buckets, filling a 575 gallon oil tank in the basement is not that hard with a little electric pump. And the BTU value of lubricating oil is up there... bump your pressure for good atomization, and the boiler works just fine.

 

Free fuel is free fuel. Burning doggie doo is just a quaint past time for winter heat on the back porch in the potbelly stove back in CA just to spite the CARB.