Here in extreme SE Iowa we heat both our newish two story home and our
1,200 sq. ft. shop with propane fired high efficiency furnaces. Normally
we contract the winter supply in the fall but this year they wanted
$1.699/gallon so we gambled that it would not go up and possibly go down
and did not contract.

Well, we just got our first winter fill (approx. 300 gallons) and the
price was $1.699 thus so far nothing has changed. OTOH, the real cold
weather is not here yet so there is definitely a chance it will go up in
the near future. :-(

For some reason unknown to me propane is usually less expensive in this
immediate area than it is in other parts of the country. Anyone else got
any current prices from around the US?

Happy Holidays,

Don

IGot2P wrote the following:
Here in extreme SE Iowa we heat both our newish two story home and our
1,200 sq. ft. shop with propane fired high efficiency furnaces.
Normally we contract the winter supply in the fall but this year they
wanted $1.699/gallon so we gambled that it would not go up and
possibly go down and did not contract.

Well, we just got our first winter fill (approx. 300 gallons) and the
price was $1.699 thus so far nothing has changed. OTOH, the real cold
weather is not here yet so there is definitely a chance it will go up
in the near future. :-(

For some reason unknown to me propane is usually less expensive in
this immediate area than it is in other parts of the country. Anyone
else got any current prices from around the US?

Happy Holidays,

Don

Consider yourself lucky. My last propane bill (November) was $141.01 for
43.4 gallons. That's $3.249 a gallon.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:40:05 -0600, IGot2P wrote:
For some reason unknown to me propane is usually less expensive in this
immediate area than it is in other parts of the country. Anyone else got
any current prices from around the US?

I think ours was $1.85/gal around this time *last* year up here in
northern MN. We'll be ordering more in about 2 weeks' time so I'm not
sure what it's at right now.

It's frustrating how much the prices do fluctuate though, even in the
same region - I hate playing the "gamble on when best to buy" game. About
half of our house heating is electric baseboard, and prices for that are
a lot more stable (and generally competitive with propane costs for the
season)

cheers

Jules

willshak wrote:

IGot2P wrote the following:
Here in extreme SE Iowa we heat both our newish two story home and our
-snip-
Well, we just got our first winter fill (approx. 300 gallons) and the
price was $1.699 thus so far nothing has changed. OTOH, the real cold
weather is not here yet so there is definitely a chance it will go up
in the near future. :-(
-snip-


Consider yourself lucky. My last propane bill (November) was $141.01 for
43.4 gallons. That's $3.249 a gallon.

Will is in Hamptonburg, NY. I'm a couple hours north of him, near
Schenectady, NY.

My delivery last week was $4.19 - up $.66 from Nov- and up $1.15 from
last Dec.

Jim

DA wrote the following:
responding to
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...es-609497-.htm
DA wrote:

willshak wrote:


Consider yourself lucky. My last propane bill (November) was $141.01

for
43.4 gallons. That's $3.249 a gallon.


Lucky indeed. I paid $3.20 about a month ago and, according to US E.I.A.
1-week old data, average residential propane was at $2.598 on 12/06/2010,
26% up from this time last year (
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/hopu/hopu.asp ) .

Slightly off-topic though: they delivered only 43.4 gallons?


Automatic delivery. They just top it off every other month or so whether
I need it or not..

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

DA wrote the following:
responding to
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...es-609497-.htm
DA wrote:
willshak wrote:


Automatic delivery. They just top it off every other month or so
whether I need it or not..

I see... I actually have automatic delivery, too, but they will never come
until they are very extra sure they can fill 300+ gallons. Every bill I
had so far with this company was for $800+ and edging more towards $1,100
this year ...


I only use LP for the counter top range (wall ovens are electric), water
heating, and the clothes dryer.
I use fuel oil for house heating.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:11:38 +0000,
(DA) wrote:

responding to
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...es-609497-.htm
DA wrote:
willshak wrote:

Automatic delivery. They just top it off every other month or so
whether I need it or not..
I see... I actually have automatic delivery, too, but they will never come
until they are very extra sure they can fill 300+ gallons. Every bill I
had so far with this company was for $800+ and edging more towards $1,100
this year ...

I have auto delivery & a 100 gallon tank. They deliver between 32
and 60 gallons every 6 weeks or so.

I've asked for a bigger tank so they didn't have to negotiate my
driveway in the winter and for some reason they'd rather stick with
this setup.

Jim

On 12/13/2010 3:58 PM, willshak wrote:
DA wrote the following:
responding to
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...es-609497-.htm
DA wrote:

willshak wrote:

Consider yourself lucky. My last propane bill (November) was $141.01
for 43.4 gallons. That's $3.249 a gallon.

