Home Improvement

I would think that propane would be 2-3 times as expensive as natural gas. At least. Then again, everything is natural gas here, so maybe it's different elsewhere.

Borzak_sl said:

Is he talking about having the piping run?

I have had both. I liked natural gas because I've been thru multiple hurricanes without loss of natural gas. I went 2 weeks during Andrew and never lost it and 3 weeks without power after Katrina and never lost it.

Propane works but can be a pain having it delivered because everyone waits till it gets cold and then they can't deliver it fast enough.

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This.

Natural gas is always preferred because its piped in and works regardless of you having to do anything. Propane requires large tank, likely buried on the property and for you to have that fucker filled by a truck when needed. I doubt the savings on the gas itself would work in your favor considering delivery and cost of the tank. Add to that the one time you use more than you think and run out while waiting for it to be delivered and fuck that noise. Its also can be an issue if you decide to sell having a giant tank of gas on your property.

If you have any other appliances like drying, oven or stove on natural gas already it's a no brainer to just use the existing hookup. The gas company usually charges a meter fee regardless of what you use so it pays to move as many appliances over as possible to gas because it is generally much cheaper.

What are you saving by going that way?

The house I'm looking at doesn't have natural gas. It heats using oil and electric. I'm thinking about converting to propane and run the entire house that way. I contacted a local propane dealer. They said they'll bury a 500-1000 gallon tank in the yard, and pipe it into your house completely free of charge, assuming I use them to purchase the propane. They currently charge $1.90/gal for either 500 or 1000 gal tanks, just because they're doing the installation for free. They also maintain the tanks for you. They do the install based on filling a tank twice per year. And it would all be automatic. If I eventually decide to install a pool and use propane to heat said pool, it might be worth jumping from the 500 gal to the 1000, so they'll come out and swap the tanks. They also suggested a much smaller 50-60 gal tank to do a whole house generator. They say it's not a good idea to run a generator off of the same tank that your heating is on, just because it may end up using all of the gas just for energy, leaving you unable to heat also.

I'm just doing some planning ahead of time. I would rather go natural gas over propane, but it isn't available. As such, I think propane is a better choice than oil. So going that route to heat might be a better choice. Especially if my only out of pocket expense would be replacing appliances (I would have done that anyway), and then internal piping, which I can do myself.

I just wanted opinions from others that might have done the same thing.

My current house has a heat pump. It's an alright setup, but it doesn't work very well a good 4-5 months of the year. Once temperatures drop below 30 degrees, a heat pump just can't keep up. You end up burning a ton of energy on "auxiliary burners", which is pretty much an electrical short to create heat.

and 10k would probably be a very, very small, simple house (1 level, well under 1000 sq feet)

I'd guess most houses would be $20k+. That's a shitload of work. You're looking at 5-10K just for the furnace/AC units installed. All that duct work would easily double the price, if not triple it, I would bet. I wouldn't be shocked to see a quote for $30,000 in a large, 2-story home.

joeboo_sl said:

and 10k would probably be a very, very small, simple house (1 level, well under 1000 sq feet)

I'd guess most houses would be $20k+. That's a shitload of work. You're looking at 5-10K just for the furnace/AC units installed. All that duct work would easily double the price, if not triple it, I would bet. I wouldn't be shocked to see a quote for $30,000 in a large, 2-story home.

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That's just about the cost for new construction. Retro-fitting I don't even see as possible unless you consider opening up every wall.

EDIT: Well hang on, I was thinking of my home in AZ that is all electric and on a slab foundation. If it had a crawl space or an attic, that would help.

A relative of mine did one of these jobs for a mutual friend recently. It's about a 1200 sq ft house on a slab. It already has floorboard electric heat, so all they put in was the ductwork in the attic and a central air unit. I believe it came to about 8k.

lurker_sl said:

That's just about the cost for new construction. Retro-fitting I don't even see as possible unless you consider opening up every wall.

EDIT: Well hang on, I was thinking of my home in AZ that is all electric and on a slab foundation. If it had a crawl space or an attic, that would help.

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Yeah, you're talking opening up at least a wall and ceiling in every room of the house, if not the floor too (depending on whether you want the vents in the wall, or the floor)

At that point, just gut & remodel the entire home. New walls, floors, and ceilings in EVERY room!

You do a split system like Picasso said. You can install one in your attic and run the duct work there without opening walls, and one under the house and run the duct work there. Still expensive, but very efficient, and great for changing from heat to cool without having to rework the trunk line.

Anyone know anything about finishing furniture? I have a chunky maple dining set that was my grandparents, unfortunately they painted most of it baby blue. I'm most of the way through the sanding process on a pair of the chairs but I'm not entirely sure what I should use to refinish them.

The table itself has a pale wood top, I'll probably paint the legs white (its massively heavy so I don't want to move it around too much) and I'd like to keep the wood visible in the chairs.

Use stripper and make sure it isn't veneer.

lurkingdirk_sl said:

Use stripper and make sure it isn't veneer.

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Note I'm asking about finishing, not stripping. e.g. shellac, varnish, oil based, etc.