In article
13037431.708.1325445975606.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@pruu23,
Ivan Vegvary wrote:

Thanks Ecnerwal, what a thoughtful reply!

I will use your data analysis (adjusted for window and door sizes) and make
an appropriate decision.

BTW, right now I'm paying $2.48/gallon for propane.
House electrical rate is $0.11/KWH
Shop electrical rate is $0.32/KWH

Shop rate is high because of low usage. My last bill was $24.55 most of
which was for Basic standby ($16) taxes etc. House bill was $84 for the
month of October. I can't combine the two for a lower rate since I enjoy the
3 phase power delivered to the shop. I suppose I could run the shop power
back up to the house and get a combined single bill saving me about $18 per
month.

I didn't do as much work as you might think - I have all of this worked
out for my shop, with all the handy "secret" numbers I got from Ag
Engineering's aquaculture course way back when. After that it's just a
few calculations and the "deep mystery" is revealed to be math. It's
handy for seeing things such as: foam floor mats or plywood over
styrofoam covering most of the floor would make a lot more difference in
your heat loss than a better door or an inch or two more insulation in
the walls.

Service charge is the price of being connected at all, and is best
(mostly) ignored when looking at cost of power for heat (which will
certainly up your useage.) Some months I have 0 KWH, which would make
the price of power infinite for those months...it's just overhead, and
the price of each KWh used is what it is, unless I'm going to disconnect
the power to avoid the overhead (not likely.)

If you would get down to 11c/KWH at the shop by burning more, (or it's
10c plus service charge, or whatever) then electric is cheaper for you.
Roughly equivalent to $2.39/gallon propane with an 80% efficient furnace.

Check with the power company before doing anything about feeding the
house from the shop - they may not let you. In any case it may cost more
to do than it's worth in savings - but look at that cost if they would
let you.

One thought (not my idea, swiped from here in the past) is to put (bond,
ideally) 50W-200W heaters in/on/under the all the cast iron tool bases.
If you leave those on all winter, you can be assured of no condensation
on the tools (put one in/on/under any tool cabinet as well) while using
less overall power, and just crank the heat up to 50 (or more) when you
are actually working.

--
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Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.