Lucky indeed. I paid $3.20 about a month ago and, according to US E.I.A.
1-week old data, average residential propane was at $2.598 on 12/06/2010,
26% up from this time last year (
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/hopu/hopu.asp ) .

Slightly off-topic though: they delivered only 43.4 gallons?

Automatic delivery. They just top it off every other month or so whether
I need it or not..

We also have automatic delivery (the supplier calls it a "keep full"
agreement) but they don't deliver until it gets down pretty low. I
actually have two tanks, 1 - 500 gallon for the house and 1 - 250 gallon
for the shop. Fortunately in the winter I am not in the shop that often
thus the thermostat is normally set on 48 degrees F. In short, the shop
does not use much LP.

When the "organized half" gets home I will have her see if you can find
what we paid the last few years when we contracted it. I must say that
these Midwest prices are great compared to the NE.

Don

On 2010-12-13, IGot2P wrote:

price was $1.699 thus so far nothing has changed. OTOH, the real cold

I jes paid $2 per. It was $1.5 something last year and almost $3 a
couple yrs ago. It's like gas, all over the map. I'm jes glad I
don't use kerosene. EIGHT DOLLARS A GALLON!!

nb

IGot2P wrote in
:

I must say
that these Midwest prices are great compared to the NE.




The commodity's prices are the same everywhere. Any differences will be due
to local taxes (very high in the NE), and delivery policies.




--
Tegger

Tegger wrote:
IGot2P wrote in
:

I must say
that these Midwest prices are great compared to the NE.




The commodity's prices are the same everywhere. Any differences will
be due to local taxes (very high in the NE), and delivery policies.

and transportation and labor and warehousing costs.

and perhaps the company owner's boat payment schedule.

Tegger wrote in
:

IGot2P wrote in
:

I must say
that these Midwest prices are great compared to the NE.




The commodity's prices are the same everywhere. Any differences will
be due to local taxes (very high in the NE), and delivery policies.




And possibly local safety regulations.


--
Tegger

The Homeowners Hub site is not a help forum.
It's an *advertising* forum that invades real
forums (like "alt.home.repair", part of
"usenet") parasitically in order to generate
free advertising for itself, which continually
advances its search engine placement, thereby
increasing its own revenue through its click-
through advertising commissions.

So the first thing you should do is write them
an email and tell them to quit spamming.

Then try to find your way here through proper
channels. Please do a google search on "Usenet"
and post the regular way.



--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"DA" wrote in message
oups.com...
responding to
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...es-609497-.htm

I've been told that cooking gas and heating gas are priced
differently.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"willshak" wrote in message
...

I only use LP for the counter top range (wall ovens are electric),
water
heating, and the clothes dryer.
I use fuel oil for house heating.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

IGot2P wrote:

Anyone else got
any current prices from around the US?

You may find this Dept of Energy website interesting.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/hopu/hopu.asp

Tegger wrote:

The commodity's prices are the same everywhere. Any differences will be due
to local taxes (very high in the NE), and delivery policies.

No, they aren't. Propane prices are influenced by a number of factors, including
regional demand (ie crop drying), what the dominate energy source in the region
is, how easy it is for industrial users to switch energy sources, whether the
propane (actually LPG as the blend varianies depending on the region) comes from
LNG tankers or local refineries, domestic wells, etc.

Jules Richardson wrote:

It's frustrating how much the prices do fluctuate though, even in the
same region - I hate playing the "gamble on when best to buy" game. About
half of our house heating is electric baseboard, and prices for that are
a lot more stable (and generally competitive with propane costs for the
season)

A few years ago, the breakeven between electricity and propane for heat in this
area was about $2/gal. Summer and fall fills were running between $1.75 and
$1.85, deep winter fills were peaking around $2.40/gal, delivered on an autro
fill contract.

In the last couple of years the local electricity prices have jumped up about
25%, so the breakeven is a lot higher now. There are web based calculators
around that compute the actual number.

I've debated replacing my 500 gal tank that needs 3-4 refills a year with a 1000
gal tank, but the savings for my relatively low use hasn't been enough to get me
to do it.

Stormin Mormon wrote:
I've been told that cooking gas and heating gas are priced
differently.

???????????
Here (nl) we have only one sort of gas, for heating and cooking.
Of course we can buy butane or propane for a motorhome or ship,
or in our car, but those are not used for normal home consumption.

