If this is Suburban Propane then get rid of them quick. I learned my lesson with this company.
Mid-winter prices for propane around my area (Finger Lakes, NY) is about $2.29 per gallon. I don’t qualify for any pre-pay or usage discounts so I have to do the buy-when-needed thing. Those with more usage and/or larger tanks can get propane for under two dollars a gallon.
I hate hate hate propane as a heating source. I had it at a previous place I rented and it cost a fortune to heat the place and I kept it no higher than 60 degrees. I have kerosene where I’m renting now and I started winter with a half tank and the guage has barely moved. Yes I keep it cold (56-58) but I have found kerosene more efficient. The other part of the house (where the owner lives) has propane. The last owner had it installed and a tech came out to check something and i told him the propane was new upstairs. His response: so someone got talked into something without doing their research. I was like yup. He also said if the propane tank explodes for some reason your house is going too.
Also consider all electric.
Here, the electric company gives a break to those that go with an all electric house and a heat pump.
Then the cost of propane is very close to all electric, so why mess with propane then?
Now, natural gas is half the cost, so those near those lines still will use natural gas.
That is really the most cost effective for them.
Previously, when we were on propane, we had a 1000 gallon tank and that lasted all winter.
That’s a good point, Bluey. I use propane because if the power goes out the stove will still work. Here in NY electric prices are pretty high and Rochester Gas and Electric would really laugh if you asked for a discount.
I am comfortable that if you have a good propane supplier who knows their business, is experienced at installation and maintenance, and if you have a service tech inspect your tank and heater each year, that the system is safe.
Yes, gas can go boom, but just about any heat source can be destructive if not properly installed or maintained.
I have a 768 square foot single story home and use under 350 gallons of propane yearly. Appliances such as cook stove and water heater are electric, so that makes a difference in usage.
Thank you Maunder, yes, you guessed it!
I appreciate your advice.
They are notorious tricksters. Nasty, nasty business.
We moved to Indiana about 4.5 years ago and I met propane heat for the first time. Could NOT keep my house warm. We also had an issue with our tank leaking. I basically had to get nasty with the company and MADE them test and replace the tank.We JUST upgraded to heat pump with propane as the back up. They were able to upgrade the efficiency from 80% to 95% and the upgraded the blower. Mine was 2 tons too small. My house is finally warm. Bottom line, get the tank checked and get an HVAC consultation. With full propane were were paying baout &900 a year for a 3,000 sq foot house and we have propane water heater as well.
Echoing the other posters great advice about insulation, etc and empathetic. Learning the ins and outs of the propane racket was a big lesson when we bought our farm. In the end it was worth buying our tank to be able to exercise our rights on the “freeish” propane market. A hassle but saved us quite a bit of money especially in cold winters. Prepaying and/or locking in can be a gamble but typically you lose less than the gouge price for a 1000 gallon fill in February. Good luck!
High, high desert/mountain of SoCal here. It’s been colder this winter but nothing like the rest of the country. Going down to lows in the 20s this weekend with snow. I pay $3.09/gal and have a 285 gal. tank. They all only fill to 80 percent. That’s all anyone fills it. Something about expansion I think. I paid $600/mo for a fill the last two months. 2600 sf house, central heat/ac, two people. Heat, stove, laundry, water heater on propane. I’m a smidge older now and don’t want to be cold. Thermostat is at 72 during the day and down at night.
I had Amerigas. They were terrible. They cost twice what other companies charge and have phony add-ons imho. I cancelled them a year ago. They still haven’t picked up their tank. I just sent them a “Notice of Abandonment of Property” letter. If they don’t pick it up in a month. It’s mine. Unless you have a contract, you can change your company.
I do take advantage of summer rates and fill up at $2.49/gal. This house is well-insulated. It’s also all windows. Great views - lots of heat transfer. A current project is insulated drapes for the windows and likely a drape for the front door at night. It definitely leaks. If you have a fireplace. Close the damper when not in use. If your stove is propane/gas, you can turn-off the pilot and use an ignition starter. Do clean the furnace filter monthly. I have a washable one. Turn down the thermostat on your water heater. Wash laundry in cold water. Look into getting a larger tank so you can fill up during summer rates.
I’d start with checking out the attic/walls/cellar insulation. Then look at your windows. Dual-pane or triple-pane pay for themselves over time. I do have them in a room addition I did. Love them! I’m going with drapes due to $$.
Look into ceiling fans. You can set them on low to keep warm air circulating. We have central hvac with registers in each room. You can cause harm to your unit if you close too many registers.
I’d go with natural gas in a heart beat. I’ve learned to live with the eccentricities of propane. In summer, my a/c and water costs balance out my propane use in winter.
Old thread resurrected by SPAM. It has been reported.
I know this was bumped by spam, but I wanted to add in!
We had Suburban when we bought our 1900 era farmhouse, suburban was horrific to deal with and expensive. We switched to Ferrel gas and they were significantly cheaper. We are still going to switch to a heat pump which will really help with costs, and we can heat most of our home off our pellet stove. However, you do have to stock up on the pellets because in a bad winter they get scarce. Most farm people here use propane, a heat pump, and do most of their heating off a wood stove or a pellet stove.
We switched to Ferrel gas and they were significantly cheaper.
Ferrellgas is considered an employee owned company…the employees own about 33% of the total corporate stock
I’m kinda glad it got bumped up too.
I currently heat/cook with propane and hate it.
I have a cast-iron insert stove in the back den. Once it gets going, I turn on all the ceiling fans and it’ll heat most of the house but not the whole night.
So, since I have a fireplace in the front room that I never use (no glass doors, so it would only suck the heat out of the house), I’m getting quotes on a Pellet Stove insert. No hauling of logs, little to no ash clean out and very efficient.
This way I only have to fill the propane tank about once a year for cooking.
Where we live we’re all electric…our heating is a choice between using baseboard heaters or the wood stove; we go with the wood stove, which is messy but inexpensive, and, like having a barn full of hay in early fall, having enough firewood ready to burn for a couple of years does make you feel secure. When we first bought our place, we were leery of using the wood stove as the roof was cedar shingles that were 15 years old. Our first electric bill using the baseboard heaters AND having a 1500 watt stock tank heater in a 150 gallon open metal tank was over $600. I thought my husband was going to have a stroke. We re-roofed asap so we could use the wood stove safely, and I started playing around with the best way to insulate and use less electricity with a water tank/heater combo in winter. We’ve also put about 1/3 of the house on solar w/battery backup (well system, freezers, refrigerator, my husband’s home office) and we end up selling extra electricity back to the electric company every month that comes straight off our bill.
It think it’s a good thing this got bumped up, as it’s reminding me to call Aero and get a lock in price for the year!
Count me as another one bamboozled by Suburban Propane. Made the switch a few years ago and realized that they had painted on the tank cap that they owned it. I knew this wasn’t the case, as we built the house ourselves and had consciously made the decision to own the tank. I did call SP to get documentation of that in case it became an issue (it didn’t) and utilized a can of black spray paint to take care of the misrepresentation.
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