Early Season Supply Woes

[rancher2]

The price of propane jumps around a fair amount in this area. I hadn't bought any in 10 years and this winter my Garn started leaking water so it was shut down from May-July while I repaired it. So I filled my propane tank back up it was 85 cents a gallon not bad. A few years ago one winter propane was $4.00 to $5.00 a gallon and I had people calling looking for wood and I hadn't sold wood in 15 years.

 

[svk]

I’m paying $1.19 or less this winter for propane because I’m tied to a commercial business and buy for three locations. The going rate is 1.29 which still isn’t bad.

We were running electric the winter that propane went nuts. I had 700 gallons in my tank that I would gladly have sold at cost to my friends but of course it’s almost impossible to transfer propane.

 

[Jhenderson]

Propane prices are all over the map, literally. Here in Southern New England I’m paying $3.75 and that’s $ 1-2 less than a lot of folks.

 

[spike60]

Got my once a year oil delivery yesterday. $2.49 a gallon. Was $2.41 a month ago, so starting to inch up a bit as the heating season nears. In a tecchnical sense it started, because I had my first kill the chill fire Wed night. Just burned some cookies and scraps.

I guess oil remains popular here in the Northeast, but pretty much nowhere else? Natural gas is availabe in the small cities, but away from them propane is the other option. Around here, propane prices are viewed as far more unstable than oil, and people are resentful of the silly rules that propane companies saddle you with vs the oil companies. Things like tank "rentals" and installation cost, consumption based pricing and such. People don't complain about the oil companies, but they sure gripe about the propane companies.

Plus the infrastructure for oil seems better than for propane. Prices can go up with either, but there's never a fear even in the worst winter of running out of oil.

But all that's why we're here to talk about wood, which always looks better to me.

 

[svk]

As long as I fill my tank once a year I don’t have any tank rental fees.

Ferrellgas pulled a dirty one about 25 years back and offered a temporary discount to people who owned their own tanks. On the fine print in the contract the discount was actually to buy the tanks back which means they now held all the cards. My dad had unknowingly done this and after he passed we changed providers.

 

[rancher2]

I grew up in the 60's and 70's in the fuel business . My folks sold a lot of number one and number two heating oil. In our area folks had heating oil stoves or fuel oil furnaces. We even sold fuel oil to schools and hospitals. My dad set up and started selling propane also in the mid 60's. By the time my mom sold the business and retired in the early 90's the winter fuel oil business was almost non exist and the propane business was booming. As houses got updated every one went to propane. I just switched an oil furnace out for a buddy's sister this last spring as it was getting harder for her to get number one for her out door tank that only held 150 gallons. Fuel company's around here charge extra for small amounts. Even with propane now I think the min is 200 gallons or you pay a sir charge. She now has propane and central air.