Propane

It would be interesting if there were a reliable figure for ''heating degree days'' for Dec.&Jan. this winter and compared to last winter. Big chunks of the country are having cold this year instead of chilly. The bad thing is we have not had enough breaks in the cold to restock the supply chain.

Its still getting to me having Big Nice Fire Place and I can't burn a Stick of wood in it because we can't get Insurance



big rockpile

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What, you have an insurance company guard watching your chimney for smoke 24/7?

We have to learn from these situations and take personal responsibility for being better prepared next time. Energy prices are and will continue to be volatile. In this case, a confluence of factors - a wet harvest, a major pipeline down for maintenance, record cold weather, infrastructure capacity designed for normal demand rather than worst case scenario - has caused a shortage. Weather affecting harvests and creating misery? That's been a problem since time immemorial. Price manipulation by Big Business? Maybe. Once again, part of life and a problem older than the hills. Would be great if guilty parties (if there are any) would be punished but that's not likely and won't help us in the meantime. Politicians riding into the rescue? Doubt it. They may pander for votes but won't do anything useful. That's all part of life, and no one is going to change it.

The only one who can prepare better is you. You have to build the cushion, no one else will do it for you. Have multiple sources of heat. Have extra storage capacity and buy fuel when it is cheap. Plan ahead - buy or cut wood two seasons ahead so its ready to burn efficiently. Does it take some planning? Is it more expensive as an upfront investment? Does it take some hard thinking about what your priorities are? Yes. All preparedness measures (canning, having a garden, buying land, etc) are and do.

As far as current prices - they're doing exactly what they should. People are rationing - turning down their thermostats, washing with cold water, etc. Propane distributors are driving 24 hours to fill up in Texas and bring propane back to the Midwest. I'll bet a lot of that propane that was being exported is now heading north. People are thinking about what they can do to better prepare for next year. Businesses are thinking of investing in more storage capacity. If the gov't stepped in and put a price cap in place, all the propane in storage would be gone tomorrow - everyone would fill up their tanks at the lower price and turn the thermometers back up, and the flow of propane north would stop. Businesses would start thinking they should invest less in infrastructure, exploration and drilling rather than more. And the problems would be worse both in the near and long term.

Excellent, GardenGekko!

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shameless plug, but it might help someone ........I don't have a propane bill and haven't for 26 years......I burn wood outside. Notice the signature........I cannot believe propane is that high........we will be selling heaters all summer I am sure!

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I am sure a lot of people will explore options. But the thing to remember this was caused by a ''perfect storm'' of events. We may not see it again in our lifetime. As always be careful when checking other options. Do not spend several thousand dollars and then realize it does not suit you.

Anyone remember the late 70's when it was COLD and SNOWY?

If my memory serves me, they had problems with Propane availability back then the blizzard of '78.... they just didn't have the internet.

OK, so maybe Wanda shouldn't have suggested once-in-a-lifetime, but rather once ever 35 years...

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I was alive and well at the time he was talking about. The only propane problem was clearing the roads to get to customer tanks. That was more than I ever want to be involved with as far as snow goes.

Local news tonight was saying demand for the past month this year was LESS than the demand the year before.

Today I decided to start calling LP suppliers to find out if they were selling to "not regular customers" and how much were they charging. To a regular customer the low amt. was about $3.50 a gal. Some quotes were as high as $5.00 a gal. One supplier disconnected at soon as I said "not a regular customer" two times. I found out that most suppliers have a clause that covers them as far as selling at a contracted price if everything goes to he// in a handbasket. People said some of the suppliers in our area (so. WI) are choosing that option. I wonder mmoetc if the people that supply the suppliers have that clause written into "their" contracts.
Have written 2 emails to a senator, the 1st asking questions, got a reply but no answers, the 2nd one was a bit snarky on my part and the reply had a similar tone. Guess I should have expected that... If nothing else, by checking out what different suppliers are doing in this situation I feel not so helpless and ignorant. And we may be changing suppliers after I check, double check and read the fine print 3X. Also gonna stockpile extra wood spring, summer and fall. So. WI -2

This reminds me a little of how home heating oil (diesel) spiked a few years ago.

$4.09 in missouri. Was $2.00 two weeks ago.

We used 2% of our 250 gal tank in the last week. Down to 13%. Little signs are posted at every hot water location and a piece of duct tape with "5 MIN!" taped in shower. We have cut more than 1/2 of our use by conserving. We heat with oil, so only hot water is using the propane.

I think we can hold out for another 2 or 3 weeks. Hoping prices can come down.

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I had Insurance Company drop us because we had a Pile of Wood in our Field, not by the House 200 yards in the Field. That was American Family.

They have sent people to look over the House couple times a year unannounced.

big rockpile

__________________
I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

I'm sorry, that's unfortunate.

We are doing pretty well with the furnace turned off and 3 electric space heaters running. The house hasn't gotten below 60 degrees. Right now it's 22 outside and 68 inside, pretty good differential for an old house on a windy day. The electric bill will probably be $300+ but that is still cheaper than burning $5 propane.

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Big Rockpile you mentioned earlier that you couldn't use your fireplace. Does your ins. co. allow 1 woodburner or 0 woodburners? We have 1, has to be ul approved, and we pay an extra rider for that. I do wonder how some posters can have multiple woodburners and find insurance. More power to them! And note I said what your co. allows and not what do you personally have in your home. Got to be careful about too much info!

Wanda has a really good point. Need to do the math before rushing out and buying alternatives heaters. And the peak of the crises is probably not the time to do so. Might be best to batten down and wait until the spring to buy a wood stove or space heater (when the stores are liquidating their excess inventory). But I would guess that, depending upon how well insulated the house is, size, etc, it doesn't take very long before $3 / gallon above normal pays for a good portion of a wood stove setup.

As an aside, maybe this is a great time to buy a propane system. Back in the spring of 2009, when oil prices were through the roof and it look like the next Great Depression, and everyone was buying flex fuel and hybrids for ridiculous prices, I got a nice little deal on a new but one year old 4wd v8 that the dealership couldn't get off the lot. They practically gave that vehicle to me...sometimes when the herd zigs it pays to zag.