Propane again
 

When I order propane, I usually just call and tell them the check is inside the front door on the table.
The bill is usually 400-600 dollars.
I got home today and the receipt was laying here for $851.61!!!!
$1.969 per gallon!!!
We just had it filled a couple months ago!!
Good grief!!!!!

Oh man. That is one high bill. Dh and I are looking at alternitave heating for when we (if we are lucky enough) move to Nebraska. Not enough wood for a wood stove. So we are looking in to corn but yet do we realy want to burn our animals and our food?

Bigger tank
 

Might be time to think about a larger tank so it could be filled in the off season at lower rates or more insulation.

People back in the '70s struggled to pay their propane bills but they are hit harder today because of the cost per gallon.

That sounds like a great price to me. Here in the Keys it is like $5 a gallon. Thankfully we only use it for our cookstove. That way if there is a hurricane and we lose power, we can still cook. :)

Checked here and it is supposed to be $2.48 Gal, but that is not offical from my propane co.

River Valley , AR

$3.14 here.

It's insane.

I was low on propane and called and told the local propane co. to fill it up, figuring that it would be 200 to 300 dollars. I got home from work and the bill was for $401.11!! the price per gallon is $2.71 (rounding up that stupid .9 cents on the end). Good thing we only fill up three times a year! :Bawling:

My neighbor bought 80 gallons 4.89 per. Central Maryland
way to much


L

$3.15/gal here (NY state). Down from $3.25 last month. We only use Propae for our water heater- will be switching to electric as soon as this one dies. When we last replaced the water heater- maybe 8 years ago- propane was less than $1. a gallon.
If it's any consolation, heating oil's about the same price (in my state, anyways.)

Switch to an "on demand" water heater. You'll save a ton.

Originally posted by Dutchie: "Switch to an "on demand" water heater. You'll save a ton."

We've been giving that some thought. Are the on-demands water heaters only propane or natural gas, or do they come in electric also?

They come in electric, but the electrics generally do not work very well. If you switch to on demand, stay with gas.

Still $4.99 per gallon here... :Bawling: (And home heating oil is $3.29 a gallon!)

We pay $1700 a year for heating. We have no option for wood heat because of how this house is constructed. This is significantly cheaper than my friends and co-workers because we replaced all of our windows with Low-E. When we relocate to the homestead (let it be soon), it will be well insulated with Low-E windows, insulated curtains, insulated doors, and a wood stove. I've said this before but if you didn't read it: prices for energy across the board will go up faster than inflation until you are dead. And that's not even taking into consideration Peak Oil. Start thinking 5-10 years down the road. Calculate your price going up 5-10% a year. That propane bill is going to be a real monster by then. You need to start thinking long-term heating/insulation efficiency. If you have no lumber for a wood stove, but have room consider planting trees. Take control of your situation, you're not just along for the ride.

Yep, just got my bill for $313.07 for 120 gallons.

I'm moving from the city to my first homestead this weekend. I called yesterday to check on propane, and it's $2.42 a gallon here, right now, but she said it could go up again soon. I thought that was pretty high until I saw how much some of you are paying, wow!

11 years ago, our LP was 42 CENTS a gallon!!

Cornhusker
What do you have to pay for gas in your cars? It has gone up to $3.05 and expected to hit $4.00 a gal. Cindy in NE

Last year about this time I paid $1.89. Monday I paid $2.39 and waited two weeks to get delivery.
Glenn

Just out of curiosity, do you all have to pay to rent your tank? We pay $10 a month on top of the $5+ per gallon. I think it is only a 150 gallon tank. Crazy. :(

Put a solar heater on the south side of your house. You can rig one up for under $500, then reap the benefits of free solar thermal energy for years and years. Its gonna save you big $$$ in fuel costs over the years.

Why do you say 'the electrics dont work well'??? I know someone that has one, and they work VERY WELL. Of course, you cant have more than one person taking a shower or doing laundry at the same time, but thats a small price to pay.

We bought an old abandoned (for a year or so) farm house almost 19 years ago, and have been improving the windows, doors, and insulation ever since. We heat with wood, and every year the house is easier to heat, warmer, more comfortable (less drafts), and costs less to heat. We buy our firewood as it is so much easier than dragging wood out of our ravines and bottoms that we are glad to pay $600 or $700 for a truckload of logs to heat for a year or 2.

We put in a new wood furnace that has a heating coil to preheat water and put in a 50 gallon electric water heater, not connected to power, for the wood furnace to heat. The water from our pressure tank goes first to the wood heated tank and then to the propane water heater, helping out on LP costs a lot. We bought a direct vent water heater, the kind with the fan on the exhaust that can use plastic pipe and vent out a side wall, when we needed to replace the electric water heater. The new water heater has electronic ignition so it is easy to put it on an inexpensive timer so that the water heater only runs for an hour or so at about 5am, so we have hot water for showers etc in the morning. Between the insulated propane water heater and the wood heated water, we have plenty of hot water the rest of the day.

The secret to low heating bills is insulation, stop drafts and infiltration, insulation, passive solar no matter how small of gain, and insulation.

That's kinda' what I did. I added a 250 gallon tank to the 500 I already had and I fill up once per year in the Summer. I paid $1.80 just before Labor Day this year. Using a wood stove and cutting the hot water heater to the lowest temp (by season) that I can live with really helps cut the usage.

Cindy
I'm not sure what theprice is here, I haven't got gas for about a week, but that sounds about right.

Nope, We own our tank, it's 500 gallons.
I don't know why they call it 500 gallons tho, they'll only put about 80% in it or 400 gallons.

I live in Nebraska and burn only wood. I have all the (free) wood I'll ever need within a ten mile drive of (and on) my place. Forget about corn and make sure you move to near a river = trees. I used to live in north Idaho and it was much harder to get wood there than it is where I live now (north central NE).

"Nope, We own our tank, it's 500 gallons.
I don't know why they call it 500 gallons tho, they'll only put about 80% in it or 400 gallons."

It is 500 gallons, but they never fill it full because of danger of heat expansion.

Water capacity
 

Propane tanks are rated for size by the water capacity that they will hold.

Propane boils at a very low temperature and the steam (vapor) needs room to expand into hence the reason for them not being filled 100% full.

I attended a propane safety demonstration one time and learned a lot about the properties of propane.

The expert had put enough liquid propane into a laboratory beaker than the temperature of the glass had no heat left in it and the propane almost stopped boiling. he had set the beaker into a bucket so that the vapor coming off of the boiling liquid would form kind of a barrier to the heat from the room.

The expert withdrew the beaker from the bucket and the bubbles coming from the bottom of the beaker increased as the heat from the room added more heat for boiling. Next he stoppered the bottle with a glass tube coming out of the stopper and then lit the gas escaping from the tube. As the propane gained heat the length of the flame would increase. The expert set the beaker on the palm of his hand and the added heat really increased the bubbling and the length of the flame. The demonstration clearly demonstrated that propane boils at the extremely low temperature of -44º F. http://www.propanecarbs.com/propane.html

Tanks are painted white or another reflective color to minimize pressure within the tank during the heat of the summer.

Another demonstration I went to was to teach firefighters to put out a propane tank fed fire. A burner was placed under a conventional propane tank, the fuel feeding the burner turned on and ignited. With the heat from the burner boiling the propane more rapidly thus expanding it it had no room to further fill the tank and the pressure relief valve (pop off) would open and the vapor spewing forth would ignite, roar, and light up the night sky. Flames shot up probably 30 feet. It was the duty of the firemen to use hoses and water to force back the flames from the burner in order to reach through the flame and shut off the gas from the tank to the burner. Once the burner was off the boiling slowed and the safety relief valve would close and end the skyward flame.

Propane tanks don't automatically explode when exposed to fire as in the movies. They vent off excess pressure as designed. HOWEVER if the venting gas cannot escape fast enough the sound from the relief will turn to an much higher pitch and it is then time to get the heck out of Dodge as the tank is about ready to explode. It is said the ends give way first so stay to the side of the tank. Always site a tank so that the ends are not pointed toward a house or other building.

Can't tell you the cost of gasoline in the 1970s, nor did my area ever have lines, but I can tell you that propane went from the 20¢ and 30¢ range to over 80¢ per gallon. Many of the older home never did have much insulation in them and would take 300 or more gallons per month to heat. It was extremely hard on those with fixed incomes and poor circulation causing a need for heat.
BUT---we made it through those days thankfully. My dads propane tractors became very expensive to operate but he never did switch to diesel.

Yup, it's pricy. Price will continue to climb and with time until it won't be available at all, regardless of whether we like it or not and regardless of how much we complain and regardless of how much money we spend taking it from other countries and killing the people who try to stop us. It is because the world is running out of it. So use figure other out how to use less and less beginning now, please. You'll be glad you did.

My sister's went up to $4.05 a gallon. When she first moved in she thought it would be her primary heat..I guess not! She is burning her wood stove 24/7 now and the propane only sometimes clicks on.

Karen, my tank is a rental, and I was told it would be $65 a year, due in August, but it's paid up until this August already.

Greg, can you give any specifics or links to info regarding the $500 solar add-on? I'd really love to do that, but don't have a clue where to start, lol. Thanks!

We had 100 gallons put in the tank today...we can't afford to fill it up, but worry if something should leak and we would loose alot...anyway, it was $235 . We won't charge, so pay for only what we can afford. DH says I need to get up during the night and put another log in the stove...he is so busy snoring, he sure couldn't do it ! LOL,Says it will save us some money .

We own our tank. It is a thousand gallon tank. We fill it once a year in late summer (usually about 600 lbs worth). It went up this year but I got in before the bigger increase. Did you know we ship propane to China?

Because I had one that didn't work very well, my friend had one that didn't work very well, and if you listen to any of the home improvement shows, they tell you that they don't work very well.

The one I had was only hooked to one bathroom, nothing else, and it still didn't work. You could never get the water temperature regulated. Either it scalded you, or the flow switch shut off, and you had cold water.

I still say if you want an on demand water heater, stick with propane.

I was lucky enough to be able to buyout the contract on the prior owners tank when I bought my first house. 80.00 for a 500 gallon tank. I now have two tanks setting outside.
The first time I filled them both it was $600 for 800 gallons, this last time $1400+.
Luckily with the new home it only take about 300 gallons to heat the place.