What’s The Best Heat Source in 2022? Top 5 Home Heating Methods – LP Electric NG Geothermal Fuel Oil

Hey my name is ben thanks for stopping By in this video we’re going to be Discussing the different options that You have to heat your home and we’re Going to talk specifically about what The cost difference is between the most Common fuel types if you ask somebody What the most efficient or best way to Heat their house is You get all sorts of different answers So i don’t really like to just throw Anything out there without putting some Data behind it and that’s what we’re Going to do we’re going to take and Calculate out what the different costs Are based on kind of national averages And see what the cheapest way is to heat A house so we’re going to start with the Most expensive kind of heat and work our Way down to the cheapest but before we Do that we need to kind of get a Baseline of understanding for having an Easy way to compare the different fuel Types and the best way i can think of to Explain that is to talk about how much It takes to heat a house for an entire Winter in the northern united states it Takes about 100 million btus per winter To keep your house At a comfortable temperature that Assumes several things though like my House right behind me here this is only About 1200 square feet and we only take About 50 million btus per winter i’ve

Calculated it out based on the amount of Propane that we used so 50 million btus To heat my house but most people don’t Have a 1200 square foot house that has Been spray foamed top to bottom this is A spray foamed house all the way from The very top Down even the basement walls are covered In spray foam so it’s a fairly tight and Efficient house even though in all Likelihood it was built in the late 1800s it has a stone foundation that Took me forever to redo so let’s assume That not everybody lives in a 1200 Square foot spray foamed house like i do And they might have more like a 2 500 Square foot house with more average Build and average leakiness and all that Kind of thing then you’re probably Looking at closer to that 100 million Btus that it’s going to take to heat the House for the winter the first and most Expensive way to heat your house is Going to be using resistance electric Heat now it does not matter what type of Electric appliance you’re using to Convert that energy if it’s using Electric elements to heat the air or Water or whatever it Totally doesn’t matter it’s going to Take the same amount of energy to heat Your house with one of these Old-fashioned radiant heaters like i Have right here or one of those fancy

Little roll around boxes that they Advertise on tv as being so efficient or A central electric heater that uses Elements it’s all going to be the same Now depending on where you’re located Your price of electricity is either Going to be higher or lower and that’s The same across the board for all the Different fuel types that we’re going to Be talking about but assuming 12 cents Per kilowatt hour which is about what we Have here We’re looking at three thousand five Hundred and seventeen dollars per 100 Million btus so if you had the average House and you’re using resistance Electric heat you would be looking at About 3 500 to heat your house for the Winter even though this thing is pretty Old it does have a safety switch if you Tip it over It shuts itself off how sweet is that All right let’s move on to the next fuel Type now thanks to the recent change in Management for the energy in the united States the price of this fuel has moved Up in the video this should have been at The very end or closer to the end but We’re talking about it as our number two Most expensive way to heat a house and That is propane now i really really like Propane for a bunch of different reasons One of them is that you can keep extra On hand on your property you can hook it

Up and set it up to use with a standby Generator [Applause] And you don’t have to rely on pipes Coming into your house that you have no Control over Whether or not anything is going to be Coming out of those pipes so you can buy Some have enough for the winter Hopefully we’ve got enough here to make It through the entire winter with a Thousand gallon tank and a 500 gallon Tank which is really really handy so Assuming 2.50 cents per gallon which is About the right rate depending on where You are it might be a lot more or a lot Less and assuming we’re using a 95 Percent efficient furnace I jumped really bad which is pretty much Standard most of the time we’re looking At a cost of two thousand eight hundred And eighty one dollars per 100 million Btus that’s still substantially cheaper Than our 3517 that it would be for resistance Electric heat but it is definitely not Cheap at two dollars and fifty cents per Gallon a year ago to fill these tanks up It was only about 95 cents per gallon or Around a dollar so it has more than Doubled since things have changed with The energy situation in the u.s i have These tanks manifolded together so i can Use one or the other for the house and

