How do you calculate heating costs.......

Big-D

We carry fully modulated electric hydronic heating plant that will fit your btu loss perfectly. A 9kW micro heating system weighs 15 lbs. Service size 1-50 amp breaker

S Ebels_2

How much will it cost to heat my house.

Figuring up a system (underfloor heating) for a house with a design heat load of 28,000 btu. The customer is debating adding a wood burner to his system and I'm trying to figure out what his heating costs will be on LP alone vs payback of adding the wood burner to the system. How do I arrive at a rough annual cost for fuel? Our degree days run 7800-8000 in this area and I know there is a formula for putting these together somewhere.

S Ebels_2

PS

Who makes a boiler suitable for that load that meets the tax credit criteria? 95% eff. I think

EricAune

Fuel consumption

For calculating fuel consumption based on degree day:

F= HL x 24 x DD / E x P x TD

F = annual fuel consumption,
HL = Heat load (Btu/h),
24 = hours in a day,
DD = Degree day,
E = Boiler efficiency,
P = Heating value of fuel (propane - 91,800 Btu/gallon),
TD = Temp. Differential (indoor design - outside design),

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EricAune

Lochinvar & TriangleTube will be close with modulation. I would prefer an electric at this load. At least in our area and if the customer had the service.

Peace


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S Ebels_2

Using that

I come up with approx 710 gallons of LP gas annually. Makes a $10,000+ investment in a wood burner look not so good in my book.

S Ebels_2

I'll probably take some flak for this

But I'm leaning toward a T-50 Munchkin. I've had good luck with them and nothing but great service from HTP.

EricAune

Look, wood is nice if its free

I have a hard time selling a outdoor wood boiler to any customer who is looking for a way to cut fuel costs. The discussion always leads to the facts...if you have to pay for it, haul it even a short distance or consider the life expectancy of a wood boiler (about 10-12 years) even without considering the amount of work, pure work it takes to operate then a wood boiler probably is not the right choice.

If the wood is on the property, the owner has a brood of children to help with the splitting, and has the room for a considerable amount of storage (along with critters) then wood could save on operating costs, don't expect any payback.

Peace

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Steve Ebels_3

Agreed

A typical OWB is scrap steel within about 7-10 years from what I've seen. Many go sooner due to neglect and no maintenance, a few, very few last longer than that but as a rule they are toast about the time you've recouped the initial outlay for the thing.