Propane Users: Plans for the Future?

[coobie]

I live in grain farm country and the big demand time for propane is in the fall to finish drying the grain. My propane dealer tells me that the price fluctuates wildly from really cheap in the spring to really pricey in the fall because of this imbalance. My plan is to buy a second 500 gallon tank this spring and have them hook it into the first one so I can double my capacity. The second tank will cost around $1,200 installed and I'll prep the site.

I think this is a great idea with a pretty quick payback plus I'll own the tank and it could always be resold. Any thoughts on this? Good idea or bad idea?

I bought my brand NEW 500 gal. propane tank about 5 years ago.The only drawback I see is some of these LOW LIFE propane companies is that they will tell you they need to do a pressure test on your tank before they will fill it to the tune of $50 bucks.No matter if your tank is new or used.I call BS on this practice.IMHO money maker for them.

 

[sixdogs]

Thanks, coobie, I'll keep an eye on them.

 

[lilranch2001]

Suppliers here did not honor the pre-buy contracts. Even on the ones that paid upfront. Used the Emergency Clause in the contracts.

If possible, I think the only insurance against this is to Summer buy and have a tank large enough to hold a Winter's amount of Propane. My neighbor does that with a 1000 gallon tank. He filled last Summer for .99 p/gallon.

Actually the Coop I belong to did honor their price
I failed to sing the agreement last summer, so I did not get in on it, but my next door neighbor did have his price lock honored by them
I know better now!

 

[therealmjfox]

I bought my brand NEW 500 gal. propane tank about 5 years ago.The only drawback I see is some of these LOW LIFE propane companies is that they will tell you they need to do a pressure test on your tank before they will fill it to the tune of $50 bucks.No matter if your tank is new or used.I call BS on this practice.IMHO money maker for them.

I own my 500 gallon tank and play the market every year. This year was the first time a new provider required that test, but they did it free of charge. I suspect it's becoming an insurance requirement.

 

[i579rbd]

Would it be worth it to use a tankless water heater to heat the house? Then I am only heating water for the blowers when they need it versus having to keep water hot all the time. I also want to look in to wood stoves If anyone would care to share a good wood stove for dummies information source I would appreciate it.

 

[sixdogs]

Would it be worth it to use a tankless water heater to heat the house? Then I am only heating water for the blowers when they need it versus having to keep water hot all the time.

....

Not sure about your application but I used a tankless water heater when I lived in northern New England and it was the best water heater I ever had. Hot water on demand and perfectly done. The name escapes me at the moment but if I heard it I would remember it. It was blue and round.

 

[aczlan]

Would it be worth it to use a tankless water heater to heat the house? Then I am only heating water for the blowers when they need it versus having to keep water hot all the time.

My uncle does that. He has one that does both hydronic heat and DHW (2 coils) and a second that does just heat for his house. He likes it enough that he did it again after his house flooded and he had to replace the heating system.

Aaron Z

 

[therealmjfox]

I had previously thought about getting a bigger propane tank to store more propane in the summer when it's cheaper. That's not off the table, but first I decided to have my system checked out by a pro. I have a dual fuel heat pump and lo and behold the outdoor thermostat (which controls the switchover from heat pump to propane) is broken, resulting in my propane furnace running almost all winter even when it's warm enough for the heat pump to easily heat the house. In fact it may have always been this way because before propane was cheap enough I didn't really worry about how much I was using and hadn't closely examined how my system was running before.

So after having that fixed hopefully my propane use will decline significantly next winter. Around here electricity rates are pretty decent (about 9 cents/kwh) so it makes economic sense to run the heat pump as much as possible as opposed to the gas furnace as long as propane is above about $1.20 a gallon, which it likely will be for the foreseeable future.

 

[EdwardB]

We are considering two options:

A. Geothermal

B. A coal-fired OUTDOOR boiler system.

Where would you find info on a coal-fired outside boiler?

 

[Fi-Q]

Would it be worth it to use a tankless water heater to heat the house? Then I am only heating water for the blowers when they need it versus having to keep water hot all the time. I also want to look in to wood stoves If anyone would care to share a good wood stove for dummies information source I would appreciate it.

If you good a source of infos on wood burning, go to the forum on hearth.com !