Propane Question

[GPintheMitten]

Glad you got some useful feedback and good to hear you have a plan that will work for you.

 

[SPIKER]

for a few small appliances the small tanks are OK (gas cook top MAYBE a hot water heater but a furnace no there is not enough tank surface area to keep the tank valve/head lines from freezing up in really cold or rainy freezing rain weather. the surface area needs to radiate off the cold that is created when the propane converts from liquid to gas.

Buy or Rent a 300+ gallon tank that is horizontal.

Mark

 

[coobie]

I switched over to wood pellets versus propane for heat a while back, propane is probably the second most expensive option after electric. I still have a propane stove/oven and can run the propane furnace for when the pellet stove can't keep up. Propane is expensive, tank rental, they jack up the price I pay $.10 for 'insurance' on their tank etc etc. Maybe you will have a good propane dealer in your area but then again maybe not. I would look at everything but propane.

I am not sure how long a 100lb propane tank will last running a hot water heater. Since you are in AZ and building the house why not look at solar thermal for hot water and maybe back that up with propane or electric? I would love to have solar thermal but it wasn't designed into my house so almost impossible to do now.

Ditto on the wood pellets for heat.We also have propane but found out real quick it,s cheaper to heat with wood pellets verses the propane.We started burning wood pellets back in 2002 and have not looked back since.Our average heating costs here in michigan 1685 sq foot house( including the basement) is about $600 bucks per year based on 3 tons burned.I also want to add we bought our own (reconditoned 500 gal.)propane tank 2 years ago so we can shop price in early august.We now only use about 400 gal. per year.coobie.

 

[grsthegreat]

Ditto on the wood pellets for heat.We also have propane but found out real quick it,s cheaper to heat with wood pellets verses the propane.We started burning wood pellets back in 2002 and have not looked back since.Our average heating costs here in michigan 1685 sq foot house( including the basement) is about $600 bucks per year based on 3 tons burned.I also want to add we bought our own (reconditoned 500 gal.)propane tank 2 years ago so we can shop price in early august.We now only use about 400 gal. per year.coobie.

If i didnt have 20 acres of trees that i cull (dead and diseased) i would have switched to pellets years ago also.

 

[coobie]

If i didnt have 20 acres of trees that i cull (dead and diseased) i would have switched to pellets years ago also.

We live on wooded 11 acres but are now getting a little older,LOL.We took the wood pellet route because of less mess and easier to handle.The wood pellet cost is about $184 per ton.coobie.

 

[hawkeye08]

We started with wood pellets (backup electric) and converted to propane. When we replaced pellet stove with propane stove, we also changed from electric cooktop to propane. We stubbed out line at hot water heater/clothes dryer for future if needed.

We heat our 2400sf rancher style house with our propane stove and supplement in my office with a small electric heater. When we made the change, I traveled almost full time (not any more) and my wife was tired of having to handle pellets, even when I brought in enough pellets for the week. The pellet stove had to be cleaned once a week, maybe 2. I've actually thought of putting the pellet stove back in (a different room) and using also during the colder parts of the winter (it has to be manually lit and often it put out too much heat on lowest setting for milder temps).

We have a 1000gal tank leased from local farm supply. They call us in the summer when prices are lower and we do okay. Pellets would be cheaper but happy wife is worth the cost of propane.

We might look at geothermal heat pump (ground loops or well) but we don't have central heating system so there is extra cost there..

 

[GPintheMitten]

Ditto on the wood pellets for heat.We also have propane but found out real quick it,s cheaper to heat with wood pellets verses the propane.We started burning wood pellets back in 2002 and have not looked back since.Our average heating costs here in michigan 1685 sq foot house( including the basement) is about $600 bucks per year based on 3 tons burned.I also want to add we bought our own (reconditoned 500 gal.)propane tank 2 years ago so we can shop price in early august.We now only use about 400 gal. per year.coobie.

How much of the 400 gallons do you estimate are used for heat? What other uses do you have for propane?

 

[coobie]

How much of the 400 gallons do you estimate are used for heat? What other uses do you have for propane?

