Not sure about pros and cons, but we decided on propane for heating, water heat, cooktop and fireplace. (we did an electric dryer and electric ovens). We are in woods and therefore probably will not benefit from solar panels as there isn't a large amount of sun exposure. If we could do solar I might have been willing to do all electric. Our proximity to conservation wetlands made geothermal not practical. Our propane tank is buried which is nice. We live in MA, so cold weather.

I'd opt for all electric if the utility rates are similar. That said, a tankless hot water heater has high rate/low duration energy flows because it heats water on demand. If your electric bill includes surcharges for demand, an electric hot water heater could result in a significantly higher operating cost than propane. Check with your local utility.

I live in the NE woods and have all electric. We also have a whole house generator, which kicks on about a half dozen times a year at least, all 4 seasons, so wanted to pass along they are worth the investment.

Ohhh yes - forgot to add that as well. Whole house generator here, will never be without one again.

Both. there are no pros or cons to debate between the two. You need electric as a necessity so it's a done deal, and if you want propane to run a fireplace and stove spend a few extra grand to install the tank and tubing. Electric fireplaces are stupid.

How will you power the whole house generator?

If you prefer gas for cooking, it’s easy to have an in-ground propane tank for a cooktop and fireplace.

I have this set up for my rangetop and one fireplace and it works great. My propane tank also supplies the whole house generator, outdoor BBQ and pool heater. You can also use it for a fire pit. My state has very high electric rates.

We're in a very rural area. We have a propane furnace, everything else is electric. If you go all electric, a generator is a great idea, because long power outages can be very miserable. We have been discussing adding solar, which I think would be ideal.

I think it's always a good idea to have options, you never know what costs will be like in the future. I'd do both.

We use propane for our gas cooktop and heat. We are in a rural area with lots of sun but a solar option will be too expensive (we got quotes). Our electric bills are very low here. Ironically, our electric company has a huge solar farm not far from our home, which helps with the costs.pr

We also have a generator but have only used it once in 8 years. Somehow, the electric company seems to regain power very shortly after outages.

An all electric house (if rates are low) other than your stove is also possible. You can get a small propane tank that is connected to the kitchen.

I was advised to get propane for fireplace and generator. I have not done it yet. I plan to use candles in the fireplace this year for aesthetics - don’t need the heat much. The wood burning fireplace is set up for gas logs.

There are now solar generators.

I feel safer without a gas source. We had natural gas in the previous house (colder climate).

I would leave the option open for propane, but avoid installing it until you are sure.

There are other options for fireplaces. I have not seen an electric one I like. We used to have gas logs, but even those looked fake to me, and they were pretty realistic. I am arranging 4 3-wick candles in a single row behind a screen to see how that looks this year. It should keep the fireplace cleaner. There are clean fuel burning options and I think even one of the outdoor stoves is now an option for fireplaces. I started using an electric blanket topped with a faux fur throw for really cold spells, and sometimes a carefully watched space heater.

We are mostly electric and also have a buried propane tank for tankless water heaters, outdoor grill, pool/spa heater (rarely used) and generator (which we haven't bought/installed yet).

I like having some back up options. If power goes out I won't be able to use my electric appliances, including induction range, but I can use my outdoor propane grill and side burner to cook.

We live in the woods in Maine. We have solar panels. Buried propane tank for the generator (a must as we live down a dirt road), cooktop, tankless water heater and heat. Electric for all other appliances and hot tub heater. We also burn wood in our fireplace that has an insert with a blower on it.

If you don't have a generator and the power goes out, you can still cook on the stove and use the fireplace if sourced by propane.

You mentioned 2 acres and no (city?) natural gas. How about city water (or co-op of some sort)? or do you have your own well/pump? If the latter - generator is a must (otherwise, no power means no water too), although I'd strongly recommend a standby backup generator regardless of that - it's a PITA to be stuck without heat, or without A/C, or without e.g. internet if you are WFH, etc.

Last time we inquired about our backup power options (~2021) - we came to a conclusion (if our calcs were right) that something like a Tesla power wall can sustain powering the house for, like, half a day, while a 1000gal propane tank with our standby backup generator would sustain powering the house for 4-5 days. So that was a simple choice for us.

If you decide to not go for a generator at all - shirlpp has made a very strong point re: stove and fireplace availability during an outage.

There are electric fireplaces now that look like real fireplaces and put out a lot of heat. I will never go willingly back to gas. Induction is so superior.

I would do electric and solar panels for if the electric goes out. We have solar panels and it runs almost everything when the power goes out.

My power has only gone out after a hurricane and the odds of solar panels having been damaged on the roof are quite high, so I think that propane powered generators have some advantages over solar in my area. As long as we don't get flooded out by storm surges, I can handle not having power for several days!

"Solar generators" are just batteries paired with solar. They will never be as robust as a big tank of propane but can work quite well. It depends a lot on what you have powered with electricity, your climate and your tolerance for going without some things for the time without power.

The standard answer is that they do fine in a hurricane. Florida is in the top 3 states for solar installation last I checked.

Having a battery to make sure that your well always works is pretty easy. Heating a home for days in subfreezing weather is not. Doable but not as cheap or easy as propane.

I don't completely agree with Kevin but the basic idea is whether it is worth it for you to spend the $10k to have the lines run and the tank installed and future tank fills. But on the pros - interior air quality is better with all electric. Cons - you don't have a fireplace.

On demand electric hot water is generally a pretty bad idea. I say generally..... It is stressful to the grid and demand charges make more and more sense in the future. So there is a chance you will get them and then be cursing the decision. It would be a reasonable use for propane but your cheapest option is heat pump hot water.