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:58:25 -0500, willshak wrote:

DA wrote the following:
responding to
http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...es-609497-.htm
DA wrote:

willshak wrote:


Consider yourself lucky. My last propane bill (November) was $141.01

for
43.4 gallons. That's $3.249 a gallon.


Lucky indeed. I paid $3.20 about a month ago and, according to US E.I.A.
1-week old data, average residential propane was at $2.598 on 12/06/2010,
26% up from this time last year (
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/hopu/hopu.asp ) .

Slightly off-topic though: they delivered only 43.4 gallons?


Automatic delivery. They just top it off every other month or so whether
I need it or not..

I have automatic delivery too. I had 25 gallons when they stopped by and
decided that I had enough (it's just for a gas fireplace, but...). :-( Really
strange.

Robert Neville wrote in
:

Tegger wrote:

The commodity's prices are the same everywhere. Any differences will
be due to local taxes (very high in the NE), and delivery policies.

No, they aren't. Propane prices are influenced by a number of factors,
including regional demand (ie crop drying),



I hadn't considered that. There's a lot more agriculture in the midwest
than in NYS.



what the dominate energy source in the region is, how easy it is for
industrial users to switch energy sources, whether the propane
(actually LPG as the blend varianies depending on the region) comes
from LNG tankers or local refineries, domestic wells, etc.




More I hadn't thought of.

Sounds to me like the price differences between regions are quite
legitimate and reasonable.


--
Tegger

On Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:11:01 +0100, Sjouke Burry
wrote:

Stormin Mormon wrote:
I've been told that cooking gas and heating gas are priced
differently.

???????????
Here (nl) we have only one sort of gas, for heating and cooking.
Of course we can buy butane or propane for a motorhome or ship,
or in our car, but those are not used for normal home consumption.

Quantity? It costs almost the same to deliver 500gal as it does 50.

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 23:49:22 +0000 (UTC), Tegger
wrote:

IGot2P wrote in
m:

I must say
that these Midwest prices are great compared to the NE.




The commodity's prices are the same everywhere. Any differences will be due
to local taxes (very high in the NE), and delivery policies.

Oh- I forgot the taxes and fees-- They bring my $4.19/gal up to
$4.56. but who's counting?

And each outfit gets to set it own profit margin. My guy is in the
middle for this area- but a couple years ago when I was shopping
around, there was over $1.00/gallon difference in price. Same taxes-
same automatic delivery. Same 100gallon tank.

Jim

"Sjouke Burry" wrote in message
...
Stormin Mormon wrote:
I've been told that cooking gas and heating gas are priced differently.

???????????
Here (nl) we have only one sort of gas, for heating and cooking.
Of course we can buy butane or propane for a motorhome or ship,
or in our car, but those are not used for normal home consumption.

The gas is the same, but most of us that use it for cooking have two 100#
tanks versus the larger 1000# and up for heating. Yes, they gauge us on
price. I get a fillup only once a year so you pay for the smaller
quantities.

IGot2P wrote in
:

Here in extreme SE Iowa we heat both our newish two story home and our
1,200 sq. ft. shop with propane fired high efficiency furnaces. Normally
we contract the winter supply in the fall but this year they wanted
$1.699/gallon so we gambled that it would not go up and possibly go down
and did not contract.

In South central Iowa I contracted for $1.57, up 28¢ from last year. I've
contracted for 20 years and have never been beaten by lower prices late in
the season. YMMV.

Steve
southiowa



--
There is no such thing as a silly question;
just silly people asking questions.

In article ,
"Stormin Mormon" wrote:

The Homeowners Hub site is not a help forum.

snip

I think you and I are both killfiled at the hub, stormy. Someone else
will have to spread the news over there. This DA guy has turned into an
a.h.r. regular and never responds to my appeals to ditch the spam portal
and tune in to usenet.

On 12/14/2010 4:40 AM, Steve.IA wrote:
wrote in
:

Here in extreme SE Iowa we heat both our newish two story home and our
1,200 sq. ft. shop with propane fired high efficiency furnaces. Normally
we contract the winter supply in the fall but this year they wanted
$1.699/gallon so we gambled that it would not go up and possibly go down
and did not contract.

In South central Iowa I contracted for $1.57, up 28¢ from last year. I've
contracted for 20 years and have never been beaten by lower prices late in
the season. YMMV.

Steve
southiowa


Steve,

I am in Farmington, IA (20 miles from IL and 3 miles from MO), how far
west of me are you?

Don

IGot2P wrote in
:


Steve,

I am in Farmington, IA (20 miles from IL and 3 miles from MO), how far
west of me are you?

Don


Outside Osceola, Clarke County.

