NEW FURNACE

[Larry (Bo) Bolander]

I've an old oil furnace in my detached garage out back. It works fine but, the price of fuel oil is like everything, outrageous. So I'm thinking about switching to either electric or gas furnace. Here's the situation. Got a 900 sg.ft. detached garage, insulated walls with Celotex ceiling. I'm told a 50'000 btu. furnace would suffice since I keep it down to 40 deg. unless I'm going to work out there, then I crank it up to about 65 deg. Would gas or electric be more cost effective or should I just give it up and buy some fuel oil and let it go?

Bo

 

[TOMMY RICH]

Here's what I did...

I got about a 30,000 BTU electric heater with blower and for reaaal cold weather I also use a Propane heater. Can't stand Kerosene anymore....

 

[fatrap]

Wood burner.

fatrap

 

[Jim in VA]

Bo - price of oil is fluctuating constantly. With the summer driving season winding down, relative "stability" in the Mideast and a rather calm hurricane season so far (knock wood), prices for oil and gasoline are coming down. With a constantly fluctuating commodity like oil, it may not be worth the investment to switch. A new unit using electric or NG would be subject to similar fluctuations. In fact, NG was priced pretty darned high last winter and was the top of news. Because of a mild winter, the high prices didn't stay in the news, but they are still there and will likely be high again this winter. As far as electric, unless you live in a county that's close to a generator source that does not depend on oil, gas, or other fluctuating price commodity, there's no guarantee those prices won't rise either. So given the uncertainty of fuel prices across all energy sources and the substantial investment cost of having to install a new furnace unit, you may end up being better off sticking with what you got. Its a lot like all those people that rushed out to buy smaller cars or hybrids to save fuel. If they had done the calculation, sticking with the car they had (with payments already made), and paying higher gas prices was probably cheaper than shelling out $20K plus for a new car that saved on a few hundred a year in gas costs.



Good luck with the decision!

 

[Mike Zechman]

I have electric, and its much cheaper than gas or oil, I'd go with electric

 

[Brad Harder]

Bo,

I don't remember the exact figures but there is at least twice the amount of BTU's in a gallon of fuel oil that in a gallon of LP or natural gas. I just replaced my old fuel oil furnace with a new high eff. fuel oil because when i figured cost per btu fuel oil was cheaper and for some reason it just "feels" warmer. Or check out this website, I applied for a sales job here about a year ago. (didn't get the job but would still recommend their product to anyone)



http://www.burnsbest.com/

 

[TOMMY RICH]

If I ever find a decent older wood burner for my man cave....I'm jumpin' on it

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

I just switched the gas fireplace (which I originally switched from wood:huh in my lower level back to a woodburning fireplace insert. 75,000btu with blower. I can now cook marshmellows half-way across the room!! Of course, I have 4 acres of woods so fuel is not a problem. Getting time to cut and split it is!!



TOXIC

 

[Steve Rizza]

PELLET STOVE



dump a bag of pellets in the hopper and away you go.

 

[Rick Cohoon]

I agree with Steve R, a pellet stove is the way to go.



Get a good one and you can heat that 900 Sq Ft for about $300.00 for the whole winter.



That is about a ton (one pallet) of pellets.



Have on in my family room and heats the 2300 Sq Ft house very well. I use about two ton per winter and do need ot use the oil some, but have reduce the amount of oil burned by about half. And it is a very even and comfortable heat.

 

[Steve Hutson]

Back when I raced stock cars, we had a 40' X 30' 3 bay detached garage. We put a double 55 gallon drum wood stove in the dead center of the back wall. It would flat run you out of the place!



I don't remember brand names, but we bought the kit at a mom and pop country hardware store. I found two 55 gal. drums and we were off to the races, so to speak. Luckily there was a furniture factory in Bowling Green, KY that sold oak scraps for $5.00 a truck load. Two loads usually got us through the winter.



If I had a detached garage I would do it again in a second.

 

[Larry (Bo) Bolander]

Thanks for all the info guys. I guess now all that's left is get off the pot and make a decision.

Bo

 

[fatrap]

Steve

Whatz great about a wood burner is if anybody in the neighborhood gives you any crap about burning wood you throw on a chunk of tire picked up off the Interstate and burn that to get even.

fatrap

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

I have a wood insert in my living room. As I can't cut wood anymore it's quite expensive to but and it's dirty. I haven't tried pellets. The problem with anything you burn is that you have to get it up to heat before you can be comfortable.

In my area oil is still cheaper than electric, by a wide margin. Natural gas prices and oil prices, right now, are running neck and neck. LP gas is outrageous. As an aside to what Jim had to say, I have a neighbor who had no fireplace. So, without thinking it through, she bought one of those contemporary LP ones. She also had installed a BIG LP gas tank. She loved it, until she had it filled with gas that is. She filled it up that one time and has not used the fireplace again, and that's been two years now.

I have a very efficient fuel oil furnace and hot water baseboard. I'm getting upset when they fill my oil tank right now. And I get angry if I want to put something against the wall but darn if I don't think it's the warmest "feeling" heat.



Uncle Billy

 

[Steve Hutson]

Hey fatrap, the neighbors didn't mind the wood stove at all. They did however get a little ill from time to time when I would fire up the ol' stock car



Steve