Propane prices this winter
 

Curious what people are paying for bulk propane purchases this winter. We use about 850 gallons over the 5 heating months. I did not sign up for prepay this year but wondered how the proliferation of heat devices at restaurants might drive up demand for propane this winter.

I’m paying 1.449 with Rymes but I’m in a buying group in my HOA

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Just paid $2 per gallon for 160. No program call when needed


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$1.30/gal. Amerigas

Are you getting this rate as a new customer or are you buying this through a group? Do you own your own tank or are you leasing it through Amerigas? Thanks in advance.

Part of a HOA. We don’t own the tank...it was transferred to Amerigas from White Mountain.

$1.19 Rymes but buying through a business group and they include our homes at the same rate.

It’s amazing I’m in Rymes group also and I’m 1.449.

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Those posting prices should also post usage since propane pricing is always priced by tiers, often even within buying groups.

It's something I've never quite understood. Seems to be the only heating fuel where you can be penalized for conserving.

I'm surprised at this pricing as I paid $2.359, they own the tanks and remotely monitor usage.

We have used very little the past few years because of going to Florida. We set thermostat to 55, plus electric backup. Anyhow, that hasn’t affected the price. Our needs have changed because we are still in NH, and they have been informed of the usage change, yet we are now running on fumes. I will give them until Friday to fill up, then give another blast. 🤨

You better get on them early. My son just had a nightmare of a time getting them to fill his tanks. I guess they are really backed up.

My $2 per is based on one fill a year. Currently only a gas parlor stove use. Hopefully hot water in the future


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Geeze um. I’m getting screwed. I just got 261.3 gallons at $3.44 a gallon.....

Guessing you may want to rethink your supplier


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Couple questions.

How much Propane per year are you using? Im'usimg under 500 gallons so they say I pay a higher price. If I got up to like 900 gallons the price would be much less.

Are you paying any delivery fees? Im not.

Any other costs added to your bill?

My consumption up until now was based on my house used maybe a few weekends a month in the winter and thermo left at 50 degrees during week. I also have a pellet stove that I ran on weekends when here so the gas heat doesnt come on with that running.

I moved here now so trying to sort this all out. The pellet stove heats the house now. Maybe it costs me more than its worth LOL. I have 4 tons of pellets and Based on consumption so far Ill use them all.

There are many cooperative buying programs out there for lower volumes of propane use so you can capitalize on better pricing.

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Based on usage.....our group uses around 150k gallons
Which is why we get the lower rate
$1.44 is a pretty good price

Beware Amerigas!
 

This season there’s been a real problem with Amerigas. Eight days ago, I spoke with them re our meter at 20%, so the best she could do was a delivery between 5-10 days, so my husband called Thursday, was told we were scheduled for yesterday.....and guess what? NO DELIVERY yesterday. He called again this morning, and was told Monday! Talk about nervous? I am a wreck, because they clearly cannot be trusted. Fortunately, we can use the electric heat if we must, but do we really need another frozen pipe disaster? As they say...BUYER BEWARE!
🤨

Wow that’s a huge group, 150k gallons. Awesome you can take advantage of it.

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Sue, again, I feel so sorry for you. I feel you pain. Been there done that as I said. I still don't know what is wrong with these companies.

We paid $131.82 on 11/13 for 56.6 gallons plus $6.35 Hazard Impact. Total: $138.17. Rymes.

What is your yearly usage? I have Rymes and am paying about $2.40 per gallon but my usage is less than a 1000 gallons per year....

Dan

Rymes
 

I only get about 50-60 gallons per year.
Last propane delivery- 4/25/20
-47.7gal, @ $3.539/gal. = $168.81
-$6.35 Hazzard impact fee
-Total $175.16
I've paid over $4.00/gal. in the past- nothing you can do.

They never (ok, seldom) miss with automatic delivery of both oil and propane, and the service people have been friendly and never (ok, again, seldom) have to come back.

Thumbs up!

Except if you get automatic delivery and run low because your generators has been running for days due to loss of power, don't expect them to break the sequence and make a delivery sooner than was planned with the automatic delivery.

I hear you- but isn't that what generators are for?

Rymes HAS "broken the sequence" for me, in the past.
This has been true even before they bought Fuller out. This is why, even when people were throwing stones at Fuller, I stayed.
Again- Two thumbs up!

Yes thankful we have it. But I need somebody to fill it even if it’s not on the regular schedule which Rymes wouldn’t do. You must be special.

Good to know and to keep an eye on as I have a generator and use Rhymes. Thank you for the heads up.

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Happy ending
 

Amerigas showed up at 8:30, and 385 gallons later, such relief! I am no mathematician, but my figuring says we were at 8% before the fill up.....too dicey!

Just in the nick of time, going to get real cold.:eek:

80%
 

In your calculations, remember that tanks are only filled to 80% to allow for expansion and contraction due to temperature changes.

Dave

If you're not comfortable with your provider then do consider making a change so you can sleep well at night. Bursting pipes just aren't worth so much stress! It sounds like this is the way Amerigas operates.

Another option could be a "tandem" tank to double your capacity.....

