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Propane gas home use

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Magicfloat

Charter Member
Any experts out there? Our house uses propane gas for a 75 gallon water heater,an outdoor grill,and a commercial type kitchen stove(6 burners, 2 ovens,griddle)Karen cooks every day,only 2 of us,No gas heat,all electric heat. We are using 75 gallons a month,that's about 2.5 gallons a day. Some of my friends say I must have a leak,gas company says it's about right. Should I pay to have a leak test?
 
Have the test done,at least it will give you piece of mind. What is the estimated annual cost to operate the water heater? How many burners and ovens are you wife using on that 48" range?
 
in my days as a firefighter, I have seen what a propane leak/explosion does to a house and a family... if there is even a 1% chance you think you have a leak, have it checked.
 
If you have a leak in or near the house chances are you would catch the occasional wiff of propane. Call your supplier theres a good chance they will come and do a leakdown and sniff test for free. One real simple place to start is by checking all of the in line ball valves in the house, if they turn on and off easily chances are they are leaking.
 
There is just two of us at my house and we have our oven/stove and a gas fireplace on propane on an 80 gallon tank. I didn't have to fill it the first time (it was full when we moved in) for 18 months. We had the fireplace on almost every night last winter.

Bottom line...We've been in our house for 31 months and have used as much propane as you use every 3 months!!!!! Get it checked!!!!

PS- We did learn that leaving the pilot light on in the fireplace eats up the propane. I know that the water heater would have the pilot on, does the stove have a continuous pilot as well??
 
2.5G/day doesn't seem too far off for that size water-heater and daily cooking. Where's your water heater? - In the garage, I assume, where it can get chilly - and that's a good-size amount of water to keep hot (it's about twice what mine holds - but we don't need big ones in FL, as the ground water is never less than 70 degrees or so). Not to mention cooking eats up quite a bit of gas. I know when we cook a lot in a given month, I notice a noticeable increase in our bill. Propane provides about 92,000 btu's energy per gallon. A typical 75-gallon water heater consumes about 70,000 - 80,000 btu's per hour of operation. If I had to guess I'd estimate that my water heater probably runs for about 15 minutes at a time, and it maybe kicks on every 2 hours or so. Also, pilot lights use up more than you may think.

So, it's not unreasonable for the water heater to use a bit more than a gallon per day of propane, maybe even 2G/day in colder climates. Add a couple stove burners running a couple hours a day, and there you have it.

Nevertheless, if you even suspect a leak, get it checked.
 
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The stove has 7 continuous pilot lights that burn all the time. I looked on the sticker on the water heater,says average use 310 gallons a year,just under a gallon a day,so if it uses a gallon a day,could the range use 1-1/2 galllons? I have checked as well as I can,don't smell anything, the gas company is going to search their records to see what I have bought over the past sevearal years to see a trend. It may be I have always used a lot,just never paid attention when it was $1 a gallon,now it's $3.30.
 
Holy crap, 7 pilot lights, or make that 8 with your water heater...there's your problem right there.

From what I've read an average pilot light can consume anywhere from 750 to 1250 BTUs an hour. Let's say it's only 750 to be conservative, That's 750 x 24hours x 8 = 144000 BTUs a day!!!! There's a Gallon-and-a-half right there.
 
Thanks,CigDaze. When I told my gas supplier today that the range had 7 pilot lights,he freaked,said he had never seen one like that,and that was the problem.The upside to this is even tho my gas bill is high,I do eat quite well every night as Karen is a gourmet cook.and she loves her commercial range,so I will just pay the bill,shut up.and eat. :)Thanks for all the comments.
 
I just paid around 2 dollars a gallon for propane for my cabin . I have propane heat and the fireplace is propane(which I'm converting back to regular fireplace). My dad always taught me propane is good because it's a fixed cost and natural gas companies will bill you year round.
 
$2 is a bargain for sure. I paid $3.40 yesterday and $3.10 a month ago. Don't really know the pricing structure but locally over the past 3-4 years,the same gas company started buying up the other guys,they have several different names but common ownership,and all the same price.A monopoly.I guess,but what can I do?
 
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