We do not have natural gas by us. We are rural and on a mountain. We have a buried propane tank for tankless water heater and our range. We have a heat pump for heat. We are on well water. We do not have a generator but thought about getting one. In the 6 years we have lived here the power has only gone out twice and was only off for the longest about 3 hours. Both times it was clear outside. We do keep a supply of drinking water and water for flushing toilets if the power should ever go out for an extended period of time. We also have a woodstove. We are in western NC so we do not get crazy cold temps nor crazy amounts of snow. We do get some crazy wind.

It might be worthwhile research geothermal with a new build.

Wow and thank you to everyone for all the helpful suggestions! We will be on a well and we definitely will have a back up generator. I spoke with the local utility company and a local electrician about generators. PUD says in my area, all the power lines are buried and the history of power outages is sparse and brief, so it's highly unlikely we'll need a whole house generator. We have a backup generator in our current house and are familiar with them. I'll have to investigate the electricity rates. We're moving within WA state but will be serviced by a different utility company, so I'm assuming rates may be different.

We will not be considering solar panels or geothermal, but thanks for throwing that out there.

I haven't researched tankless water heaters much at all, but from the comments it sounds like it is best to power those through gas/propane? I had no idea local PUD can charge a surcharge for on-demand electricity so that's great to know! I'll have to check with that. If they don't, and we plan to still go with propane (which I'm now leaning towards much more), it is better to use the gas powered tankless water heater? David Cary- what is a heat pump water heater?

I forgot about the option to bury the propane tank! Design Fan- my husband would also like to hook up an outdoor BBQ to the propane tank, so that would be another bonus.

An electric demand charge is based on the peak instantaneous power draw during the billing period. Some electric utilities bill all accounts for monthly demand.

The coop that serves my house doesn't bill demand as a line-item for residential accounts but does bill it for commercial accounts. My neighbor who worked for the coop for more than 40 years said demand is integrated into the rate for residential, which apparently apportions it evenly across all the residential accounts ... vs. commercial accounts which may have a lower base rate but are billed directly for their individual demand.

A whole-house electric tankless can draw 23,000 watts or more at maximum power (varies per the unit capacity), vs. a traditional electric tank unit typically being 4,500 watts maximum. Thus demand charge can be a concern related to electric tankless if a residence is billed directly for it.

Residential electric resistance-heat HVAC for comparison is 10,000 to 15,000 watts and up depending on the details. Resistance-heat HVAC plus electric tankless ... weeeeoooo!

A heat pump water heater is exactly that. A refrigeration unit (heat pump) atop the tank which pulls heat from room air and puts it into the tank of water ... same as a refrigerator moves heat out of the freezer and fresh food sections into the kitchen or an HVAC heat pump in cold weather moves heat from the outdoors into the house. A side benefit in hot-climate areas is the space in which the unit is installed (garage, basement, etc.) gets cooled and dehumified. Heat pump water heaters also have electric heating elements to supplement the refrigeration unit when necessary.

Our heat pump hot water heater is about 1.2 kw. I have a energy monitor on the house and have never seen the 4.5 kw element fire in the 5 years since we moved in.

Just as a point of comparison, we only have 5 kw back up heat strips paired with a 2 ton heat pump.

We had a demand charge at one point and it was paired to lower rate. It was about $5 a kw per month. So a 20 kw peak would lead to a $100 a month charge. I usually kept our peak to 5 kw. The dryer is 4.5 kw and that was a big one. The rules were based on the highest 15 min of the month. So laundry on a cold day with resistance heat running ... using hot water for laundry and you could be looking at $100 load of laundry or more.

It isn't that bad but requires planning and not having an electric on demand hot water heater....

Demand charges along with TOU are the most logical way going forward with renewable energy and more electric items in the house - particularly EV's. Maybe a long time but WA will probably come to these things earlier than most.

I remember $5 propane. Electricity can also be potentially price challenging. Solar with batteries can be an option for controlling costs yourself. YouTube has some info. DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse - YouTube

The thing about expensive propane is that using only propane for accessory use (not heat) doesn't use much. Propane is expensive enough (and volatile enough) that I would go all-electric in the OP's situation. But, propane as cooking, fireplace, generator and instant hot water is a small amount of usage and therefore low cost no matter what. And it provides for a level of resilience.

I use NG for cooking and fireplace. This is about 20 therms per year - therms are pretty close to a gallon of propane. So it costs me $20 but $5 propane would be $100.

The water would add perhaps 100. Not inconsequential at $5 which is why I suggested a heat pump. But it is also something relatively easy to switch to later. I would certainly plan for a heat pump tank either way. And also consider credits. I got about $2k from our utility for going with heat pump hot water and on a new house, that means free.

I love the idea of solar + batteries but you are typically getting close to $100k to have enough batteries. And batteries have a calendar life. I mean you may get 20 years of decent capacity. You get more life from a propane tank and the generator is relatively cheap to replace if you don't get 20 years.

The challenge is to have enough batteries to get through a cold cloudy snap. BTW - I have full solar by annual production ($18k net of credits) but I would need double to make it through January. And that isn't counting batteries.

At this point the calculations for power require a lot of effort. I wouldn't off grid a necessary goal when interaction can bank credits in summer. And when vpp payments are being setup for common benefit and stability. battery costs are and will continue to drop. Quality has already advanced as Will on his channel proves through testing. A few less than10k battery rack with inverter and management is doable if you put in some effort. But every month it'll become easier.