Further on that (on the Amerigas site, too) is this:https://www.amerigas.com/amerigas-bl...cent-fill-rule

What they could have added, but perhaps considered "too much information," is that there must be adequate vapor space above the liquid level for disengaging of liquid splatter from the top of the boiling surface when the heating system or generator is drawing fuel for use. Propane absorbs heat from the ambient air, through the tank wall, to vaporize liquid for flow through the piping. This boiling must occur, even when the outside temperature is 20 below, to provide at least a few psi of pressure to move propane vapor to the appliance. [OK, perhaps the above is TMI!].

Again...
 

I hear you-waiting on heating fuel delivery is not fun.

Sorry if i offended you, but no need to be "smart" or snarky.
After-all maybe I AM special- or you're just not. :(

No, you didn't offend me at all. I didn't take your comment that way. Nor did I mean to be snarky. I just made the remark with my dry sense of humor- Often when you write rather than talk to people it is interpreted incorrectly. Sorry.

I went through my receipts and it is so far 312.8 gallons. We closed on the house on 12/31/19 and moved in on 2/8/20. It is 1100 square feet. A ranch.

We just had a generator installed as well. Only lost power once so far for an hour and a half. Of course, it comes on once per week to test itself.

I believe Rymes has now been bought out by Superior but not advertising it.

Happened to our company in NY as well- Superior bought out a great family business that we used for our oil and propane and things went downhill from there. I hope that will not be the case with Rymes.

That’s an incredible price for that little usage...Don’t be surprised if a “correction” occurs in the near future. Until then enjoy the low price!

Dan

It appears that Superior has in fact acquired Rymes. See NH https://quickstart.sos.nh.gov/online...inessID=685904

https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...ropane-and-Oil

Me too!
Because I've started working from home, my heating cost will rise.
I called Rymes, yesterday, to make sure they adjust their automatic delivery to me.
I think we all know they use things like degree days and past delivery records to forecast for automatic delivery- Expectedly, I won't get left short.

That reminds me - when we were getting quotes for the standby generator one guy said we should get an additional tank. We currently have 2 / 100 gallon tanks for our heat.

We didn’t do it but I guess that’s an option if there are any issues in the future.

A 100 gallon tank for a standby generator? Maybe in summer. Talk to your propane supplier about the correct size of propane tank for fueling a generator. It's more than just how many hours of run time you want during a power outage. A generator of a given size (KW) needs fuel at a certain rate to run at full capacity. As I mentioned earlier in this thread (#33), liquid propane is vaporized using heat absorbed from its surroundings, presumably air around an above-ground tank. Rate of vaporization is proportional to surface area for heat transfer and to temperature difference across the tank wall. When air temperature drops, the temperature of the propane in the tank (and the pressure) must also drop to provide the required temperature difference. At some very low outside temperature, the pressure of the propane boiling inside the tank drops to a point just barely adequate to move propane vapor to the generator.

The supplier should have tables that will give vaporization rate required for a given generator size and rate sustainable at some minimum air temperature for a given tank size. That sets tank size needed.

Thanks. Yes- that guy was trying to sell us a 14k generator. That would have been 3 / 100 gallon tanks, including the 2 we have already for heat.

We ended up with a 10k- hooked up to our 2/ 100 gallon tanks- again that also fuel our heat.

At our other home - which was 2600 square feet- we had a 16k with 2/ 100 gallon tanks, but we heated the house with oil, not propane.

One thing we did in our former home is if we had a long power outage, we shut the generator off over night to save on propane.

filled today $1.82/gallon
 

Just got 250 gallons today at $1.82/gallon. Not part of a buying coop but have threaten to join one if Eastern did not come down on their price. While not the lowest price around, I don't want to go through hassle of yanking their buried tank out of the ground and buying one so I can shop around. Typically use about 1200 gallons over the course of a year (heating, dryer, stove and hot water).

If you change they don't yank it out of the ground. The new company buys it. I asked.

If it's above ground they swap it out and you have to get credit for remaining gas from the old tank.

Right but mis said he/she didn't want to "go through the hassle of digging their buried tank out of the ground" so that's what I was responding to. Because I had thought the same thing.

Curious, how deep are the propane tanks buried?


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Just to be clear I did not mean $131.82 per gallon. That was our total bill in dollars minus the hazard fee. So we paid like $2.32 per gallon.

Ahhhh...Thanks for clarifying, I misunderstood.

Now I don’t feel so bad!! :):)

Dan

I also use Rymes. But each year I join Our Town Energy Alliace and pay the $30.00 fee. When OTEA sends out their schedule of propane prices in the Spring, I contact Rymes and ask them to match the OTEA price which for this year was $1.70 for 1,400gallons. That price was for 1,201 to 2,000 gallons. I have a 500 gallon under ground tank and switching to Rymes several years ago was a FITA, due to my prior supplier. Rymes has always matched with no issues. We shall see if their acquisition impacts that next year.

We swapped to Rymes for service as much as price. The service crews that changed over all of our accounts was excellent. They discovered several leaks in the piping that had gone undetected.
Have not needed them in an emergency but so far so good

So to join one of these groups best to do in early spring like March and get in on next years buy?

Yes. I use Our Town Energy Alliance to get the prices and then use those prices to negotiate with my supplier.

https://ourtownenergyalliance.com/

Just paid $2.07/gal, after 10-day-payment discount, from Eastern with Our Town Energy membership. Usage in the 401-700 gal tier.

Rymes delivery yesterday. 91.7 gallons at $2.83 per gallon.