Ok so i have recently purchased a 3000sqft house that is 30yo, the water heater and furnace are original and electric. We dont have access to natural gas, but we are thinking of installing a propane tank to replace electric. Currently the water heater i believe is 40gal is rather small for the load here. We are going to renovate all 3 bathrooms with multiple shower heads per bathroom. I dont expect a water heater to be able to spit out 20gpm of hot water but i was hoping to run a 6 showerhead shower at 1 time. Is it worth it to replace our current system with a mod-con boiler with a indirect tank and air handler or a new furnace and (2) larger tankless water heaters. As it would be a complete propane retrofit i dont think the piping differences are super large so its mostly based on equipment.
Im pretty sure a Modcon with indirect water tank and air handler is going to be quite a bit more expensive than 2 larger tankless water heaters and a new propane furnace. But energy savings wise is it worth it?
thanks
Steve
Probably better off with 2 larger tankless. And a gas hot air furnace.
If you used a mod/com with an indirect. You would have an oversized boiler for heating most of the time. Plus a large indirect tank.
Check your local propane and electric costs very closely before switching from electric. Propane has gone up a lot in recent years.
In my area propane is so expensive that heating with a mod/con or condensing furnace costs about as much as heating with electric baseboards.
There's no reason to spend the extra $$,$$$ on a mod/con boiler if an electric boiler, electric furnace or baseboard heaters will cost just as much to operate.
If you want to cut your operating costs but don't have access to natural gas, look real close at a ground source heat pump. It might be your only option.
I dont know what propane costs and all places i have called are closed today. But out electric is $.102581 Per KWH and we used almost 4500 KWH in January. I live in Washington in Puget Sound area, and we dont have air conditioning and we used just shy of 2000 KWH in June. In the winter it only got down to about 20 degrees on a handful of days. We have fairly mild winters. I dont know average costs of electricity or propane but basically is this high or average?
It didnt even occur to me that electric might be cheaper than propane. Since from what you are saying i gather a modcon isnt worth the money to me what larger tankless system would you recommend gas or electric so i can try to estimate cost for usage. Also furnace brand/model.
Thanks