Posted: 8/6/2014 5:16:16 PM EDT
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Long story short.
My central heat burns through $100 a month to keep my house at 60F. I've got a wood fireplace that the previous owner installed LP gas logs in.....their pretty much decorative with around 5/10 degrees of added heat.(that was disappointing to figure out middle of last winter) My thoughts are to re-direct the LP line and install a stand alone LP heating unit. My first thought was the typical wall mount ventless units like This or This Most of the reviews are "glowing" but there are the occasional "my house filled with nasty film and soot-like junk" Which got me thinking about This Have any of you fine folks been down this road? Experience with vent-less and vent-ed units? Is there a measurable difference in the indoor nastiness output? I'm a single guy so air quality is not critical but it would be nice not to have to worry about. Side note by removing the LP logs I'll also have the ability to burn wood in my huge (best feature of my house) fireplace. I do understand that fireplaces are not the most efficient option either. So when cash allows I'll also be adding This Thanks you much for any advice. |
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I have non-vented NG logs in my house and we burn them almost constantly during the winter. The problem with non-vented logs is that the water that is produced will condense out on the windows, so we have to take rolled up towels and place them on the sills.
I know Lp is a bit less efficient but not by much. When we we swapped over to Lp furnace from oil heat in our old house the difference was tremendous. But that sucker sucked up the gas and it cost 700.00 to fill it completely. I loved the heat but the bill was $$$. We rented an older house that had oil heat in VA and it was freezing, the Lp company I worked at gave me a blue-flame heater that was an old stock/loaner that we used in the kitchen. It was a big leap in comfort but it wouldn't do more than heat the kitchen it was 14x14. If you do run non-vented get a carbon monoxide detector. Also I do not think it is allowable to have non-vented gas heaters in sleeping areas either. Oh about the stink in the reviews that is from letting the tank run out of gas. It is going to stink like a mofo if it runs out. 
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We have an LP back-up furnace that takes over for the heat pump when the outside temp drops below 26 deg.F. Between that, my gas logs (only used as emergency heat or on Christmas) and my Weber grill I spend about $450/year in LP. Right now my power bill is $92/mo budget and the house is completely electric except for those items I've mentioned.
Year before last we spent $265 for LP mild winter. Last year about $450. I would use my gas logs more if they had a blower. |
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I had a place with propane to the furnace and a ventless wall mounted unit. When power was out for 4 days the wall mounted ventless heater needed no power to operate and kept the pipes from freezing and allowed me to stay there instead of trying to go elsewhere. One thing I would consider in your case is seeing where the heat is going. A fan behind the propane logs in the fireplace will help bring heat out. There are various ways to do it, some folks use metal tubing in a U shape and the air in the tube heats up and gets directed where they want it. Work on insulation and heat control. If you are trying to heat the whole place that is a lot of warm air. Easier to keep the whole place bearable and then wall off one room where you spend most of your time and keep it nice and warm. Blankets in doorways or hallways will control airflow and same goes for stairwells and what not. Some old places are nearly impossable to control, just were not made for it. Is the fireplace chimney open and letting all the heat go that way? If you go with a vented setup pay attention to what it needs to operate in a power outage. All the propane water heaters with little exhaust fans need that fan running to work. Most fans are easily rigged up to run on a battery, but best to figure that out first. |