Is there an equation to compare heating costs of propane versus electricity to heat a bedroom?

Indeed. One must always be careful of first-time posters - it's quite likely they're just another nym-shift by one of the group trolls.

FWIW, this was a thread from 10 months ago and the original question was about a Mr Buddy Heater, the 9000 BTU one. The answer below is sort of a general one.

By "these" you're not referring to the Buddy heaters, are you? Maybe to the ones that Wolf seems to have in mind?

WRT the Coleman 515, someone said " Original instructions said to leave two windows or two flaps for a cross breeze to ventilate. A few people died, a few lawsuits later and poof - no more CF catalytics. "

Other people seem to make them but not the portable type, like the Buddy is.

Nowhere in the Buddy are the letters "cataly" found.

I have a 515 although I haven't used it in years. It ran on Coleman fuel / white gas and wasn't very efficient. The fuel didn't seem to wick up into the dome shaped pad very well.

I HAVE been on the thread - just not contributing. Yes, I KNOW it said "for indoor use" - and I know ot was a catalytic heater - and I know catalytic heaters when running properly produce VERY LITTLE CO - but I would still not use one in a well sealed structure particularly without a CO detector.

I HAVE experiende with Catalytic convertors - and fire. Long time mechanic

If a converter gets "flooded - ie - run too rich it WILL overheat - to the point it will glow WHITE HOT - and if the heat sheild is missing - and possibly even if it is not - it WILL burn grass. Not only burn grass but blister asphault.

My experience was a 1981 Corolla with a sticky throttle that was shut down and deiselled. It took less than 20 seconds to melt the carpet and ignite it, which then burned the seat and console. Quick application of a water hose salvaged the car. The converter was totally blue after it cooled down and the strata inside was totally melted. Also a nice shiny spot on the paved driveway where the "tar" bubbled.

Also not far fromhere a couple years ago - July 2018 -34 cars were destroyed due to a missing heat sheild on a parked car --

I run my BernzoMatic Turbo torch off the 20 lb tank with a coleman hose.

They are not using a "catalytic converter" they are using a "catalytic burner" At the root, the chemistry and physics are similar

- but totally different application

Thanks for that spreadsheet comparison with the efficiency defaults.

Ed was working on the math - which helped me a lot as I didn't know how to proceed at first. It should be obvious if I could figure out the math myself, I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place of folks.

But Clare telling me no math is ever needed is clearly not at all helpful.

Without resorting to guessing, the calculator hubops provided gave me the following values where the missing information was that default efficiency.

Propane Gallon $3.95 At 91,333 BTU/gallon & 85% efficiency cost $5,088.04 Per 100 Million BTU

Electric (Resistance) kiloWatt-hour (kWh) $0.25 At 3,412 BTU/kWh & 100% efficiency cost $7,327.08 Per 100 Million BTU

Similar to what I had calculated before, my cost for propane heat is about

Previously I had calculated electric to be 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 that of the propane (which depended on the heat settings of low or high).

The good news is my calculations and the chart matches, even as I didn't include the 85% efficiency of propane (which I didn't know about).

Would you agree with the 85% efficiency for propane & 100% for electricity?

Thanks Clare as that's actually a good idea since I don't run the torch all that often, running it off the 20-pound tank means I can avoid refilling the 1-pound tank.

Looking for that Coleman hose on the net, the first search result seems like it would be good to burn snow and ice off of the back steps up north

Is this what will work to convert the one pound to a 20 pound connection?

Thanks for that suggestion that someone else can always use a second tank.

I looked up if propane goes bad like gasoline does & found out it doesn't. The only thing that ages is the tank has to be inspected every 12 years. For that, it can be traded in for a "newer" tank with a newer date on it.

I like Clare's idea of finding a 6-foot hose to connect the brass torch that normally fits onto the top of a 1-pound propane canister to the

My torch looks like this (but it's older so it's all brass - no plastic).

The box says it can be used indoors, but there's nothing specific about how but my current plan is to put it in the fireplace.

I used to burn wood in that fireplace (it's piped for propane but only to start the logs burning) so I can't imagine burning wood causes any more carbon monoxide (or uses up any more oxygen) than the propane burner does.

Does it?

The bedroom I'm planning on heating has a fireplace in the middle on a wall separating two open rooms in that there is only one door to the house (and one door to the outside). All the rooms are open except the bathroom & closet.

There is an opening on both sides of that fireplace & of course a chimney.

Are you saying that the propane burner is more dangerous than the fire is? How can that be?

Billions of people have fireplaces in their homes. How is this propane heater any different?

It's good you have experience that I don't have on such things.

The bedroom I'm planning on heating has a pretty large fireplace in the middle on a wall separating two open rooms in that there is only one door to the house (and one door to the outside). All the rooms are open except the bathroom & closet. The flue is 1/2 chocked open by California law.

The fireplace has a steel pipe with holes in it used to start the wood using propane piped from a large tank outside the house.

There is an opening on both sides of that fireplace & of course a chimney. What I don't like about the fireplace is the carpet gets soiled. They shouldn't have carpeted the whole bedroom - but they did and that's that.

However, billions of people have fireplaces in their homes, don't they? Maybe many millions of those people have them in their bedrooms, right?

How is this propane heater there any different than the open fireplace is?

Thanks to your advice and that of Clare and others, I think I should calculate the cost for 10,000 BTU which is about an hour of room heating.

If I did the math right (by moving the decimal point), heating a room costs

Propane Gallon $3.95 At 91,333 BTU/gallon & 85% efficiency cost $0.51 Per 10K BTU

Electric (Resistance) kiloWatt-hour (kWh) $0.25 At 3,412 BTU/kWh & 100% efficiency cost $0.73 Per 10K BTU

Using rough numbers, it will cost me about fifty cents to initially heat a room with propane, and about seventy-five cents to heat it with electric.

I didn't even *think* about the carbon monoxide issue until people brought it up, but wouldn't putting the thing in the fireplace solve that issue?

When you burn wood in the fireplace, the damper is open. Are you going to have it open with the propane heater?

I didn't say you didn't need math - I said you didn't need complicated math - and I'm not a "she" - I'm an "old dude"

I didn't say no math and I provided the required math

When you burn propane it's virtually 100% efficient if it's not vented. Every BTU is released as heat - INSIDE the room.

Electric heat is virtually 100% efficient too - but a small amount of that heat is released in the wires from the power station to your outlet. You only pay for what gets into the house so you are only loosing the small amount of heat dissipaed in the in-house wiring. I know - nit-picking but I figured you would be familiar with that concept - - -

You didn't look very hard.

Nope

Nope

Putting it in the fireplace will let most of the heat go up the chimney and draw even more warm air out with it - fireplaces are TERRIBLY inefficient. All you will get is a bit of radiant heat - warming you but not the air.

Likely use less oxygen than the wood fire but also produce less heat

The fire is vented - and the draft produced by the heat going out the chimey can be enough to slam doors and make windows whistle. Not much CO danger. The propane burner -even if set in the fireplace - will not produce as strong a draft (or any if the damper is closed) With the damper open you will lose a LARGE percentage of the heat and COULD get a "back-draft" of cold air if not enough heat goes out the chimney to produce an adequate draft.

It's s LOT more complicated than you imagine.

A wood fire that is not banked down produces VERY little CO. Banked down like in an airtight stove more CO is produced - but being airtight it goes out the chimney. A well banked COAL fire in an "open" parlour stove can kill you pretty quickly as it produces a LOT of CO and it is free to exit the stove into the room - particularly since"banking" the fire involves restricting the draft with the Damper