Heating Economics?
This is a serious guru question. Which would be a more economical choice for heating? Here are the conditions involved: 3 13500 heat pumps running off genny or; 2 20000 Btu propane fired furnaces ...
Forum Discussion
Are you asking for general info or are you planning to do this for an extgended time such as a week or longer? If it's going to be for a longer period and up to 24 hours per day (168 hours per week) then you'll also get into generator maintenance costs. There's not really any cost to running the furnaces other than if something breaks.
Could the answer be someplace in the middle?
Since you're talking about running the genny, we'll assume you don't access to commercial power and your profile doesn't say anything about having solar to charge batteries. Assuming the above, you'll have to run the genny probably a couple hours a day to recharge what the heat pumps and other electrical needs have used each day anyway.
I would run the furnaces set low at night. When I got up, start the genny, run the heat pumps, plug in a electric heater since you'll have spare amprage and charge the batteries. Make coffee, run the microwave, the water pump etc. With the MH warm and the sun comming up, you should have heat for several hours. Run the same routine at night for an hour or two.
I think this is the most practicle way to operate. I'll leave it to someone else to calculate the actual BTUs and pennies.
Bill
Could the answer be someplace in the middle?
Since you're talking about running the genny, we'll assume you don't access to commercial power and your profile doesn't say anything about having solar to charge batteries. Assuming the above, you'll have to run the genny probably a couple hours a day to recharge what the heat pumps and other electrical needs have used each day anyway.
I would run the furnaces set low at night. When I got up, start the genny, run the heat pumps, plug in a electric heater since you'll have spare amprage and charge the batteries. Make coffee, run the microwave, the water pump etc. With the MH warm and the sun comming up, you should have heat for several hours. Run the same routine at night for an hour or two.
I think this is the most practicle way to operate. I'll leave it to someone else to calculate the actual BTUs and pennies.
Bill
