Propane vs Ng heat for shop

[Snip]

Shell is up and concrete poured friday 40x66x14. Still a little down the road but pro active thinking about heat. Tennessee along I40 just West of the central/eastern time line. Mild winters compared to where I moved from (Denver). I have a NG 100k Btu radiant tube heater i'm going to install. Meter is 225 feet from the shop and gas company will only allow 1 meter per address. Gas company will trench, run line and risers as needed for 5.00 a foot, adds up fast. Other options are trench and install line myself( if allowed) have them make hookups. Other option wold be to convert the heater (reznor) to Propane and install a tank. What are your thoughts on these options?

 

[Snip]

I guess what I am wondering would be my return would be on running the gas line and using NG vs installing a tank and converting to propane? Both are available but have not compared cost of BTU on either. Shop is mostly my hobby shop, retired industrial mechanic, fabricator and machinist .

 

[finn]

For $1200 I would go NG. Price is likely to be more stable over time, and you don’t have to mess with flakey suppliers, or lease or buy a tank.

Make sure the gas company sized the line for your heater, plus a hot water heater and any other appliances you may want in the future.

 

[Jlbc212]

For $1200 I would go NG. Price is likely to be more stable over time, and you don’t have to mess with flakey suppliers, or lease or buy a tank.

Make sure the gas company sized the line for your heater, plus a hot water heater and any other appliances you may want in the future.

^^^ I agree with Finn.

 

[u2slow]

I'd run portable propane tanks for heat (30-40# or 100#) until I got the trench dug and installed NG pipe myself.

 

[Showkey]

Agree on NAT gas and Finn.

$5 per foot does it sound too bad........others on the forum were quoted as much as $10/ft. Often the gas company brings the line to the meter. Anything after meter is customer responsibility and often a independent fitter.

 

[yeldogt]

$5 a foot! .... for $1200 bucks it would be in already. The trench would cost me more ! And done by the utility ... amazing.

I just paid 6k+ for my 1k propane tank and connections -- trench and hole by others. Propane is a pain ... less so over oil and paying for electric.

With NG available -- the choice is always NG.

 

[Snip]

Thank you folks. I was strongly looking at going the natural gas route but like always wanted to explore others options, ideas and personal experiences. The cost of the line is very reasonable and when thought of over the next 20 ( I hope,61 now) years here is minimal and the convenience of gas is worth it. The only upside to the propane I could see was prepaying the cost of heat and knowing the cost to heat the shop separate of the house. Not a big deal but just a way to track costs, power is on a separate meter from the house. If the gas company would allow a separate meter on the shop I would take it, but they will not. Like I said not a big deal

 

[shaeff]

For what it's worth, most contractors in my area are at least $4/ft to trench and lay pipe. Less if you have them trench only.

Have the gas company do it all, it's worth it for the liability alone. Let them put in the 811 ticket and let them deal with other potential utilities in the area. That's a steal.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

As far as the payback goes between NG and LPG....the last time I looked at it, my break even cost for propane was right at 60 cents per gallon. In other words....I would have to buy LPG at that prices to break even with what I pay at my house for natural gas (after the $12 monthly meter charge).

So...if propane is selling for $1.00 per gallon, I'm saving 40%. The only way to figure your payback on your shop is to know how many hours your heater will run. I'm sure it will pay back....just don't know how many months or years.

THAT BEING SAID...the most interesting thing to me you said was that the NG company will only allow you one meter...like that's a bad thing? Well the only way your garage might NEVER payback is if THEY WOULD install you a second meter. In some cases I've seen where the meter charge on a gas meter is high enough that it would actually be cheaper to go with propane. Say your NG bill on a second meter ended up being $350 per year and $250 of that was just your monthly meter charge? At that point you might be better off with propane.

It's always better IMHO to have a single meter per property if your gas company or power company will allow it. Those monthly meter charges add up over time. You only want to pay one of them if you can help it. I get the question at work a lot "Well won't you install me a second meter so I don't have to run my own pipe?" The answer is not just "no"...it's "No, but here's why you really don't want me to do that anyway."

Phil

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, Natural Gas will be a better choice.

 

[TractorJeff]

There is a Post on here where the Gas Company installs a Regulator to up the supply pressure (4psi?) so that you can feed a longer distance. Then you would need to regulate down going into your House and one also at your Shop.
Make Sense?

 

[gfd_703]

I'm in West TN and just had NG run to my shop. The first 100 ft was free and it was $1.00 a ft for pipe and installation after that. They also ran a line from the new shop to the house for future use for free while the equipment was on sight. All I paid for was the pipe and fittings.

 

[yatg]

Not a big deal but just a way to track costs, power is on a separate meter from the house. If the gas company would allow a separate meter on the shop I would take it, but they will not. Like I said not a big deal

You can put a meter at the shop for your own use.

I'd recommend digit readout vs. dials.
Make sure it matches your gas billing, cubic feet or liters.
Make sure it comes with the tailpieces.

This is one of many on ebay.
It has pulse output if you want to automatically track usage with a remote reader.
https://www.ebay.com/itm//183982813752

 

[JRC3]

What type thermostat can be used on those heaters? Plenty of house type stats will track usage. Will you have internet in the shop? On top of thermostats there are ways to track running of the heater's fan and calculate usage.

If you have wifi you could control the thermostat to come on before you head out and have it toasty when you get there. With something like Smartthings you could control the heat, send alerts if the heat fails, and also monitor security from anywhere. Even have smoke and CO protection.

 

[bdbecker]

NG all the way.

I did a deep dive on this at one point and made an excel sheet where I can plug in the current prices and see what it would cost to heat my shop with different methods. Because NG is sold in cubic feet, propane and kerosene are sold by the gallon (and have different BTU ratings), and electricity is sold by the kWh, I setup my formulas to report back the cost per hour to heat my garage so I could have an apples-to-apples comparison. Using the latest pricing for my area, NG would cost me $0.14 per hour, propane would cost me $0.38, kerosene costs $0.78, and electric would be $1.15.

 

[Adk Mike]

I’ve been in propane work for years. Propane involves tanks and trucks. Always go with Natural gas when you can. No tanks or trucks
That being said I’ve set temp propane tanks for Natural Gas locations lots of times . Next to a building when the natural gas line was coming later or after the winter season .