Need your opinion's

[Gnfantic]

Hey guys, garage is going up very soon and want to set up the heat for it for next winter. I have natural gas at my house, but I am running into 2 issues.


1-) trenching 150 ft in rooted soil, 18in deep is not fun and might be pricey.
2-) cost of 150 ft of line.
3-) Town stated to me that my gas meter might be to small and if it is I need to get local gas company involved.

OR Run propane?? Install a propane tank behind garage. I am thinking it wouls save me alot of money but never had propane.

Electric is out of th story , to much coin to warm a 900 sq ft garage. Especially NY prices.

 

[BajaScout]

Guessing solar won't help?

 

[Gnfantic]

Well, no tree's are blocking the garage. It gets full sun. Interesting you mentioned this I can go electric with the panels but the panels $$$$?

 

[TractorJeff]

Put the propane tank in and be done with it! Get it filled mid summer when price is the lowest and pre-buy at that same price for your mid winter fill.

 

[Stadger]

Your opinion's what?

 

[Jim greengo]

Put the propane tank in and be done with it! Get it filled mid summer when price is the lowest and pre-buy at that same price for your mid winter fill.

 

[brewchief]

Poly gas line is pretty inexpensive to buy, the risers needed at the ends aren't cheap but not terrible. A trencher can cut through smaller roots pretty easily, you do have to be careful that you don't cut too much of the root system of one tree.
Increasing the meter size is pretty common and not a huge deal most of the time, a call to the gas company will get it figured out pretty quickly, I think they get between 300 and 600$ here to upsize the meter depending on how big it needs to be.
If you don't want to trench you can have a directional boreing company bore a gas line and only have a bit of digging at the ends.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[thammel]

Rent a good trencher and the trench will be easy. Go with natural gas. Cheaper to use and you won't have to be concerned with propane delivery.

Tom

 

[walta]

I say dig the trench and upgrade the service you will cry once. With propane you will cry each and every year.

Walta

 

[finn]

If you have access to natural gas, spend the money and do the hookup.

This is from someone who has one property with NG, and three with only propane available.

Only good I have to say is that at least propane beats oil or electric heat. Solar isn’t a viable option here.

 

[earlybirds]

I rented a trencher, buried a 110 ft. x 1 1/4 inch hdpe gas line with risers and shutoff valves and all other gas pipe fittings for about $900. Best decision I ever made.

 

[99LeCouch]

Well, no tree's are blocking the garage. It gets full sun. Interesting you mentioned this I can go electric with the panels but the panels $$$$?

Doing solar for heat in the winter does not make sense. NY gets most of its sun during the other 3 seasons. Net metering would help reduce the winter garage heat bill, but it would need a winter of sucking up high electricity bills to justify the right sized solar PV system to your utility the next spring. And, the amount of panels required to offset your entire house plus an electric heater in the garage would cost way more up front than upgrading the gas line.

Say it's a 5 kW heater that runs for 6 hours a day for 120 days and your rate is $0.20 per kWh. That is 720 hours of run time. 720 hours x 5 kW is 3600 kWh, for a cost of $720.

A 2500 kW solar PV system, which should produce enough electricity over a year to net that to zero, would be about $4000-4500 in components, plus your time to install and whatever permit fees you are charged. Call it $6k all said and done, or about $3500 after fed/state tax credits. And that is DIY. Double that for installed turn-key. Payback would be about 5 years post the tax credits.

So, do solar for your entire house, not to heat the garage.

 

[Jackfre]

Make sure when you run the gas line that you lay a tracer wire in with the pipe

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Price out a propane tank and your decision should be easy.