propane refilling?

[GoldenMom]

How long does 400 gallons (80% fill in a 500 gallon tank) last those of you in the great white north (OK anywhere it gets cold and stays cold for months on end)? Just curious if our house is really as inefficient as I suspect! We go through about 400 gallons in approx. 5 maybe 6 weeks during real winter. We have 100+ year old two story farmhouse with no windbreaks within several miles. We only keep the house in the low 60's when we are not home and about 68 when we are home. The cost really adds up!

[big rockpile]

Originally Posted by GoldenMom

How long does 400 gallons (80% fill in a 500 gallon tank) last those of you in the great white north (OK anywhere it gets cold and stays cold for months on end)? Just curious if our house is really as inefficient as I suspect! We go through about 400 gallons in approx. 5 maybe 6 weeks during real winter. We have 100+ year old two story farmhouse with no windbreaks within several miles. We only keep the house in the low 60's when we are not home and about 68 when we are home. The cost really adds up!

Thats what I was going through on this place.Couldn't aford to heat it.




big rockpile

[littlebitfarm]

400 gallons is a years supply for me. Central Illinois, 1500 sq ft and propane water heater.

Kathie

[Spinner]

WOW! Makes me glad to be down here. I've put in 100 gallons this year, but mostly heat with wood. I've gone thru a lot more wood this year than I normally use. It's been colder than normal for longer than normal. Back when I used only propane, we would use between 300-400 gallons for a normal winter, but I like to stay warm. When DH is here, he complains that the house is so hot he can't breath. If I had a thermostat heater, it would probably be around 76-78 and I would be wearing sweats to keep warm.

[marvella]

my bill is about the same. when i had all gas installed the price was half of what it is now. they filled up last week and the bill was 386! for one month!! and it's cool in there all the time. i am heating 1800 sf dw. one problem is the open design of the place, that makes it nearly impossible to close off any rooms. in between the den and dining room is a lattice piece that looks really pretty but open. same between living room and kitchen.

new house has heat pump, backed up with gas logs. i fussed about it, but reason prevailed. i feel like i am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

if this gas furnace in the dw goes down, (only 3 years old) i will install a heat pump. tva has a program that will winterize the house and set the heat pump, then finance it on your monthly bill.

[alpacamom]

We've gone through about the same as you, but we keep the thermostat set around 63* 24/7 in the house, but we also have the thermostat in the shop set to 40* 24/7. Where abouts in central IA are you? I'm in the Amana Colonies. Anyway, I hope this cold snap ends soon so we don't have to heat the house as much!

[GoldenMom]

Originally Posted by alpacamom

We've gone through about the same as you, but we keep the thermostat set around 63* 24/7 in the house, but we also have the thermostat in the shop set to 40* 24/7. Where abouts in central IA are you? I'm in the Amana Colonies. Anyway, I hope this cold snap ends soon so we don't have to heat the house as much!

About 1/2 way between Ames and Des Moines and a few miles east of I-35. I hope this cold snap ends soon too! Mostly I hope we don't have too many more windy days-we really use the propane on those days. Wish corn wasn't so pricy this year. We usually burn a couple of wagonfuls a year and that really cuts down on the propane bill (Dad gives us the corn for a Christmas present usually, but not with the prices where they are now!).

[fordy]

..............One simple way to check for air movement thru leaks is by using soap bubbles . It should work better , from inside to outside since you can't control the effects of wind on the outside . They use this method for travel trailers but they pressurize the inside which will probably impractable for a home . fordy...

[jacksun65]

if the house is that old you should be able to shut off parts of the house. when i was a kid we would shut off the bedrooms during the day and sometimes we would only heat the kitchen. cover your windows with plastic sealed tite and you will cut your bill in half.

[travlnusa]

Here in NW WI, we are about the same. During the winter we figure one tank about every 8 weeks, with one take being used over 6 weeks during the dead of winter, such as we are having right now.

[RedneckPete]

My MIL watched the house and the kids for one week (7day and nights) while the wife and I were worshiping the sun in the Dominican.

She fired the wood stove only in the evenings for fun. In one week, we burnt 300lt (80 gal) of propane with the thermostat set at 68 degrees!

This was a great reinforcement to keep burning wood.

Pete

[alpacamom]

Originally Posted by GoldenMom

About 1/2 way between Ames and Des Moines and a few miles east of I-35. I hope this cold snap ends soon too! Mostly I hope we don't have too many more windy days-we really use the propane on those days. Wish corn wasn't so pricy this year. We usually burn a couple of wagonfuls a year and that really cuts down on the propane bill (Dad gives us the corn for a Christmas present usually, but not with the prices where they are now!).

I've noticed we go through more propane on windy days, too, and that the house is colder then. Then again, we're on top of a hill, so it's almost always a little windy up here from what I've experienced so far.

[Ramblin Wreck]

Originally Posted by RedneckPete

My MIL watched the house and the kids for one week (7day and nights) while the wife and I were worshiping the sun in the Dominican.

She fired the wood stove only in the evenings for fun. In one week, we burnt 300lt (80 gal) of propane with the thermostat set at 68 degrees!

This was a great reinforcement to keep burning wood.

