I've been given the go-ahead to get a Natural Gas BBQ for the house, and I think I've found the one. Partially because it's not a bottom-of-the-line unit that's natural gas, and because I can get a good price because it's discontinued.
The more I look into this whole natural gas thing, the more I'm starting to like it (minus having to find someone to install the line, and not being able to move the BBQ around much once the line's in place).
I've been doing a cost analysis, and here are the fact/figures that I've found so-far:
A 20lb propane tank is supposed to hold the equivalent of approximately 425,000 BTU of energy. With the BBQ I'm looking at (if it had a propane equivalent and assuming that they mean 40,000 BTUh instead of just 40,000 BTUs), this would equal a minimum of 8.5 to 10.5 hours of cooking time, depending on if you use the side burner. To fill a 20lb tank using the tank exchange program costs $17.99 plus taxes ($20.51). If you figure out the cost per MBTUs (million BTUs), that's $48.26/MBTUs, or $1.93/hour of use with a 40,000 BTUh burner at full.
On the other hand, natural gas (which is measured by Manitoba Hydro in cubic meters) last month costed me approximately $0.42/m3 (after all the taxes, surcharges and what-not). According to a few websites, the BTU rating for a m3 of natural gas is 35,500 BTU/m3. The cost per MBTUs is $11.83/MBTUs, or $0.47/hour of use (again, based on a 40,000 BTUh burner at full).
Right there we see that propane is already 4x more expensive than natural gas!
Here's a few interesting sites related to natural gas BBQ's:
Finally, I found Centro's website:
