Propane for Economical Heating

One of the things I love about using propane as a heating fuel is the great economy I get from small, efficient portable propane heaters and still be warm indoors. Using low settings, only heating rooms that are occupied and making sure my home is properly insulated are the three main cost savings in terms of fuel consumption.

So how can you get the most from your propane heater while using the least amount of fuel and therefore spending the least amount of money on replenishing used fuel? This article takes a look at some of the ways in which I keep my costs down to the bare minimum.

Using Less Fuel

If anyone had said to me that I should economize on my home's heating fuel consumption when I was working a high paying job many years ago, I would have thought they were nuts. Why would I do that when fuel was cheap and I could afford to be a little extravagant?

Now I understand, with the benefit of a very different perspective. I no longer have a great wage and fuel is much more expensive than it once was. So I need to keep my fuel consumption within my current, much smaller budget.

The simple, no brainer approach is simply to use less fuel. Easy, you might say, but wait a minute; how easy is it actually?

Making the Fuel Count

Sure, you can use much less propane by keeping the heaters turned down to their lowest setting, but that might not produce enough heat to keep me and my family warm. In fact, it certainly won't!

Or at least it didn't used to. That was before I got economy savvy and learned a thing or two about energy conservation.

I learned that a properly insulated house uses much less fuel to stay warm because less of the energy is wasted by leeching out through the attic, window and any other gaps. So my first step was to insulate the attic, get my windows all fixed so there were no gaps anywhere and same went for door frames and any other openings to the outside world.

I also bought some heavy drapes to completely cover the windows because these can keep a lot of heat in a room that would otherwise radiate out through the window glass. I had all hot water pipes in the attic insulated as well, so I wasn't wasting that resource to the atmosphere.

Then I turned my attention to the heat source

Choosing Propane as the Most Economical Fuel

As I live in a big town with little usable forest space close by, using a wood burning furnace was not feasible because of the higher cost of that fuel medium. Electricity was also too expensive, so I looked at propane and discovered it was hands down the cheapest fuel. Still is, in fact.

So I got three small portable propane heaters from the local store for a good price and a supply of gas cans for use as additional space heaters, while I also got a full size propane heater for our main living room that was hooked up to an outside tank. One of the portable units went into the bathroom to be used when anyone wanted a shower.

I found the main heater provided enough heat to keep the house warm enough on all but the coldest nights, when one or more of the portable propane heater units were brought out to supplement the heat. I drummed it into the kids to make sure that doors to unused rooms were kept closed and that we should try and all be together in the one place in the evenings, like our communal living room.

Happy Family Bonuses

As a by-product of this, we actually have a better family relationship than many of our neighbors who seem to spread out through their homes and almost never talk to each other! Now we talk more, eat together and are closer because of it.

Using heating fuel wisely and making sure it is not wasted was an important consideration for me because I simply do not have the spare cash to waste. In fact, even if I did, I wouldn't waste it on heat escaping to the outside. Much better to spend it on a nice vacation, right?

More information on home fuel economy can be found here: http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/overview-home-heating-systems