Here's the situation:
My dad's house is relatively new, built in 1997, so it is made from quality materials and well insulated. It's about 2200 sq.ft, not huge but not small either. In the summer, he runs the A/C all day long and it only blips the electric bill by about $60 each month. Conversely, my apartment which is half the size costs $80 a month to cool. I'd say he has an efficient system.
Now the problem for him is with heating. He has a high efficiency propane furnace, and for some reason that think chugs propane like its going out of style, and we can't figure out why. Around his area propane goes for $1.80 a gallon, and he had his tank filled about 5 times last winter at $650 a pop on average. The total for last year was $3,200 in propane charges just to heat his house, and it's not like he's running it on 90 the whole time. He had it set at 68, sometimes 70 if it was really cold.
My apartment has natural gas heat, and my off-season bill is like $10 a month for hot water; it goes up to $110-$120 in the winter when I run my heater. Figure about 5 months times $120, plus 7 months times $15 and my gas charges are $705 per year. I run my heater at 75, so my place is always nice and warm, btw.
Can anyone here tell me why my dad's heater is using up so much propane? Is this normal? I mean, we know the house and the ducting is well insulated, and the thermostat is digital and working fine. He had an HVAC tech check the unit out and it passed their tests without any issues. It IS a "high efficiency" unit too.
I'm doing some research for him on possibly getting a new system. Unfortunately, where he lives natural gas is not an option, so I was thinking about geo-thermal or oil heat...but I don't know if either would be cheaper...but yeah, paying $3K per year for heat is ridiculous if you ask me.
My dad's house is relatively new, built in 1997, so it is made from quality materials and well insulated. It's about 2200 sq.ft, not huge but not small either. In the summer, he runs the A/C all day long and it only blips the electric bill by about $60 each month. Conversely, my apartment which is half the size costs $80 a month to cool. I'd say he has an efficient system.
Now the problem for him is with heating. He has a high efficiency propane furnace, and for some reason that think chugs propane like its going out of style, and we can't figure out why. Around his area propane goes for $1.80 a gallon, and he had his tank filled about 5 times last winter at $650 a pop on average. The total for last year was $3,200 in propane charges just to heat his house, and it's not like he's running it on 90 the whole time. He had it set at 68, sometimes 70 if it was really cold.
My apartment has natural gas heat, and my off-season bill is like $10 a month for hot water; it goes up to $110-$120 in the winter when I run my heater. Figure about 5 months times $120, plus 7 months times $15 and my gas charges are $705 per year. I run my heater at 75, so my place is always nice and warm, btw.
Can anyone here tell me why my dad's heater is using up so much propane? Is this normal? I mean, we know the house and the ducting is well insulated, and the thermostat is digital and working fine. He had an HVAC tech check the unit out and it passed their tests without any issues. It IS a "high efficiency" unit too.
I'm doing some research for him on possibly getting a new system. Unfortunately, where he lives natural gas is not an option, so I was thinking about geo-thermal or oil heat...but I don't know if either would be cheaper...but yeah, paying $3K per year for heat is ridiculous if you ask me.
Facebook
Twitter