Propane Advice Needed.
As you know we moved to the "country". We are on propane now and this is a new thing for us.
My question is: How much propane do you use in a season?
When I called the company they said the former family used 1,000 between August and March.
The only thing on propane is our heater and gas fireplace. Does that sound right? 1,000 gallons?
My neighbors (Hi, Tisha) said they used only 200 gallons for the entire season last year and their heater is set on 75.
We have only had ours on for 2 weeks and have gone from 80%-60% already.
Do we have a leak? Does the fireplace pilot light use that much propane?
We do know that the old part of the house only has 4 inches of insulation and so we are going to blow some more in this weekend.
Help! this just doesn't sound right!
Tawra
My question is: How much propane do you use in a season?
When I called the company they said the former family used 1,000 between August and March.
The only thing on propane is our heater and gas fireplace. Does that sound right? 1,000 gallons?
My neighbors (Hi, Tisha) said they used only 200 gallons for the entire season last year and their heater is set on 75.
We have only had ours on for 2 weeks and have gone from 80%-60% already.
Do we have a leak? Does the fireplace pilot light use that much propane?
We do know that the old part of the house only has 4 inches of insulation and so we are going to blow some more in this weekend.
Help! this just doesn't sound right!
Tawra
posted by Tawra Jean at 9:36 AM
9 Comments:
LEAK!!!!!!!!!!! or not installed correctly. Get this checked asap. Considering the past problem w/former owners septic tank-something may not be installed correctly.
I don't use propane, but the tables in this article might help you figure it out http://www.propane101.com/abnormalusageandleaks.htm
There's a link at the bottom to an article about looking for propane leaks, too!
that sounds high. we have a 500 gallon tank and fill an average of 350 gallons every 4-6 months. we have our hot water heater, furnace, cooking stove, and small heater in the addition we built. insulation in the house does affect how much you'll use, as does how often you use those appliances that run on propane. i would certainly have it checked for a possible leak- 1000 gallons in less than a year sounds bad. (incidentally, 80% is considered a full tank, propane is not filled like a gas tank would be, because the propane needs room to expand)
Check with your neighbor and ask them if they run their pilot lights continuously or do they shut them off until needed. Also, if you do not use your fireplace and you have the flue open you could be letting heat out through the flue and the heater is working longer to make it up. Also, I would have your propane guy out to check the valve for a leak and to check all connections for a leak - you can do this yourself with some soapy water just like the do on tires.
We live in the country, too, and have heated with propane forced air furnace and use a propane water heater. We can go through about 1000 gallons a year BUT - now our main heat is using a lovely big wood cookstove (the Bakers Choice from Lehmans) that both heats our house and cooks at least part of our meals. If you can get a wood stove of any kind, DO IT! The reason I chose the Bakers Choice was that it can also use coal, which can be a real savings when wood is expensive. One of my friends has a very old house and she uses an outside boiler wood stove that just blows the hot air into the house through ducts.
Propane is so high now, and only destined to go higher, that getting a secondary form of heat is a really good idea.
I also live in a rural area and we average 1200 gals from Nov - March.
We heat approx. 2600 sq ft and our furnace and hot water heater is the only thing that uses propane. I keep the thermostat set at 70 which isn't overly warm but I don't want to use anymore propane than neccessary. We have a gas fireplace but I use it sparingly.
I try to lock in our gas price early every year or even prepay it if we have extra money so we don't have to worry about the price going up all winter long.
We use over 1300 gallons a winter for our 115 year old, poorly insulated home, with 8 people living in it. In addition to heat, our stove and water heater use the propane. Our heat is set between 65 and 68 degrees.
Every year in March, we sign up on a payment plan, which locks the price for our propane. Along with having to pay less per gallon this way, it is spread through out the year so it doesn't hurt the wallet as much!
We just started using a space heater (Comfort Essentials from Wal-Mart for $18) that has been able to raise the temperature in our house about 1 degree an hour. It really has not affected our electric bill either, BUT it is keeping us from using so much propane.
We used propane for our primary heating source for approximately 10years for a 1800 sqft home before we installed a woodstove to help with costs. I'm very conservative on usage and when it was propane only, we only used around 500-600 gallons a season. We're in KY and the winters aren't especially harsh, but it still seems a little much to me. Propane is extremely expensive right now. With our woodstove, we've brought our propane usage down to approximately 300 gallons per season.
I live in MD and have a 4500 sq. ft. home and used about 1600 gallons of propane every winter until got a wood pellet insert. Now I use less than 600 gallons of propane per year. Propane is the most expensive way to heat a home. You need to check into a pellet or wood burning stove. I'm sure you don't have a leak you are just using that much propane. I think your neighbors could not keep a house at 75 and only use 200 gallons of propane unless they live in a closet! By the way pilot lights don't use that much propane, only about 2-3 gallons per month. I bought my house before I new how expensive it was to heat with propane. Thank God! for my pellet insert ( by Harmon Stoves) it has saved me thousands of dollars. Do yourself a favor find an alternative heat source.
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