Maybe 5 gal.at best we shut the pellet stove off just to clean threw out the year.We have propane water heater & cooking stove.coobie

 

[MtHam]

It seems to be common for propane companies to gouge their customers. Owning your own tank gives you the option to shop the price. Otherwise, you can't. I buy 400 gallons in the summer once a year. Wood from our land provides the heat. A 2nd hand solar HW system I purchased ($250) and installed 20 years ago has saved us an estimated $7500 in propane over that time. With the price of oil (propane comes from oil) at $100/barrel and probably rising, the payback only increases.

 

[Redneck in training]

I also get the advantage of A/C in the summer (which geothermal doesn't ). Mine has a propane backup heat source as i want my generator to power up heat in an ice storm or blackout condition.

Geothermal provides heat and AC as well. Since it gets heat from the ground where the temperature is more or less constant the efficiency is about the same year around. The problem with geo is the high initial investment.

I am using Fujitsu air/air heat pump for my shop. They are phenomenal. They heat efficiently down to -4F.

 

[JimP]

Wow, we just paid $3.60 a gallon for propane and we own our own tank. And that was one of the cheaper prices I got. I am also seeing a new tactic. When I called the propane dealers some of them wouldn't deliver unless we were already customers of theirs, and we were less than 10 miles from their location. Another advantage of living in CT.

 

[TDVT]

I am on here searching for ideas after getting our propane topped-up this week @ $4.11 a gallon!

Thankfully we heat with wood so staying warm is not an issue, but things seem to be spiraling downward quickly.

We haven't called to complain yet but I'm betting that we are getting "surcharged" for low usage (HW & cooking only) as my parent's tank (used for heat, HW, cooking, dryer) was also filled this week by the same supplier @ $3.01 a gallon. I'm pretty sure my folks didn't pre-buy this year but their price is still WAY above ones I'm seeing here.

Considering the extreme variations in cost-per-gallon in this thread, the pricing seems VERY random.

 

[GPintheMitten]

How many gallons did it take to top you off? It does sound like a low usage surcharge.

 

[coobie]

How much of the 400 gallons do you estimate are used for heat? What other uses do you have for propane?

Forgot to add that we have a whole house 17kw propane generator the comes on test cycle 10-15 min. per week.It did run 4 days last spring in a ice storm,coobie

 

[brokenknee]

I am on here searching for ideas after getting our propane topped-up this week @ $4.11 a gallon!

Thankfully we heat with wood so staying warm is not an issue, but things seem to be spiraling downward quickly.

We haven't called to complain yet but I'm betting that we are getting "surcharged" for low usage (HW & cooking only) as my parent's tank (used for heat, HW, cooking, dryer) was also filled this week by the same supplier @ $3.01 a gallon. I'm pretty sure my folks didn't pre-buy this year but their price is still WAY above ones I'm seeing here.

Considering the extreme variations in cost-per-gallon in this thread, the pricing seems VERY random.

I feel sorry for you guys, I don't heat with propane, heat with wood, have electric baseboard heat that would be about as bad.

I talked to a propane driver a few weeks ago and he told me the price went down to 1.89 per gallon. He said it was about 2.29 for a while. At 3 or 4 bucks for propane, I would definitely be looking for another heat source.

 

[TDVT]

We had a total of 98 gallons delivered between 2 tanks, one for the house (2/3's of the total) & one in a tank for a heater in a space over our garage.

The space over the garage in now unheated, one of the kids was staying out there but has now moved to the big city (He was paying for that part of the bill)

We heat the house with wood exclusively, only about 3.5 cords a season (Jotul stove, 2000sqft timber frame w/foam panels) so I feel like we're doing pretty well with that considering our climate.

I would have a hard time giving up the old-school gas range we use so we'll have to keep some propane, but I need to come up with alternate source for water heating (currently on-demand) as I think that's where the bulk of our usage is.

 

[coobie]

I paid $1.90 in august.Propane companies are a bunch of ripoffs IMHO.They do shady dealings at best.coobie