I’ve added enough valves that i can Specifically choose which one to use Currently we’re using this larger tank Over here and we’ve started at Probably about 80 percent and we’re down To about 70 percent We’re not using this tank just yet we Could switch over the over to that one Later if we decide to but the reason That that’s only gone down about 10 or 15 percent is that we’re actually using A different energy source to heat the House as much as possible which we’ll Talk about in just a minute this tank Here i got when it was super rusty and i Completely stripped it down to the bare Metal and repainted it here about 10 Years ago and it’s starting to show its Age again already it’s just insane this Tank is from 1955 still going strong These tanks tend to last a very long Time because the propane on the inside Isn’t really going to cause any Corrosion issues i’ll link to a couple More propane videos at the end of this Video if you guys are interested in Learning more All right let’s move on to the next fuel Type About 90 of the people that watch my Channel don’t subscribe and i understand That because a lot of people just need That one thing but if you want to see More content from this channel i would

Really appreciate if you hit that Subscribe button right behind me here We’ve got a couple of old fuel oil Barrels that we’ve pulled out of People’s houses over the years and fuel Oil or it’s basically diesel fuel for All intents and purposes you could Actually put fuel oil in your diesel Truck and burn it The problem with that is there’s no no Fuel tax or no road tax associated with That and for some reason the government Wants their money so don’t do that by Any means but it’s the same thing it’s Home heating oil sometimes called fuel Oil is what we always called it But currently the price i think is Around three dollars a gallon the price Of fuel oil varies significantly across The country but assuming two dollars and Fifty cents per gallon of home heating Oil we’d be looking at a cost of two Thousand three hundred and thirty five Dollars assuming we had an eighty Percent efficient furnace burning that Fuel Now i don’t know about your area i think Up in alaska and certain parts of the Country home heating oil or fuel oil is Still the most common way to heat your Home But here it’s gone almost entirely to Propane and natural gas generally Speaking as a as an hvac technician i

Much prefer working on propane equipment Than On fuel oil equipment but we still have Several customers that like using fuel Oil because it’s not as volatile as Propane it’s not going to level your House if there’s a leak there’ll be a Little puddle of fuel oil but you won’t Have an explosion so there’s benefits to Using it over propane All right let’s move on to the next one We’ve only got six minutes left that This camera can record and the battery Is starting to die i’m guessing that’s Partially because it is really really Cold it’s getting cold can you see my Ears that’s not just like the camera Making them more red and i haven’t like Painted them or anything they’re just Like starting to freeze off so All right next type even though electric Resistance heat is significantly more Expensive than any of the options we’ve Talked about so far it can be utilized Differently to produce different results And basically the way we do that is by Using the electricity to physically move Heat from one place to the other instead Of using the electricity to kind of Create the heat so right here behind me We’ve got a mini split heat pump and These things have gotten really good to Where they can heat all the way down to Like this one i think is 22 below zero

There are several different types of Heat pumps this is an air source heat Pump because it’s using air from the Outside pulling the heat out of the air Outside and moving it into the garage i Made a video explaining this process Using a thermal camera so i’ll put a Link up here somewhere or in the Description or maybe at the end and you Guys can check that out to understand How heat pumps work a little bit more But the thing that matters is the Coefficient of performance and being Able to calculate how much it costs to Use a heat pump to heat your house Versus just regular resistance electric Heat so we have to make a couple of Assumptions and what we’re going to do Is say that this heat pump is going to Be 250 percent efficient meaning that For every one kilowatt of electricity That we use we’re going to get about 2.5 Kilowatts of like of heat back because That’s how much heat it’s going to be Able to move with one kilowatt of Electricity so assuming 12 cents per Kilowatt hour and 250 percent efficient We’re gonna have a price of one thousand Four hundred and six dollars per 100 Million btus That’s over a thousand dollars cheaper For the same amount of energy than using Propane at two dollars and fifty cents Per gallon so that is significant right

