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Art Todesco Art Todesco is offline
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Default Heating new basement, electric or propane?

I am building a new home in the western
mountains of NC. I have a full
basement, of which, the front is at
ground level and the rear is completely
underground. The house will be heated
via heat pump and backup heat strips.
The basement is divided into 4 spaces, a
2 car garage and 3 rooms. The 3 rooms
are framed but not drywalled ... not
yet, anyway. Check out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/actodesc...49935785230802
The front large room is for a future
game room or the like. The back room
will probably house the water heater and
HVAC stuff. The "shop", wood and
electronics, will either be in the back
room or the right side room. I can
drywall off either of these area for the
shop. I am leaning to using the back
room, as the HVAC will shed some heat
and it would be easy to add a register
for both heat and cooling. I could add
an electric heater for winter. I could
also add a non venting propane heater as
there will be a propane tank for
cooking. I see torpedo propane units
and wall mount propane heaters. The
torpedoes are fan forced, which seems to
be a plus, and seem to have higher
outputs. I wouldn't consider a kerosene
unit as I have "smelled" them before.
The wall heaters usually don't have
fans. Is there a reason the propane
torpedo would not be good for this
application? The other thing about the
torpedo is that it can be moved to the
garage when needed as it is basically
portable. Do they put out more
pollutants than the wall heater? BTW,
the usage might be a few hours a day,
several days a week, but that's about
it. Any comments?
Thanks,
Art