Propane Users: Plans for the Future?

[bjr]

Okay, I give up and will ask, WHY PROPANE? Why not Natural Gas for HOME HEATING? What, No pipelines to your home? As a Nation that built freeways, hydro electrical dam systems and a huge electrical grid and still can't afford to get NG lines ran to the homes for heating and YES out to the Farms for barn and shop heating and corn drying. Well I say we deserve what we get. Just shut up and suffer. Oh yeah, keep on voting for the people that want to export the Natural gas to keep the big oil companies happy. bjr

 

[therealmjfox]

Okay, I give up and will ask, WHY PROPANE? Why not Natural Gas for HOME HEATING? What, No pipelines to your home?

You answered your own question.

You might as well have asked why everyone doesn't also have city water and sewer, and cable TV and high speed internet.

Infrastructure is expensive and without enough population densities it doesn't make economic sense. Even that won't guarantee it. I used to have a house in a fairly wealthy and densely populated town, but it was on a dead end street with about 20 houses, and we didn't have gas lines either.

It's only in the last few years that propane prices have gotten high and only this year that it completely got out of hand. Until about the mid-2000s, propane was price-competitive with natural gas, so running natural gas lines everywhere would have looked even more foolish. Since propane is basically the same stuff, but liquified, it seemed reasonable to assume it would always be competitive.

When I was building my house in 1999, the main propane worry was, which supplier could you rely on to keep your tank full when it got really cold. Price wasn't really a big worry. Now it's 15 years later, and things have changed, some in ways that could be foreseen, and some in ways that couldn't.

 

[dpb800]

Here in Iowa most rural homes do not have natural gas. They are mostly all propane. I agree that it would be nice to have natural gas connections even to rural farm homes but that has never been the case here.

 

[LJH]

I live in a county roughly the size of Connecticut with a population of <> 6500. Our electricity and propane supplier is a local co-op doing the best it can with limited resources. Natural gas simply isn't an option. Wood we've got and that's why we heat with it and use propane for cooking and water heating only.

 

[Tollster]

I'm looking at a heat pump complemented with solar power to reduce electricity bills. I would rather pay on something to show for than line some utility share holders retirement account!

And capture a tax credit or two while I do so...

 

[Steve IA]

From the horror stories I've read here and heard on the news, I've been dreading calling my supplier, but my ($1.449) contract expires in a couple of weeks and I'm down to 10% in my 500 gal tank. Dealer said they were honoring the contract price and would be out deliver the balance of my contract. :cool2: :drink:

 

[kcflhrc]

Back down to $1.99 a gallon, $1.89 a gallon if paid in 7 days here in eastern Kansas. Just switched my water heater heater over to electric so all I have left on propane is my back up on my Heat Pump. Personally, I'm hoping for more widespread Global Warming.

 

[deerseeker001]

Heating Oil no1 was 400 dollars a gallon in my books that's is not cheap.

I don't live in the Midwest so you will have to excuse me if this seems like a dumb question.
What about oil heat? Most homes in the Northeast use oil, it is not as cheap as Natural Gas but is still cheaper than Propane or electricity.

 

[Oaktree]

There are large regional variations in the price of propane. Thus in the Northeast heating oil is cheaper, while in the Midwest propane is cheaper. For example here in Iowa I contracted for propane for $1.39/gallon last summer--and this was about the price lots of others in Iowa were contracting at. Look at these charts for various regions (there is a dropdown list under area)--look at View History not current data as prices have gone crazy in the last couple months:
U.S. Weekly Heating Oil and Propane Prices (October - March)

Interesting. I checked my state, and it showed propane to be fairly constant $3.75/gal over the last month or so. Not cheap, but also not all that different than what I paid last fill (last fall). I thought it would be much higher.

I use wood (primary) and oil (backup) for heat, propane is cooking & hot water only.

 

[sixdogs]

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?