Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[greybeard]

The last time they filled (12/28) I had looked at the gauge a few days earlier and it was about 30%. Paid over $1K for the "fill" and yes I think you are right, they only seemed to have gone to 80%. Not sure why they don't go higher

From a propane company FAQ:
Q: I just had a propane delivery, but my propane tank isn't 100% full. How come?
A: Liquid propane expands quite a bit as the temperature rises.*In order to accommodate for this volume expansion, propane tanks aren't filled above 80% capacity. It's standard industry practice and important in order to maintain a safety margin.

(I don't really know much about propane tanks except that even at 80% they still float. I had one show up in my pasture in Sept 2017...the owner finally showed up to haul it home about 3 months ago and when he flipped the dome lid open red wasps about ate him up)

 

[greybeard]

used almost 400 gals in just over 3 months in a 2400sq ft house so you may have used that much if you keep the house nice and toasty. what propane company do you use? you may want to have them check to see if you have a leak some where along the line.

I think STA may also heat his shop with propane...

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All, thanks for commenting. The propane company, Anderson Propane of Ozark, AR, filled the tank yesterday. Almost $900. Since we own the tank, at least we are not captive to the propane company. As for how we heat our house, we keep the upstairs really cool. We turned on the heat up there one time to ensure it worked, and have kept it off ever since. We heat the master bath using a space heater. We have (or had) the the downstairs unit set at 68. We burn the gas fireplace almost all day, but turn it off at night. The shop does have a large gas heater, but there is a leak in the line somewhere which I have yet to track down, so the line is capped off. We had the line to the house leak tested by the propane company yesterday and they found no leaks. So it seems that the central heat simply uses a lot of propane. I decided to turn off the central heat and use space heaters. This morning when we got up it was 66 downstairs, so not too bad, and I only had 3 space heaters going -- one in the downstairs bathroom, one in the laundry room, and one in the great room. I think I will try that for awhile and see how much the costs change.

Thanks again for all of your comments.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Rammy]

Be careful with those space heaters. Too many times Ive heard of houses catching fire because they were placed too close to something or got tipped over, whatever.
I had thought about a propane tank just to have a backup heat source just in case of a power outage in the winter. But since I may move one day, kind of not sure if I should put the expense in. I wouldnt use it other than if the power went out, so buying propane to just sit there seems wasteful.
I used to have a propane space heater but ex didnt maintain it and it rusted and became a mouse house so had to throw it out. It might be better if I bought a new one for that purpose instead of investing in a tank.

 

[Bruce]

We burn the gas fireplace almost all day, but turn it off at night.

As in a real fireplace with a chimney and open hearth? Versus a propane burning stove in the hearth? Few things are as inefficient as a fireplace for heat. The heat mostly goes straight up the chimney pulling other interior air with it which then pulls cold outside air into the house. If that is what you have, I would run, not walk, to a "fireplace" store and see what options they have for something that would heat the house. A nice freestanding propane stove that vents out the chimney would be good.

OK, so propane expands when it warms up, 80% makes sense. How warm does it get when the tank is buried? I can see it in the summer more than the winter, at least up here.

 

[Rammy]

My neighbor has a real fireplace, but he installed this small wood burning stove in front of it sitting in front and ran the pipe up thru the chimney. Really heats the house up alot more than the actual fireplace. Real toasty in there when its going good.

 

[Ridgetop]

Bruce is right about the loss of heat up the chimney in a fireplace. If you are trying to use your gas fireplace (propane) to heat the house it might be very efficient. We are in California and a friend decided to use her natural gas fireplace last year instead of turning up the central heat during a cold snap. She said it doubled her gas bill and she only used the gas fireplace for a week! Since gas fires don't make a coal bed, which is where a lot of the heat comes from in a fireplace, you do not get as much heat off it as you think. Since your propane heat is so expensive, you could also check into changing it over to split system units. They are the ones that are on the walls, very unobtrusive, and do both heat and A/C.

You might want to look into a woodstove insert for the fireplace. They are very efficient and heat well. Some have fans built in them to blow the hot air into the room. With all the dead wood you are trimming back on your place, you should be able to get a good woodpile started for next year. Instead of doing a burn pile on the property, burn that wood in your wood burner fireplace! If you need to split the logs, you might be able to rent a gas wood splitter, or find one for sale cheaply. They come in several sizes and prices.

My aunt used a woodstove in Yelm and burned wood to heat her little house. It was only about 1000 sf, her windows were original, and her insulation was substandard. Even though she had put in insulation 30 years ago in the ceilings, the house was 100 years old and had the original walls - no insulation. We eventually put insulation in one wall in the kitchen, and 2 walls in the bathroom, when we did a lot of work there but not enough. We installed the split system for my aunt since I did not want her trying to haul wood on her walker! LOL Her wood stove worked really well though and she had lived there for 30 years with no other source of heat. We kept the wood stove since in case of a power outage, she would need it for heat. The current tenant is using the stove for heat to save on the power bills since it works so well! She also had a small pot bellied stove in the bunkhouse which we used last year when we were there in January. We were sorting out junk, etc., and it was really cold so DH decided to see if it worked. 2 pieces of wood lasted several hours and we had to take off our jackets! The bunkhouse is only about 12 x 15 in one room and 12 x 15 in the other with the stove kind in the middle between the rooms. We are going to keep that stove and bring it to Texas or wherever we move!

In Idaho, Debra used a wood burning stove in her fireplace and it kept everything warm. She set her central heating temp down to 60 or lower so it did not come on until about 2am when the house had cooled off. She has a large 2 story house with lots of windows and an open loft and the upstairs was really warm. The downstairs stayed warm with the wood burner stove, although the bedrooms got a little cold in the evening. An electric blanket or bed warmer tool care of that.

I think you should do what Bruce says and check into a wood burner. They also have stoves that use pellets that you can buy in bags.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Where we use to live, we had propane heat. We had the ventless wall hung kind with a pilot light. When we had to replace one of them, I bought a 4 burner that had a thermostat on it and it would turn off and on at set temps.....it sure beat the manual on/off that we replaced....we rented the tank and it took around $300 to fill it and it lasted us all winter....we only heated with it.....a 16x60' mobile home....

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. We are well aware of how well a wood burning stove works. We had a wood burning stock insert in our fireplace in Georgia and kept the house quite toasty. Our problem there was getting wood. Since we lived in a subdivision I had to buy the wood, which wasn't cheap. Here in Arkansas we have plenty of wood. Unfortunately the fireplace and chimney are made for looks, not burning wood. We priced having a real fireplace and chimney installed, and it was going to cost well over $20,000. Ouch! So now we have plenty of wood but no place to burn it!

We are quite aware of the dangers of space heaters. We used them in Georgia and in Texas, so we know to be careful about ensuring that they are not too close to drapes or furniture. The propane fireplace we have here is not vented, so all of the heat and moisture stays in the house. We burn it during the day when we are in the house but turn it off when we go outside or to bed.

Thanks again for all of your comments.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

If the "fireplace" you have now is not vented, that means it is not connected to a chimney of any sort. That negates all the comments regarding the inefficiency of fireplaces, all the heat stays in the house. So what you have is a fancy looking propane heater? Shouldn't use a lot of fuel, something is wrong somewhere.

That $20K has to include a brick chimney. You can connect a woodstove to a triple wall metal chimney, shouldn't cost near as much.