In the last couple of winters, Great River Energy, (North Itasca’s Electric provider) did not control customer’s load often. In other words, those customers on the Dual Fuel program did not experience their fossil fuel burners igniting very often, cutting their heating bill approximately in half.

Is it a good idea to replace the fossil fuel furnace? Yes, It would save fuel when peak times occur, and it is better for the environment. One also needs to look at how many years of payback to cover the cost of that new furnace.

North Itasca’s Dual Fuel Program could be controlled up to 400 hours a season, maximum. Our customers have not experienced anything close to that much control except those living in the Northome area where power is provided by Minnkota Power. Let’s look at a worst case scenario.

Example:
Average home with 50,000 BTU heat loss:

A well designed heating system does not run continuously. Assume controlled 50% of the time, then 400 hour x 50% = 200 hour of actual control time. 200 hours x 50,000 BTUs = 10,000,000 BTUs maximum BTUs per heating season if control needed. 10,000,000 Btus/91,500 Btus per gallon of propane) = 109.28 gallons propane would be needed for maximum control allowed per year. In other words, 109.28 gallons x $1.75 per gallon = $191.25 (Maximum propane burned for the winter months.)

How much propane did you burn last year? 500 gallons ($875) 1,000 gallons ($1,750) 1,500 gallons ($2,620), propane heat which is not 100% efficient like electric heat.

Price Comparisons:
1 gallon propane = 91,500 Btus at $1.75 per gallon
80% efficient furnace would burn 1.2 gallons to equal 91,500 Btus

Electric heat:
3412 BTUs in 1 kW of electric heat at 3.8 cent per kW
91,500 BTUs per gallon /3,412 BTUs / kW = 26.81 kW
26.81 KW @ $0.038 per kW = $1.018, so electric = $1.018 per kW, 100% efficient.

Propane heat:
$1.75 per gallon plus 20% inefficiencies of .35 cent = $2.10 cost to get 91,500 BTUs of heat.

Summary:
$2.10 for propane, $1.018 for electric, $1.08 savings per gallon of propane.