I guess my options are electric. oil, propane and gas. I have been told electric is the most expensive but I do not know that to be a fact. (we are in the southern tier of NY) At our location there are no natural gas lines but we have been told you can have liquid gas set up similar to propane. I am only familiar with coal (as a child) and oil heat. Frankly I am a little afraid of gas due to leaks etc. Any input/experiances that can help us make a choice would be welcome.
I can't help you with the decision as to what to use, but . . .
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a little afraid of gas due to leaks
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I can well understand that, and you certainly want to avoid leaks, but I guess you know that odorant is added to natural gas so that you will smell it before it leaks enough to become explosive. It takes 4% to 15% natural gas to be explosive, and you should certainly smell it before then. (I have no idea why, but I'm told that women will usually smell it before men do). At any rate, I consider it relatively safe stuff to use.
I'm not sure exactly where you live, but I did the gas leakage survey for the town of Waverly, NY, 10 years ago. Of course, they're supposed to do such a survey every 5 years, so I guess a couple have been done since I was there. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Electric around here is too expensive for any one with options to use. Heat pumps help, but were not designed for a very cold climate, at least my experience with them.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] We recently purchased a couple of gas detector alarms and are they neat! I have NO sense of smell whatsoever so I'm paranoid about gas leaks and we have a propane furnace in the basement. Those detectors went off when I got some Freon loose as I was charging the A/C, and they also went off when Vickie sprayed the catbox with Lysol Deodorant Spray. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] They plug into an outlet. I put an outlet REAL LOW next to the furnace in the basement and we have one in the upstairs. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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Propane is more "explosive" than Natural gas too
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But you should still smell it before it becomes explosive, and leak detectors can be bought pretty cheap. I think most RVs come with an LPG leak detector as standard equipment now.
Dave, apparently I was typing while you were posting your message. Yes, unfortunately, the leak detectors can be set off by a variety of things (almost any hydrocarbons), but an occasional false alarm on those is usually easily diagnosed and corrected. The only time I really had a problem in my last motorhome was one morning we were parked in a parking lot right next to a building during a heavy snow, and the exhaust from the generator set off the LPG alarm. The problem was simply that on the motorhome, that alarm not only sounded audibly, but also shut off the LPG at the tank, so then the furnace didn't work. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] So I solved that problem by getting back on the road just a little earlier than we had planned. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Are you saying that the snow "envelope" concentrated the exhaust fumes from the gen set and THAT tripped the alarm? [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
Dave, it wasn't so much the snow envelope as it was the building and shrubs right next to the left side of the motorhome (and of course the generator was on the left side). [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
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