Propane has a much higher energy content than natural gas. Operating a dryer or any other heating appliance with it will be about 2/3 the cost of electricity at current prices here. A 120 gal tank should last you about a year with as little as you will be using. That is all that I use and my furnace is propane (I leave the furnace ON all winter, that way I don't have to drain the plumbing in the winter when I'm not there).
Educate me on Home Propane Gas Service - Please
- Thread starter alarmguy
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No generator, would be nice but no plans yet, gas grill connection for my new Weber would be nice Maybe I will change my mind on the generator after the first hurricane. *LOL*
No option for larger tank really, standard for the HOA community, its also inclosed with a door/gate so not visible from any angle, back, side or front and has matching color and siding to the home.
I wonder if they would provide a connection for a grill, I bet they would. I assume it would be less expensive than the tanks you get at the local stores
depends on actual appliance efficiency.
but to heat water with propane is usually cheaper than resistance heating water.. but not Heat pump.
300kwh @100% efficiency(common for resistance electric) is about the same as 11gallons of propane.
of course propane wont be 100% efficient.
so if your true cost delivered for electric is 10cents then they are nearly the same.. minus the efficiency of propane ie 90% or whatever it is.
You need to take an electric bill and divide the total bill by the kwh to get a true cost.. and then figure out how much additional electric would be.
some bills(billing methods) make this easier than others.
Mine for example you have fixed fees(doesnt change),and charges that go up with usage... a generation charge per kwh, a delivery charge per kwh.. and some taxes
My billing type is convoluted.. my "apples to apples" charge is around 5cents per kwh.. but all billed out usually is 14.5-16cents per kwh using the total bill divided by kwh method.
btw propane has dropped almost 50% here but tractor supply still 3.89.. they used to sell for 2.29 which was almost cheaper than wholesale here.
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I ran the pipe myself. It isn't rocket science. If you can use the grill somewhere close to your fireplace or kitchen, this would be easy. Yes, the propane in your big tank will be substantially less than the small tanks, not to mention the fact that you never have to worry about running out or going to get another one.
My propane tank rental is "free" from my supplier but I pay around $5/gallon. I only use it for my cookstove. I've heard that if I use more per year my rate goes down. I "could" get them to hook up to my BBQ grill but it's cheaper for me to take the 20lb tanks into BJs for refills there.
At camp I have a 100lb tank that I haul in and out myself-- it hooks up with an "innie" connector to the standard BBQ bottle setup. Code varies on legality of a non-permanent installation. Since I own this tank I get market rate when I bring it in, $3.29/gal last I checked.
At camp I have a 100lb tank that I haul in and out myself-- it hooks up with an "innie" connector to the standard BBQ bottle setup. Code varies on legality of a non-permanent installation. Since I own this tank I get market rate when I bring it in, $3.29/gal last I checked.
or natural gas.. 2 years ago my cost went from 2.99 to 8.75 for a 2 month period.. happened to be the usage period where I use over 50% of my years gas
Now I'm locked in at 3.31/mcf for 3.5 more years.
Edit: fixed a couple words oops.
Yea, when I had natural gas at my old house I remember the prices went up sometime in the early-mid 2000s.
No natural gas here, though. Nearest line is probably 5 miles away.
Yeah, I assumed NG was in all new communities, NOT *LOL*
Im good now, thanks to everyones replies.
We will be using limited amount of propane, I doubt propane companies will be falling all over themselves to provide service to me and give me a tank at much better price than Suburban as everyone around here, dozens and dozens of new homes, heck maybe hundreds, I have no clue as the community has been building for well over a decade. We have 5 HOAs and one Master HOA and with another 150 homes to be built is already using Suburban with tanks in place and they are in the area constantly.
BUT I do appreciate ALL the responses as I never dealt with propane but I am liking (and wife too) the gas cooktop again after a couple decades of being back to electric and NG before that to the day I was born.
For what I learned in here it's still better in cost to even low cost electric and heats hotter than NG.
I suspect we will only be using 120+ ish gallons of propane a year.
THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE, I feel better now, I dont like to make commitments without knowing what I am committing too.
It has a higher energy content per gallon than NG but I would not expect a propane furnace to blow out air any warmer than a natural gas one. As far as I know, if you convert a 48K BTU furnace from natural gas to propane, it's still going to be a 48K BTU furnace and put out the same temp air.
Ditto for all other appliances--they have to be converted to propane usually by changing an orifice, and the propane orifice is smaller than the NG one to keep the BTU rating and therefore the heat output the same.
Using propane with the NG orifice will over-fire the appliance and could result in damage up to and including a fire.
We dont have propane heat, just tankless water, stove cooktop only and fireplace. Oven is an electric duel wall oven/ microwave/convection. (it's kind of cool the way it's all integrated.
You are in a suburban area so you are kinda stuck. Just talk with some other companies. I would tell the current one to stick their inspection fee or come get the tank and buy back the propane. With as little as you use you could just set them up to come when you want them to fill it and just pay spot price in the summer.
Fireplace might be helpful if the power goes out in the middle of winter. Their efficiency is terrible but it's better than nothing.
That includes delivery in this area. As you are finding out, propane prices vary widely across the country. There’s also no problem buying/using a used tank, as they can last many decades. Propane in your tank is not affected by price hikes or outages that can hit electricity or natural gas.
Does your supplier offer an underground tank? That eliminates the unsightly looks of a tank. However, they are much more expensive.
FL public utilities was charging me a flat out fortune for propane, in the end, it was over $7 per gallon once all the fees were included. The propane per gal cost was NOT the only cost. The taxes, fees, delivery charges, tank rental charges, meter reading fees, utility charges, environmental charges and so on made my monthly propane bill INSANE.
I purchased 2 large portable tanks, poured a slab and hooked them up. I fill them myself at the local hardware store.
I also got rid of the propane water heater and went with a hybrid that AC's the garage.
I went from $200 per month in propane charges, to $10.
I purchased 2 large portable tanks, poured a slab and hooked them up. I fill them myself at the local hardware store.
I also got rid of the propane water heater and went with a hybrid that AC's the garage.
I went from $200 per month in propane charges, to $10.
Yeah, we didn’t care about the fireplace, but we had a gas one in the last home and it was OK and I actually got to enjoy it once in a while over the winter, even though we never really lost power there for more than four hours
This one’s a little bit better has a thermostat controlled fan blows out a fair amount of heat
Shop around a lot of places if you use 500 gals a year the tank is free.
There are also places the do pre-buy pricing for less $
There are also metered services and capped pricing services.
It pays to shop around, drive around the area and look at the color of the tanks and tank lids, each supplier has their own color and may help you determine what people are using in the area.
AZjeff
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Running a line for a grill yourself isn't rocket science but it may need to be certified by a plumber. I ran a NG line to a fire pit and will remove it when we sell someday since I don't have certs.
Don't know hlw cold it vets where u r but need the btu input ratings of all gas appliances. If it gets down below freezing need to talk with the supplier about vapor pressure and use.Tanks only hold 80% of their size and can't be right next to the house.
We were in a similar situation, but it was only used for heat. The rental fee was waved because of how much propane we used, but the price was inflated too.
It’s hard to say what is right with your usage. We ended up buying a 1000 gallon tank and used a different supplier. We also burn wood in the winter thought too.
It’s hard to say what is right with your usage. We ended up buying a 1000 gallon tank and used a different supplier. We also burn wood in the winter thought too.
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