Here is a more traditional heat pump That i have attached to my house this is Not nearly as efficient as some of the New mini splits are but it still can hit Those coefficient of performance of 200 To 250 percent under Very good conditions now by very good Conditions i mean down to a certain Temperature threshold so i believe i Have this thing set to switch over to Propane at about 25 degrees so once the Temperature drops below that these Things really struggle to produce very Much heat the the amount of heat that it Can produce per hour The output significantly drops off but a Year ago i never used this thing as a Heat pump at all i only used propane and That was because propane was about the Same cost as running a heat pump because Propane was less than a dollar it was Like 90 cents or a dollar In order to buy a gallon of propane Whereas now it’s more than double that So i have this year started to use my Heat pump way more than i have in Previous years if it’s above 25 degrees This thing will kick in and carry the Load for the house unfortunately because This thing is more traditional and Doesn’t have those really low Temperature efficiencies once it drops Below that i do burn propane But if you have a smart thermostat or a

Thermostat that is set up with dual fuel You might want to evaluate what Temperature it switches over at or if You had previously been using just Propane you might want to consider using Your heat pump again because the prices Right now make it make sense to use Your heat pump more than burning gas the Other type of heat pump that is really Common is a ground source heat pump Where you have loops of Pipe going down underground that pull The heat out of the dirt and it’s a lot More efficient to pull heat out of the Earth since it’s a much more consistent Temperature outside here we we hit 30 Below zero once in a while and there is Very little heat or it’s very difficult To pull the heat out of the air when It’s 30 below zero but underground it’s 55 degrees we finally made it to the Most common fuel type for the northern United states as far as i’m aware and That is going to be natural gas natural Gas is unbeatable still even though Prices have kind of doubled since about A year ago it is still cheaper to use Natural gas than it is to use even a Heat pump the price is currently around A dollar ten per therm or eleven dollars Per mcf or a thousand cubic feet and That comes out to be at 95 percent Efficient which is most uh natural gas Furnaces that comes out to 1157.

So that covers the five most common Categories of home heating in my opinion That are more grid tied now you have Other options as well that i’m not going To get into but in that link you’ll see There are options for wood calculating Out how much that costs you obviously Wood is more of a time trade-off you’re Looking at you know if you were using Electric resistance heat and it was 3 500 a year to heat your house You stand to gain that 3 500 back by Burning wood like this pile right behind Me here however if you’re using uh Natural gas it’s just a little over a Thousand dollars and so you have to Figure out what your time is worth and What you’re able to do but obviously Burning wood is a great option the other Things that people sometimes do is even Burn corn i think that’s actually not That different than like Burning propane And even coal some people still will Burn Burning coal to heat your house directly Is a lot more efficient than burning Coal To make electricity and then use it for Resistance heat that’s 30 percent Efficient or so so only 30 percent of The energy from the coal is going to Make it into your house by using one of Those little space heaters so lots of

Things to consider from a cost Perspective natural gas is still the Winner right now but you can see that Heat pump technology is really not that Far behind as long as electric rates Stay fairly stable now depending on the Utility there are electric rates Available That are sometimes discounted for Heating i have a property where it’s Like six or seven cents per kilowatt Hour instead of 12 for electric Resistance heat so significantly cheaper So you have to make sure you plug the Numbers in from your area all right i Hope you guys found this to be useful Comment down below what is the fuel Source that you guys use at your Property or do you use a combination or Do you burn some wood and some propane And some heat pump technology just be Interesting to hear what you guys have To say If you liked the video make sure you hit That thumbs up button it really helps me Out a whole bunch although i don’t Really know anymore now that they got Rid of dislikes i’m not very happy about That There’s actually a way to get dislikes Back on the browser i will put that link In the description as well you can Install this little extension on google Chrome or i think the other major web

Browsers as well and it’ll bring back The dislike counter which is pretty Awesome for now i’m sure they’ll get rid Of that eventually too this channel Wouldn’t be possible without you guys so Just thank you thank you thank you for Subscribing and for commenting and for Being a part of our community