Steve




--
There is no such thing as a silly question;
just silly people asking questions.

On Dec 13, 9:23*pm, Jules Richardson
wrote:
On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:40:05 -0600, IGot2P wrote:
For some reason unknown to me propane is usually less expensive in this
immediate area than it is in other parts of the country. Anyone else got
any current prices from around the US?

I think ours was $1.85/gal around this time *last* year up here in
northern MN. We'll be ordering more in about 2 weeks' time so I'm not
sure what it's at right now.

It's frustrating how much the prices do fluctuate though, even in the
same region - I hate playing the "gamble on when best to buy" game. About
half of our house heating is electric baseboard, and prices for that are
a lot more stable (and generally competitive with propane costs for the
season)

cheers

Jules

In general all fuel prices will go up.
With any delivered fuel (ie tanker) the price will go up in periods of
peak demand.
This is because the supplier wants to encourage you to buy in the non-
busy season (so that his tankers are not stood about idle).
And they know in cold weather, they have you by the ********.
So, to hit a cost valley, buy in the warm season. And get several
quotes. And arrange things so as to give the biggest possible drop
off. (ie run the tank down as low as you dare).

On Dec 13, 9:38*pm, Jim Elbrecht wrote:
willshak wrote:
IGot2P wrote the following:
Here in extreme SE Iowa we heat both our newish two story home and our
-snip-
Well, we just got our first winter fill (approx. 300 gallons) and the
price was $1.699 thus so far nothing has changed. OTOH, the real cold
weather is not here yet so there is definitely a chance it will go up
in the near future. :-(

-snip-



Consider yourself lucky. My last propane bill (November) was $141.01 for
43.4 gallons. That's $3.249 a gallon.

Will is in Hamptonburg, NY. * I'm a couple hours north of him, near
Schenectady, NY.

My delivery last week was $4.19 - up $.66 from Nov- and up $1.15 from
last Dec.

Jim

If you have a propane tank and a large petrol vehicle(s), you could
consider getting the vehicle converted to run on propane. Very common
here in the UK. Engines run really sweet on propane. Start a lot
easier too.
Dunno if feasible in the US.

On 12/14/2010 1:06 PM, Steve.IA wrote:
wrote in
:


Steve,

I am in Farmington, IA (20 miles from IL and 3 miles from MO), how far
west of me are you?

Don


Outside Osceola, Clarke County.

Steve


Okay, we used to always take the long way home from Des Moines and stop
at the Casino back before they changed owners and name.

Don

IGot2P wrote:

Anyone else got any current prices from around the US?

I just got 350 gallons today from the local ag co-op. If I pay within
10 days, it will cost $1.90/gallon. This is in southern Wisconsin.

On 12/13/2010 1:40 PM, IGot2P wrote:
Here in extreme SE Iowa we heat both our newish two story home and our
1,200 sq. ft. shop with propane fired high efficiency furnaces. Normally
we contract the winter supply in the fall but this year they wanted
$1.699/gallon so we gambled that it would not go up and possibly go down
and did not contract.

Well, we just got our first winter fill (approx. 300 gallons) and the
price was $1.699 thus so far nothing has changed. OTOH, the real cold
weather is not here yet so there is definitely a chance it will go up in
the near future. :-(

For some reason unknown to me propane is usually less expensive in this
immediate area than it is in other parts of the country. Anyone else got
any current prices from around the US?

Happy Holidays,

Don


$2.19 here in the rural south of KC

--
Steve Barker
remove the "not" from my address to email

IGot2P wrote




Steve,

I am in Farmington, IA (20 miles from IL and 3 miles from MO), how far
west of me are you?

Don


Many years ago I had a dorm neighbor at Central College who was from
Farmington. Don't remember his name, but do where he was from!
6' red headed kid.
The list things I can't remember is growing daily. Now where did I put
that list?

Steve

--
There is no such thing as a silly question;
just silly people asking questions.

harry wrote:

If you have a propane tank and a large petrol vehicle(s), you could
consider getting the vehicle converted to run on propane. Very common
here in the UK. Engines run really sweet on propane. Start a lot
easier too.
Dunno if feasible in the US.

Feasible yes. Practical? Probably not for many people.
I live in a rural area. Some farmers I know did run their pickups
on propane. They also use propane for grain drying and to run
irrigation power units. A very few also had propane burning farm
tractors years ago. That didn't catch on due in part to the
inconvenience of propane compared to gasoline or diesel fuel.

