Propane Cost???

[dragoneggs]

I am afraid that "slick paper" is not ideal for bathroom duty. Apparently that paper is not good for much of anything.

Litter box liner?

 

[k0ua]

Litter box liner?

Bird cage maybe

 

[TripleR]

Yeah I think I made a tactical error last year when I finally got fed up with my leased tank and provider and bought a tank and switched companies. I got tired of paying $60/year rental and stuck with paying their high prices since no one else could fill it. I had a 500gal tank and downsized to 250gal to save some upfront cost and thinking I could shop around and always get best price. Luckily it is not my primary source of heat. Use for local heat (living room and home office) and cooking.

Just have to conserve until prices come down this spring. Under 20% now though... what happens if you run it dry? Does this pose any problems other than just having to purge the lines? Is this a concern?

Depends on your appliances, our furnace has an automatic ignition, so no pilot light, we do have to light the pilot lights on our hot water heaters. We ran out about two weeks ago. When my father in law owned the business, he had someone come in and get the system up and running, now they just put propane in and drive off.

 

[bandaidmd]

What you do is buy a tank which will hold the total amount you will possibly need in a year and refill each summer. The second best is to do a summer fill and get a contract for the full amount you might possibly need.

I tried that with heating oil a few years ago, just my luck it went up over the summer so I had to refill at the high price.

Our propane supplier on our rental property has a pre buy price where you pay up front for the projected use and they fill your tank as needed, no need for extra tankage.

 

[farmer2009]

Paid 1.35 this fall and 1.65 in January. I can remember growing up getting it for .25 a gallon(late 90's).

The pre buy only works if they don't impliment the emergency clause. Then you have x dollars on account and pay their new high price.

My tank is 500 gal and leased anyone have a source for a 1000 gal. tank to buy.

 

[batwing]

Yeah I think I made a tactical error last year when I finally got fed up with my leased tank and provider and bought a tank and switched companies. I got tired of paying $60/year rental and stuck with paying their high prices since no one else could fill it. I had a 500gal tank and downsized to 250gal to save some upfront cost and thinking I could shop around and always get best price. Luckily it is not my primary source of heat. Use for local heat (living room and home office) and cooking.

Just have to conserve until prices come down this spring. Under 20% now though... what happens if you run it dry? Does this pose any problems other than just having to purge the lines? Is this a concern?

I was told if a furnace runs on low pressure it can cause it to burn dirty.
Ron

 

[Gunny]

My tank is running kind of low because of the severe cold weather. I called this morning to get a partial fill of 150 gallons, they quoted me $4.29 per gallon, paid on delivery or $4.59 per gallon if billed.

I told them I'd just try to stretch out what I had.

I've already bought a pellet stove, just waiting for warmer weather to install a chimney liner, but I may advance the schedule after that news.

 

[ovrszd]

Under 20% now though... what happens if you run it dry? Does this pose any problems other than just having to purge the lines? Is this a concern?

No worries at all. You'll just have to relight all pilots. Might take a few seconds longer holding the button before they fire. But no big deal. Just follow normal lighting instructions.

 

[Beltman60]

most places will want $50. to leak check it if you run out

 

[k0ua]

Our supplier, requires a leak check (customer pays) if you run out. They won't fill without it. I have no idea why. As Richard stated, running out is not a big deal, Just take a bit longer to get pilots lighted.

 

[dragoneggs]

yeah, what I don't want is extra hassle/charge from the gas supplier if I run out. Lighting pilots no big deal.

 

[ultrarunner]

Just paid $3.53 gallon plus $17.24 in hazmat/fuel fees.

California

Still going round and round with supplier over pressure test...

Supplier also requires all pilots to be lit and stay lit after pressure test.

 

[Gunny]

My old supplier said they were required to do a leak test when filling empty tanks to make sure it wasn't a leak that drained the tank. He said there was too much of a chance they'd get sued if someone did have a leak, their house blew up or burned down because they didn't check.

 

[k0ua]

My old supplier said they were required to do a leak test when filling empty tanks to make sure it wasn't a leak that drained the tank. He said there was too much of a chance they'd get sued if someone did have a leak, their house blew up or burned down because they didn't check.

I guess that makes some sense from a litigation standpoint, but when you were just running the furnace, and just ran out of fuel, and now here comes the truck, and now they want to charge you for a leak test, when all you want is some dang fuel before the pipes start to freeze.. It seems kind of like a waste of everyone's time and the customers money.

 

[dragoneggs]

I guess that makes some sense from a litigation standpoint, but when you were just running the furnace, and just ran out of fuel, and now here comes the truck, and now they want to charge you for a leak test, when all you want is some dang fuel before the pipes start to freeze.. It seems kind of like a waste of everyone's time and the customers money.

This illustrates the problem with over regulation. Costs money for everyone and for extremely little benefit. There are far better ways to protect us from our own stupidity. Running out of gas... come on, man.

 

[Gunny]

I agree with the two above posts, maybe they have to do it, but the time it had to do it on my tank, he hooked up a pressure gauge off the test port, turned the valve on and watched it for 5-6 minutes. When the pressure held, he unhooked everything and added $50 to the bill.

Pretty good money for less than 10 minutes of time!

 

[k0ua]

I agree with the two above posts, maybe they have to do it, but the time it had to do it on my tank, he hooked up a pressure gauge off the test port, turned the valve on and watched it for 5-6 minutes. When the pressure held, he unhooked everything and added $50 to the bill.

Pretty good money for less than 10 minutes of time!

That is the exact procedure I saw when I put in the Propane piping to the house. Of course I leak tested it with air and soap bubbles multiple times and when I was convinced I had no leaks, I called the propane company. I expected them to go over all of my joints, but they did the above procedure as outlined above, and were done. They did not charge the first time for the leak test when setting the tank. There might have been a tank setting charge, I cannot remember.

 

[ultrarunner]

In my case he said there would be no charge... it's just I'm 4 hours each way away in summer and who knows how long in winter.

Said they have to have it for their records.

 

[k0ua]

In my case he said there would be no charge... it's just I'm 4 hours each way away in summer and who knows how long in winter.

Said they have to have it for their records.

I guess there is no "trusted neighbor" up there that could act as your agent, and you send along a key? It wouldn't be a big deal if you had someone up there to help you..I wonder if a real estate agent that did not have much to do would do it for $50 bucks. It would be cheaper than driving for 8 hours.

 

[ultrarunner]

We had a great neighbor year round... over 30 years. This is the first winter he is spending away from the mountains.

Propane company said I could send them the key and they would send it back.

My fear is what if it doesn't pass and now they turn it off in the Dead of Winter?

Same thing happened with the previous company... same place, new propane supply owners.

Neighbor let them in and the company said they "Found" copper supply line to the stove and to the furnace... well of course, this was acceptable in 1964... stove probably weighs 400+ pounds and we don't move it.

Anyway, it cost $125 ea to put in flex lines which probably cost $15 ea. No gas service without changing it and the tech just happened to have the lines in the truck or it would have cost more.