Gas vs electric cost calculation?

For us it is a little different. at ACOE CG's electric is fine. At NF and SP CG's where an electric site is $5 to $8 per night more then a non electric; we will go without as a 20# bottle of propane runs a little over $8 to as much as $20 to fill but lasts 2 and 1/2 weeks.

pulsar wrote:
A gallon of propane contains approximately 91,500 BTUs, which is equivalent to 26.8 kWh. To compare the costs, efficiencies would have to be considered. A typical propane furnace is probably about 85% efficient. At that rate, a gallon of propane provides about the same heat as 22.8 kWh of electricity.

The rest of the calculation depends on the prices of propane and electricity.

Since in our travels, we don't pay for electricity above the cost of the camp site, we use electricity for everything, when we have a 50-amp connection.

Tom

And us camp owners expect that and set our unmetered site fee schedules accordingly. You are welcome to use the power as available on unmetered sites. In our experience here on long term sites, with metered electric it is about 20% cheaper to use propane over our passed forward cost ( state regulated) elec. rate of $.14/KwH
Your state elec. rates and propane costs may be much different.

SDcampowneroperator wrote:

pulsar wrote:
A gallon of propane contains approximately 91,500 BTUs, which is equivalent to 26.8 kWh. To compare the costs, efficiencies would have to be considered. A typical propane furnace is probably about 85% efficient. At that rate, a gallon of propane provides about the same heat as 22.8 kWh of electricity.

The rest of the calculation depends on the prices of propane and electricity.

Since in our travels, we don't pay for electricity above the cost of the camp site, we use electricity for everything, when we have a 50-amp connection.

Tom

And us camp owners expect that and set our unmetered site fee schedules accordingly. You are welcome to use the power as available on unmetered sites. In our experience here on long term sites, with metered electric it is about 20% cheaper to use propane over our passed forward cost ( state regulated) elec. rate of $.14/KwH
Your state elec. rates and propane costs may be much different.

We have never stayed in a campground in which we were offered a metered site. Do you offer them to overnighters and two or three day campers? Do you offer metered sites only to long-stay campers?

We assume that we are being charged for the electricity we use, that is one of the reasons we us our electricity - usually for air conditioning, but sometimes for heat Occasionally, we are asked if we plan to use electric heat and are told there is an additional charge. In those instances, we use propane heat. We've not been asked if we were going to use A/C?

Tom

If you go HERE you can download a small program that will make the simple calculation for you.
It allows you to enter the appliance efficiency.

According to an email to me from engineering at Suburban Manufacturing, the efficiency of RV furnaces ranges from 70 to 80 percent. Water heaters are 70 percent on gas.

Note: Because Microsoft in their infinite wisdom didn't include the software to support the older help file formats, for Windows Vista and higher you will need to download and install a Microsoft program that allows you to use help files with the "hlp" extension for whatever operating system you are using - if you want to use the help file (not really necessary to use the program)..
You can download it here Microsoft Knowledge Base. Scroll down to select your operating system.

pulsar wrote:

SDcampowneroperator wrote:

pulsar wrote:
A gallon of propane contains approximately 91,500 BTUs, which is equivalent to 26.8 kWh. To compare the costs, efficiencies would have to be considered. A typical propane furnace is probably about 85% efficient. At that rate, a gallon of propane provides about the same heat as 22.8 kWh of electricity.

The rest of the calculation depends on the prices of propane and electricity.

Since in our travels, we don't pay for electricity above the cost of the camp site, we use electricity for everything, when we have a 50-amp connection.

Tom

And us camp owners expect that and set our unmetered site fee schedules accordingly. You are welcome to use the power as available on unmetered sites. In our experience here on long term sites, with metered electric it is about 20% cheaper to use propane over our passed forward cost ( state regulated) elec. rate of $.14/KwH
Your state elec. rates and propane costs may be much different.

We have never stayed in a campground in which we were offered a metered site. Do you offer them to overnighters and two or three day campers? Do you offer metered sites only to long-stay campers?

We assume that we are being charged for the electricity we use, that is one of the reasons we us our electricity - usually for air conditioning, but sometimes for heat Occasionally, we are asked if we plan to use electric heat and are told there is an additional charge. In those instances, we use propane heat. We've not been asked if we were going to use A/C?

Tom

No camp I know of offers a lower daily or weekly site fee with metered electric on less than a month stay. The time of reading the meter on arrival, then on departure then calculating the charge and adjusting rental fees amounts to little change for guests or us.
If yours is a special condition, it would not hurt to ask about fee adjustment. I welcome PMs to explore the issue.
Max

I don't know about RV's. But, in my area you just can't afford to heat your home with electric. Propane is much cheaper.

If you have an extend a stay and or they deliver propane to the site I might use more propane. If I have to un hook and go get propane it would be worth 20% more not to half to. Keep in mind if you do start your rig you need to drive about 20-25 miles to get it up to temperature. Now figure the added cost of fuel how does that work out. If I have an extend a stay and a 30# tank It might be cheaper to use more propane.
Bill

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I don't know about RV's. But, in my area you just can't afford to heat your home with electric. Propane is much cheaper.

Two big differences though are, first a typical furnace in the S & B is 85 - 90% efficient, in an RV I doubt you'd get much more than 65 - 70% efficiency. The other is price of fuel, in the S & B you're paying by the metered gallon, in an RV (unless you rent a big tank) you're paying by the pound, a notoriously expensive way to do it.

JaxDad wrote:
The other is price of fuel, in the S & B you're paying by the metered gallon, in an RV (unless you rent a big tank) you're paying by the pound, a notoriously expensive way to do it.

Hmmm .... whenever we fill the built-in 18 gallon propane tank on our Class C motorhome the charge is always by the gallon. I usually watch the meter on the big tank at the facility that the nozzle is drawing from as they fill our tank. Those meters read in "gallons". It's been that way for all places where we have filled the tank at over the years. I've never heard of paying for propane by the pound.

Maybe it's a U.S. versus Canada difference?

pnichols wrote:

JaxDad wrote:
The other is price of fuel, in the S & B you're paying by the metered gallon, in an RV (unless you rent a big tank) you're paying by the pound, a notoriously expensive way to do it.

Hmmm .... whenever we fill the built-in 18 gallon propane tank on our Class C motorhome the charge is always by the gallon. I usually watch the meter on the big tank at the facility that the nozzle is drawing from as they fill our tank. Those meters read in "gallons". It's been that way for all places where we have filled the tank at over the years. I've never heard of paying for propane by the pound.

Maybe it's a U.S. versus Canada difference?

While most places fill the permanently mounted tanks by the gallon(US) most removable tanks are filled setting on a scale by the pound.
That is why most removable tanks are refer to by the weight of propane, by the pound 30# 40#.
Bill