JimBear I was wondering how much your supplier charges for your propane if you are not heating your home with it. I am being charged double what others around here get charged, but they are using it to heat their homes. I only have a small tank, 120 gallons, and I get it filled about 5 times every 2 years. How much gas do you use for your appliances? What is your tank size and how often do you get it filled? Thanks
No sir. I would imagine that they are sticking you because of the small amount you are getting. We have a 500 gallon tank that gets filled once a year, usually late summer & around 300 gallon is put in. I believe it was $1.90 or so last year. The only time we would incur additional charges are if it was a emergency/special fill scenario. I could be put on the route to be filled regularly but it would be pointless. I just call the driver, tell him what my tank % is & tell him to swing by when he is in the neighborhood & top it off, no hurry.
I will have to do some more research on cost of propane compared to electric. I know my current WH won't last forever.
I'm not one to be an early adopter of new tech, but they have been around for quite a while now, and I've becomes a huge fan of our HPWH (heat pump water heater) it knocked at least $15/mo off our electric bill, and that is even with more peoples in the household now...bill averages $70-75/mo with fam of 4 and $0.12/kwh, all in (taxes/fees/surcharges included) We are all electric, except heat...that is "oil", but really its wood
as propane prices vary in different areas and of course it is a commodity so more variances. I use about what you do . (240gals/ year) that has been cost of apx $ 600, but I get in on the prebuy so that drops it a bit. Locks the rate at a price point, if rates go up or down I get the lower cost. 500 gallon tank, belongs to supplier, so there is likely a bit of upcharge for the tank added on. Tank gets topped off twice year. You could purchase your own tank, some suppliers don't care, others refuse to fill private tanks or charge considerably more. Got to shop the sources if more than one available. Electric here is more costly than propane for heating. I have an electric dryer( would love to change to propane- lot cheaper), HW and furnace are propane. My stove is electric also but I seldom use it mostly it is a electric skillet and the microwave, I'm single. guess my avg electric is apx 80/mo. When I crank up the 7000 watt electric heater in basement or the AC the bill really climbs exponentially. Basement is not insulated- got to fix that. House is very energy efficient with double pane windows and 6" thick side walls, attic is pretty good as well. primary heat all winter is wood stove,3 cF, heats the whole 2200 sq ft 98 % of the time. most of my propane use is the HW, 75 gallon tank 23 years old- changing out for new one would be in the 1200-1500 bracket- long payback. Electric /heat pump units are at least double that or more- dosen't look cost effective for me - possible for a family it might be, but current life spans of HW barely make warranty periods now days. That being 6yrs or with upcharges longer, max out at 12 yrs.
If I read this correctly you are using a 75 gal hw heater? Single fella? My electric hw heater is 40 gal. Installed myself. $450 new from Menards. Roughly 5 years ago. I respect your desire to stay on gas entirely. Just saying I went electric for far less than 1200-1500. 2 adults and all laundry are easily covered. Just my story.
ya a 75 gal unit came with the place, installed 1991. that's 33 years of use. Standing pilot, in theory, that consumes about 51 gallons of propane a year so for the past year was about $101.00 for the pilot alone. I really should change it out. A new heater at $1000 is about $166 a year based on 6 year life span so that would be say 600 bucks off the price of the heater over its life span. Looking at that way it kinda makes sense to replace it. Course that standing pilot also acts as a simple radon reducing unit in the basement with it's constant air flow out the flue.
chris i use oil but my added benefit is clay tiles in chimney are perfect as they are always hit with warm hot air
My hot water is off the boiler. I pay about $200 a month for 11 months. (that is with some credit from last year's unused pre buy. Family of 6 here, My son and wife and two teenage kids upstairs, wife and I down. Electric $400 to 600 per month.
Last February my 40gal tank water heater died. I threw nearly 1k at it before admitting defeat. I really liked it as it used absolutely no electricity so even in power outages hot water was no problem. But that type is no longer legal so to replace it I would have had to have an electrician run a line for the required electrified exhaust (or whatever it is called - I just know the passive exhaust up the chimney doesn't meet code anymore). That water heater showed a build date of 2009 and assume it was installed within a year or two after that. While replacing the water heater I decided to replace my 30 year old boiler and save some floor space at the same time by having a direct vent 96% efficiency combi-boiler installed. I usually have a propane delivery each March or April when the two 100-gal tanks get down to 30%. I checked a week ago and I'm still at 60%. (note that the boiler is only an emergency backup to my pellet stoves and mini-split - I haven't used a boiler to heat the house since winter of 13-14). Unfortunately the combi-boiler isn't eligible for the big tax credit that a heat pump water heater would be, but I still got a smaller credit. Also, my utility wouldn't give a rebate as they would for a heat pump. But, the heat pump versions are a lot more expensive than the unit I got. And, I registered it within 30 days so got the 15 year warranty.
I don't want to derail the thread, however, thanks for mentioning this. My sump pump is on a GFCI and the outlet trips all the time even though the pump has only activated once in the last ten years.
You should be able to look up your dryer model online to see what its normal/usual power usage should be.
