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Have you thought about pellet stoves?

I am North of you in Western WI. We have a 2200 sq ft house, 300 sq ft of it is a storage room and a 3-season porch. The storage room is closed off all year, mainly because it is a mess, and the porch has an insulated glass sliding door between it and the house which I close off on winter nights and some cold days. Porch is set up for a propane stove, but right now, I am using an electric heater when necessary. We also heat 800 sq ft of shop area in another building.

Main heat is propane, w/a wood stove in the house and another one on the main floor (another 800 sq ft) of the shop. We have 2 500-gallon propane tanks and buy 3 cords of firewood/yr.

Total heating costs, which include some heating in Spring/Fall of a 2200 gallon above ground pool, is under $2000. Propane is 3x what is was 10 years ago and the firewood has increased about 40% (it is oak, delivered, split and stacked). Wood for a year, with a face cord left over unless it is a really hard winter is $540-$630. Total electric costs, which are high for the area due to a hot tub, electric stove, some spot electric heaters for ad hoc use, 3 ceiling fans and fans for the forced air propane heat, is around another $1800. We have area a/c in the upper part of the shop, the upper floor of the house (2 rooms in use) and our bedroom. This is an old house, but we have replaced all but 3 of the windows and most of the insulation has been increased.

I keep the house at 64-67 days/55 or so at night.(I like it cool and I do increase the heat to 70 when we have company that is more sensitive to cold) The shop furnace keeps the upper area at 43-45 when we aren't there and it is usually around 67 when we are working. It is a converted barn with high ceilings, so it can be hard to heat. We bought a new furnace 3 years ago which is very efficient. It uses about 300 gallons or less of propane/year.

We don't have NG available at our location, but friends with
NG heat have installed pellet stoves to great effect in both more warmth and less cost in larger homes that are just as old as ours.

I just find a $450/mo budget charge to be excessive. My budget charge for the propane is $160/mo and I do run up a credit from March--October. Interest rates for savings are so low, I don't really mind this money being held by my gas company. It guarantees me a keep-filled status and saves worrying about high bills for the coldest months.

I've never heard of a pellet stove. I'll check it out. Thanks.

Just an FYI in case you were wondering how to calculate conversion costs/savings, NG costs are typically 50% to 60% of LP for the same amount of energy.

LP is made from NG, so I would imagine that the ratio will continue to be stable at that level.