replacing an oil furnace, with...

[gw6929]

Ive started getting quotes for replacing the oil furnace in our 102yr old house.   looking @ propane w/a stand alone AC unit or a 3.5ton heat pump   Realistically we will still continue to primarily heat with wood b/c my wife thinks 80 degrees is cold.   Anyone have any experience with swapping from oil to propane or oil to heat pump?   I like the idea of not having a gigantic propane tank in the yard but am concerned about lack of warmth from a heat pump. 

BTW my wife's vote is neither of thse options, but to move to hawaii

Jim

[Eric Nelson]

Natgas is not an option?

[gw6929]

nah I live in the sticks

[Eric Nelson]

Heat pumps are chilly, although I understand that they are better than they were decades ago. 

I don't know how expensive propane is compared to natgas, but propane is much more energetic.  If you go that way, get a BIG tank so you don't have to worry about refills as much.  And, you could probably refill when prices drop and go most of the heating year.

[Fred K]

The new heat pumps are way better than they used to be. The heat is actually warm and they are pretty efficient. The only real downside is when it gets really cold, you won't have to worry about that if you suppliment it with wood.

Oil to propane conversions are easy and that equipment is really good too, but will be pretty pricey with a seperate A/C unit. Everyone around here has propane and the tanks look great, as long as you bury them.

I'd go with a good heat pump system.

[Jim Harding]

I run a heat pump and back it up with oil.  Use an outdoor thermostat set at 30 degrees; that turns off the heat pump and turns on the oil furnace.  With a very cold winter, I might go through 150 gallons of oil, the heat pump does a good job at our 30 year old house.  Also have a fire place that uses propane logs for a quick warm up of the family room when necessary.

[Rob Burton]

I 13-16 seer heat pump will do an amazing job at keeping your house warm, but will kill you in electricity bills trying to maintain 80 degrees.  Definately don't go with propane since you are at the mercy of your provider for cost/gallon.

[Joe Widmayer]

Heat Pump with Propane back-up sounds like your best option.

Below 40 degrees (outdoor), your wife will complain with a heat pump if she likes it warm(er).................and if you go with electric back-up, your bills will be higher.

A water source heat pump would be really cool if you could somehow swing it.

We have a condensing natural gas furnace for the 1st floor and heat pump upstairs. I rarely run the heat pump as the backup electric kills the electric bill during defrost the cycle.

Run the wood stove as an additional boost/take load off the furnace.

(With a 102 year old house, I'd be taking a hard look at insulation/windows also).

Swapping a forced air oil furnace to forced air gas shouldn't be a big deal..........a good installer should be able to do it quickly/easily.

Plant some bushes around the tank............

 

[billy]

personally, I like the warm








Personally, I like the warm Hawaii idea!!!

[Phil Cataldi]

Personally, I like the warm Hawaii idea!!!

Me too, I'll be there next month...     

[gw6929]

thanks for all the replies -

what is a water source heat pump?

[Joe Widmayer]

what is a water source heat pump?

A "normal" heat pump extracts heat from the outside air (air to air heat transfer). It collects whatever heat is present from outside air, (along with the heat of compression), bundles it, and moves it into your house. As it gets colder outside, there is less heat present and the heat pump has to work harder. Also, because eventually the face of the outside air coil will drop below freezing, any moisture in the outside air will freeze and block the coil. To thaw out the coil the heat pump reverses cycle every so often, switches back to an air conditioning unit and melts the ice from the coil........during the defrost cycle, the backup heat (resistance electric or propane or oil) has to come on to heat your house while the ice melts off before switching cycle again back to a heating cycle.

A water source heat pump uses water as a means of heat transfer (commonly from a well) extracts heat from ground water and moves it into your house. The temperature of the ground water never changes and eliminates the need for a defrost cycle as ground water is always the same temperature.

You'd have to have a well (or maybe a pond) on your property to use.

Problem is you'd have the additional cost of pipeing and pumping water to the unit. Maybe best to stick with the "normal" (air to air) system...........don't want to get too exotic.

You could set up a heat exchanger (plate or tube in shell) to pump water through the heat pump attached to your wood stove...........

Wade could build it.   

[Joe Widmayer]

Thought this might help...........

[Mike_C]

That chart looks really skewed toward gas usage.  Not at all what I see at my place with an air to air heat pump and oil backup, changeover at 35º.  The house is about 2500 sq ft three levels and we spend 150 a month on electric, averaged all year with an electric stove, water heater and dryer. We burn about 250 gallons of fuel a year on top of that.
In my opinion, if you're installing an AC system, it should be a heat pump since you can use it when suitable or not if you don't want to.  There are a lot of days between 40 and 70 outside (heat pump weather) and I figured that the heat pump can run three times as long as an oil furnace cycle to be equal cost-wise. 
Is my cost of $230 a month high or low? (Elec + oil)

[gw6929]

I think the best way to compare is by using BTUs.  In my case we are using approx 124,000,000 BTUs to heat the home as it is each winter.    From what I've found online 1 gallon of home heating oil = 124,000 BTUs, 1 gallon of propane = 91,000 BTUs, 1 cord of seasoned oak = 24,600,000 BTUs.  I found my rate per kilowatt ($0.096), but I havent been able to figure out how many kilowatts the 3.5 ton heat pump consumes to make 124,000,000 BTUs.  I'll call the sales guy & see if he can give me some kind of answer on this.

one more nice thing about a woodstove, it cooked our dinner while it heated the house!

Jim