Annual heating cost

Woodman

Does anyone have a formula to calculate the estimated annual heating cost for a house in Maine? I have done the heat loss calculations, very small house, 29,000 btu/hr at 70 degrees inside, 0 outside... Also looking at some reference materials average annual degree days are 7500. Would like to be able to compare various fuel costs, ie: propane, oil, etc. Any formulas or direction would be appreciated.

Constantin

I'd look into the HDS package

from John Siegenthaler. I believe that even his evaluation copy allows the calculation of your fuel costs along the lines you're thinking. Besides, the book that goes along with it is an excellent introduction to Hydronic systems.

Below is a little excel spreadsheet that I'm developing in my free time for the guys here that sizes systems. You could back out the fuel cost from that.

Steve_35

Formulas

F = (HL x 24 x DD) divided by (E x P x DT) where

F = annual fuel consumption
HL = design heat load (BTU)
DD = Degree Days
E = Equipment efficiency
P = BTU per unit of fuel
DT = design temperature difference

So in your example you'd use about 635 gallons of oil.

Use this formula to determine the delivered cost per 100K BTU for various fuels

(C x 100,000BTU) divided by (P x E)

C = Cost per unit of fuel
P = BTU per unit of fuel
E = Equipment efficiency

John Starcher_4

Constantin -

When you get that puppy fully "tweaked," I'd love for you to repost it!!!!!!

Starch