Pete

Amen on the wood heat. I got 80% fills on a 500 gallon tank and a 250 gallon tank around Labor Day. The 250 hasn't been touched. The 500 gallon was setting on 68% yesterday, meaning I've burned 60 gallons of gas in 5 months. I also heat water and cook with propane. Although we've had a relatively mild Winter, it's the wood stove that makes the difference.

[doing it in NM]

If you have a central heating system, it would be easy to switch it over to a 93% furnace. Most older furnaces are either 70% or 80%. The percent meaning is simple, if one is 80% then for every dollar you spend on gas 20 cent goes out the vent pipe, on a 93% only 7 cent goes to waste. If you changed furnaces you would save 13cent on every dollar plus a little extra, as if your furnace was 100,000 BTU you could drop to a 90,000 BTU get a little more heat in your house and save several thousand in gas bill from what you are saying it is running you. Changing a furnaces is easy, not because I do it every day, but because there is only 115Volts and a gas line you have to worry about. No freon to the furnace so with a little common sense most anyone can do it.

[Ken Scharabok]

I recommend you spend part of this winter looking at ways to better insulate (reduce heat loss) your house. Check around with utility providers as some offer either a free or low cost analysis of ways to make a house more energy efficient. Some will take thermal images at night to highlight the largest areas of heat loss.

Chances are with a 100-year-old house you have little, if any, insulation in the walls and attic. If it has wood siding you may be able to take it off one side at a time, put fiberglass insulation between the interior walls and outside (and perhaps do some additional wiring for outlets, perhaps plumbing (new pipes), etc. at the same time), put on house wrap and then put the same (numbered for reference) pieces of siding back on. Likely not a DIY job, but a contractor should be able to do the entire house in a week or so.

There are also insulating services which can blow in cellulous (sp?) insulation in the spaces between exterior and interior walls and some do foaming.

If you have an attic without a floor adding extra insulation there (either batts or loose) would be relatively easy. However, be sure to allow sufficient air flow from eaves. You can buy what I refer to as styrofoam trays which fit into the trusses so eave air flow isn't blocked.

I owned one house with 6" floor joyces in attic and about 3" of wool batt insulation. It had about a 6' wide floor down the middle of the attic for storage. I pulled up the floor, pulled up all of the wool insulation and then put one layer of 6" thick fiberglass over entire attic (being careful to not cover eave openings into attic). I then put the floor back down and a second layer on both sides to the eave openings in the opposite direction of the first layer. Only lived in the house for about a year and a half more but the next buyer commented on how energy efficient the attic appeared to be. I suspect I more than got back my investment on resale.

In the meantime check all of your electric switches and outlets in exterior walls for drafts. Start a tissue on fire, blow it out and then hold it around the cover plates. Or you can use a candle and look for flame being blown to side. You can purchase foam pieces to go on the back of the cover plates which can help reduce drafts there. Relatively inexpensive and easy to do. You can also purchase plastic plugs which fit into unused receptacle openings.

Payback is fairly easy to estimate. Say you spend $2K per winter in heating now and energy efficience is projected reduce heat bill by 50%. Thus, the cost divided by the projected savings ($1K per year) gives you projected payback.

My understanding is replacement windows are soooooo expensive payback is usually quite extended. However, may be viable if the windows really need to be replaced anyway. I've known people to upgrade because they felt it would add resale value and there would eventually get their investment back there. Also, the tilt-in type making cleaning so much easier.

Also consider planting wind breaks on at least a couple of sides. Likely won't have an effect for at least ten years, but eventually they can be of assistance.

On a more efficient furnace, check with the propane company. Extra savings in less propane used may offset much of installment payments if a replacement is appropriate. Even if you breakeven, eventually you will fully own furnace and realize the savings then.

On the mention of corn for heating above, it is a ripple effect of using increasing amounts of corn for ethenol. Heard last week corn futures are at a ten-year high. For every bushel of corn used in ethenol production it causes a decrease in supply to other demands, such as livestock feed, corn oil and for corn-burning furnaces. (Admittedly the spent corn (from ethanol production) may come back as cattle feed but it will not have the same feed value as the corn originally had.)

I expect on home energy efficiency it rather plays to the 80/20 rule, which says 80% of the results come from the first 20% of effort. Start with the quick backback ones and progress from there as warranted.

[freegal]

We try to stretch 400 gallons two months in the dead of winter. Had about a 400 gallon fill mid-December, hoping to make it last through the end of February. I don't know though, it is -15.5 this morning! We have a wood stove going in the living areas and the thermostat set at 64 degrees. That keeps the upstairs & bedrooms about 55 degrees and the living areas about 70 degrees. Last heating season we only used 2 tanks of LP, this year will probably be 3. This is an old farmhouse in a very windy area. Every year we try to do more to reduce heat loss.

[Wolf mom]

Another easy thing to do is to buy or make insulated drapes. Cover the window completely then take either double sided tape or that peal apart tape (part-timers -can't think of the name) & run it down the sides of the window & along the bottom. Seal the drape to the wall. Works great.

Wear a wool hat inside! I bet we could come up with all kinds of little tricks until we can insulate. :baby04:

[fantasymaker]

Here in Il in a crappy 22X36 (800squareft) double wide Ill use about 50 gallons of propane a week wind really makes a diference SEAL those cracks!