Dean Hoffman wrote in
:

harry wrote:

If you have a propane tank and a large petrol vehicle(s), you could
consider getting the vehicle converted to run on propane. Very common
here in the UK. Engines run really sweet on propane. Start a lot
easier too.
Dunno if feasible in the US.

Feasible yes. Practical? Probably not for many people.
I live in a rural area. Some farmers I know did run their pickups
on propane. They also use propane for grain drying and to run
irrigation power units. A very few also had propane burning farm
tractors years ago. That didn't catch on due in part to the
inconvenience of propane compared to gasoline or diesel fuel.


how does an multi-port electronic fuel injected motor convert to propane?
Do they have gaseous injectors that can be controlled by a reprogrammed
ECU? so they retain the emissions control mandated in the US.

or does the conversion forgo all that electronics and go back to
uncontrolled carburetion?

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

On 12/15/2010 5:45 AM, Steve.IA wrote:
wrote




Steve,

I am in Farmington, IA (20 miles from IL and 3 miles from MO), how far
west of me are you?

Don


Many years ago I had a dorm neighbor at Central College who was from
Farmington. Don't remember his name, but do where he was from!
6' red headed kid.
The list things I can't remember is growing daily. Now where did I put
that list?

Steve


You must be mistaken, NO ONE from Farmington, except me, EVER went to
college! :-)

Don

Jim Yanik wrote:

how does an multi-port electronic fuel injected motor convert to propane?
Do they have gaseous injectors that can be controlled by a reprogrammed
ECU? so they retain the emissions control mandated in the US.

or does the conversion forgo all that electronics and go back to
uncontrolled carburetion?


The engines I mentioned earlier were all carburetored. I haven't
paid much attention lately to the propane fueled irrigation engines.
They're still using carburetors, I think. I did find this though:
http://www.technocarb.com/
Farm equipment is pretty much all diesel powered with the exception
irrigation engines and the older, smaller equipment.
These engines don't have all the pollution control crap that vehicles
have.

Dean Hoffman wrote:

Feasible yes. Practical? Probably not for many people.
I live in a rural area. Some farmers I know did run their pickups
on propane. They also use propane for grain drying and to run
irrigation power units. A very few also had propane burning farm
tractors years ago. That didn't catch on due in part to the
inconvenience of propane compared to gasoline or diesel fuel.

I was thinking about this recently and realized it's probably a lot hard to do
coversions on modern vehicles than it used to be in the days of float
carburators.

You used to be able to put a propane "collar" under the carb that would feed the
vapor into the intake and all you needed to do was remove power to the fuel pump
or close the fuel line.

On modern vehicles with computer controlled direct or throttle body injection, I
would think it becomes a huge task to chage fuels.

Robert Neville wrote in
:

Dean Hoffman wrote:

Feasible yes. Practical? Probably not for many people.
I live in a rural area. Some farmers I know did run their pickups
on propane. They also use propane for grain drying and to run
irrigation power units. A very few also had propane burning farm
tractors years ago. That didn't catch on due in part to the
inconvenience of propane compared to gasoline or diesel fuel.

I was thinking about this recently and realized it's probably a lot
hard to do coversions on modern vehicles than it used to be in the
days of float carburators.

You used to be able to put a propane "collar" under the carb that
would feed the vapor into the intake and all you needed to do was
remove power to the fuel pump or close the fuel line.

On modern vehicles with computer controlled direct or throttle body
injection, I would think it becomes a huge task to chage fuels.


I believe most cars today use multi-port injection for better emissions
control.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

On Dec 15, 11:24*pm, Robert Neville wrote:
Dean Hoffman wrote:
* *Feasible yes. *Practical? *Probably not for many people.
* *I live in a rural area. *Some farmers I know did run their pickups
on propane. * They also use propane for grain drying and to run
irrigation power units. *A very few also had propane burning farm
tractors years ago. * *That didn't catch on due in part to the
inconvenience of propane compared to gasoline or diesel fuel.

I was thinking about this recently and realized it's probably a lot hard to do
coversions on modern vehicles than it used to be in the days of float
carburators.

You used to be able to put a propane "collar" under the carb that would feed the
vapor into the intake and all you needed to do was remove power to the fuel pump
or close the fuel line.

On modern vehicles with computer controlled direct or throttle body injection, I
would think it becomes a huge task to chage fuels.

The injector bit is just left there, They put in the coversion
"collar" as before.
In the carburretor cars the carburretor wasn't actually used. Niether
is it in the injection cars. So whichever it is, carb. or injection,
it makes no difference at all.

The petrol gear is left for emergency, ie if you can't get propane.
It's just a switch on the panel to change over. The main snag being
two fuel tanks.