Online Annual Heating Energy Cost Analyzer

What is the Energy Selector?

The Penn State Extension Online Energy Selector is a decision support tool that allows the user to make an "apples-to-apples" comparison of various heating fuels/systems, that can be used to heat our homes and businesses. Users can make comparisons between nine different fuel types/systems, including traditional fossil fuels (Heating oil, Propane, Natural Gas, Electricity, Heat pump, Coal), as well as renewable biomass fuels (Corn, Wood Pellets, and Firewood). This tool is for you if you ever wondered, for example, how does the price of propane (per gallon) compared to the price of wood (per cord)?

How to use this tool?

You can download "the Online Energy Selector" from the Penn State Extension website. After you download the spreadsheet, two easy steps will allow you to compare the equivalent costs of these nine fuel types/systems for the same BTU value. You can follow the example described below to learn how to use this tool.

Step #1

The tool allows you to select one of nine heating fuel that you would like to use to calculate the equivalent cost. As an example select heating oil from the list of fuels in the drop-down menu as a fuel type that we want to compare.

Step #2

The second step is to input the estimated price of the selected fuel in the purple box. In this case, we will select a heating oil cost of $3.00 per gallon.

Output

After you've completed Step #1 and Step #2, the Online Energy Selector automatically calculates the equivalent costs for other types of fuel. The prices in the output section are equivalent on an energy basis to the price of heating oil.

In this case, when you enter a heating oil cost of $3.00 per gallon, the output window of the online tool tells that the equivalent cost for cordwood is $390 per cord. This means that, if you can purchase cordwood for less than $390 per cord, you'd be saving money by using cordwood instead of heating oil. Similarly, you can estimate the equivalent cost of other types of fuel corresponds with the input price of heating oil.

Add a custom fuel choice!

Also, the tool provides a bonus section that allows you to add an unusual fuel and/or heating system that you'd like to include in the analysis. Select the "CustomFuelDataEntry" worksheet and enter performance data for your custom fuel in the orange cells. The Energy Selector will automatically add the calculated equivalent fuel cost to the bottom line of the Energy Selector worksheet. In figure below, "Exterior Wood Boiler" including its units of costs, energy content and efficiency of utilization (in orange cells) is entered as an example of custom fuel choice.

What you learned?

You can input the price you are currently paying for your heating fuel, and quickly find out the equivalent cost for several other heating fuel options. This allows you to see whether switching to a different fuel could save you money or not.

Assumptions

Assumptions for this electronic tool are similar to those used in the original paper version of the "Energy Selector", developed by Dennis Buffington from Penn State Extension. If you would like to see an instructional video on the use of the paper version of the Energy Selector, visit the "Energy Answer for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher" Youtube channel and select the video titled "How to Choose a Heating Fuel?"

*One therm = 100,000 BTU

Prepared by Azadwinder S. Chahal, Research and Extension Assistant, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University.

Reviewed by Dr. Daniel Ciolkosz, Assistant Research Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University and Dr. Siobhan Fathel, Adjunct Instructor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University

Funded by NIFA under project title "Energy Answers for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher" award no.2018-70017-28895.