Anyone heating with propane or natural gas? Yikes!

[debilorrah]

I USED to have propane when I lived in the middle of nowhere. It was easily $600 a month for heat, dryer, cooking etc. I am very thankful we now have natural gas.

 

[Beau coop]

I am in shock over how expensive is is to heat with propane. The propane companies say that it is very competetive with natural gas if you consider all the fees that are associated with it. Now if I could just locate a natural gas well on my property!

 

[AllChookUp]

Yes, unfortunately, I heat with propane. But I also have a wood furnace, so I heat with that as much as possible.

I just did a partial fill on my propane tank - $790.

 

[ScoobyRoo]

Quote:
We did just that. We installed a wood burning insert in our existing fireplace. Our agent said that as long as the brick/stone masonry has not been altered that we were covered. Now if it were a pot bellied stove on the floor, I think that is a different story. In a months time, we used only 5% of our 1000 gallon tank. They only fill to 80%. We had also switched companies. Our tank was on a rent to own which we paid so it is ours now. The new company will do their own test and check all furnaces etc. If you get in during a promotion it wont cost anything. It may be too late for that. Most contracts are signed before winter.

 

[ksacres]

We have propane. In addition to the outrageous cost of the propane itself, we also pay $90 a year for "tank rental" it's a bunch of B.S. if you ask me.

 

[LindaN]

I'm in the city so my house is heated with natural gas. I nearly choked when I opened up my gas bill for December: $495.

I had been trying to keep the house cooler at night using the programmable thermostat and found that was actually HURTING me due to the fact that I have a hot-water heat boiler in my older home. (I'm sure the fact that my soon-to-be-ex-husband also left the thermostat set at 72F for an entire day during one of the coldest days of the year didn't help either.)

Be sure you understand how your form of heat in your house can affect your thermostat strategy!

I wrote more about this on my blog, in case anyone wants to read it.

 

[Beau coop]

My propane usage for last month was $401 .00- I miss my balanced billing from the natural gas supplier.

I just ordered another 250 gallons which will set me back just under $600.00. Fun wow.

 

[beak]

I would like to get a wind powered generator. We get a lot of wind here, it would be nice to put it to use. The electric company has to buy unused power that is generated. Initial investment is about 15k.

 

[conradpdx]

About a year ago we got rid of our oil furnace and replaced with an air to air heat pump. And our old furnace despite using oil for fuel, used more electricity than our new electric pump does...and now we also have central air which we didn't have before, and again our electric bill in the summer went down. We're saving about $75-$100 a month in electric since then. At this rate I'm looking at a 10 year payback, less than 10 years if the oil continues to rise--(which it will). Though these weren't the reasons I went electric, honestly I wasn't expecting it to be such a dramatic difference.

I went electric because in the next year or two (hopefully this summer) I'm going to start adding solar panels. And even if I wasn't planing on the panels I still think electric is the way to go because it's the most adaptable. Propane, gas, and oil (though I could've burned bio-diesel in the oil furnace) are all non-renewable.

Granted some sources, like propane, we have 100's of years left, but every year the price will increase in proportion to what's left (and in some cases even if there is a lot left they will raise the price because they can when the competing fuel goes up from it's lack of supply) . With electric I have more options, I can stick to the grid and allow my power company to make the choice for me which is always competitive in price (with more fuel options than I can make--nuclear, coal, hydro), or I at least have the option of going with solar or wind (if I didn't live in the city limits).

I bring this up to help anyone that might be looking at swapping systems. I know heat pumps aren't an option for everywhere but for many of us it's a great option--even though the install and furnace cost more upfront. I'm not by any means trying to gloat at your misery. I know all too well the problems with heat relying on tanks. Priming the lines when your fuel gauge is reading wrong, trying to come up with a pile of money at once. Keeping the heat low at the end of winter cause you don't want to risk running out late in the season, because you don't want to spend the money for a couple gallons then sit on it till next winter. I hated all of it.


<edit> BTW electric heat pads for your mattresses that go on like a fitted sheet rock. They use about the same electricity as a light bulb but ohhhhh so cozy. Turn em on about half an hour before bed for a nice warm bed.

 

[key west chick]

We have gas. Our bill last month was over $300. We have a TINY house. I am also a nit wit and heat my chickens with a propane heater for really cold night. Over $20 for a 20# tank. And I have 2. Stupid chickens.