Electric or Propane When Paying for Electric?

I'm glad you guys like the use of the word worry maybe I should have said be concerned about it. Maybe I should have said monitor usage?
How do you know when to call the LP guy? Do you monitor your usage? Do you just call every other Friday or at some other regular interval?
Maybe you're just looking for something to do?
With electric there is absolutely nothing else to do which is how I prefer it.
No phone calls,no monitoring,no credit cards on file. No additional task required.
Now of course if your just looking for something to do. Call the LP guy he'll be out on Friday.

Use more than 500 kWh every two months here, and suddenly you is paying .52 american $ eqvt for every kilowatt hour starting with "1". Being propane/butane is $2.52 a gallon with inventive pricing this gets a little rough around the edges.

Pots and cylinders have size ratings, like a 20 pound pot or a 100 pound cylinder.

When they are refilled ya pay through the snotbox for the whole load. A hundred pounds, twenty pounds. Ooooooooo how about the 15% safety? The tank is not stuffed. Oooooooooo too bad, that doesn't count.

Now go run and check your 1,000 kWh bill. How would you like to have to pay five hundred dollars for the privilege? But that can't happen of course. There are too many outages for the bill to run -too- high.

Wow, that almost twice what they're charging here. Apparently it is more expensive in the summer here though. All those AC's taxing the energy grid and all that.

Lol, it's good to see I'm not the only one out there who's not worried ;)

Tim Czarkowski
TotalTravelers.com

-Still Not Worried

buylow12 wrote:
I'm not worried about it. It's more that I'm just interested to know. If I wanted to I could run both my AC's and then crank up all three heater because it's too **** cold. However I'd prefer to do whatever is most efficient. Don't you worry about me, I'm as worry free as can be. I am living a dream after all ;)

The electric here you get 150 kwh free and then it's 0.086376/kwh. I also found out they have a propane delivery guy that comes by every Friday and charges 3.15/gal. My credit card is on file now and all I have to is call sometime before Friday and they'll fill it up whether I'm here or not. So they seem equally convenient. Even if I had to drive to fill it up there is a place not a mile up the road, it's not exactly slave labor were talking about here.

Anyways from what I know about fridges I don't see how running it on propane couldn't be more efficient. From what I've heard a two way fridge on electric takes 5x or 10x the amount of electricity vs a traditional home unit. On top of that, at least when it's hot out, it seems to do a rather poor job of keeping the freezer as cold as possible. I've noticed when it's hot out and I'm running it on electric that my ice cream tends to get soft. I don't have that problem on propane and that's enough reason alone to run it on propane.

As far as the heater I have both the built in furnace and a ventless catalytic heater. I basically never use the furnace because as said earlier it's not particularly efficient. However the catalytic heater is supposedly 99% efficient or some such. I know using them in Rv's horrifies so people but I have to say I'm not concerned in the least. However I'm thinking I'll use the electric space heater just for convenience. Plus I can place it in the bedroom and only heat that area rather than the whole place. However I'm definitely going to check out that calculator, because I'm INTERESTED not WORRIED, lol.

Lastly as far as the water heater I'll probably run that on propane too because it heats the water up both warmer and quicker than the electric. In addition I'm pretty sure it'll be more efficient. I would think I could use that calculator to find out either way for that also. I know back at my home in Jacksonville gas was always more efficient.

Both electric and gas are about the same hassle, which is to say none at all, so why not use whatever is the most efficient?

Tim Czarkowski
TotalTravelers.com

Water heater.....
Propane does heat quicker BUT whether heated by electric or propane water temp should be SAME.
Electric/Propane use same pre-set temperature t-stats. Suburban uses separate t-stats but same temp (130*F) and since 2004 Atwood uses the same t-stats for both electric/propane (140*F)

Lantley wrote:
Sorry but for $5.00 why worry about it? Considering the extra I have to go thru to possibly save $5.00. It's just easier to use electric.
If I can have an unlimited supply of worry free energy. Why even mess around with the limited supply?

Who said that anyone was "worried" about it? The guy comes in the park and I give him the money for propane or hand the money to the park owners for electricity. I am not "worried" about changing out a tank now and then. Besides, I need the exercise and it gets me away from the computer for a while. -Not Worried

Just checked the APS electric bill and I'm paying a little under 15 cents per kwh.
I am in the Foothills, Yuma AZ

I'm not worried about it. It's more that I'm just interested to know. If I wanted to I could run both my AC's and then crank up all three heater because it's too **** cold. However I'd prefer to do whatever is most efficient. Don't you worry about me, I'm as worry free as can be. I am living a dream after all ;)

The electric here you get 150 kwh free and then it's 0.086376/kwh. I also found out they have a propane delivery guy that comes by every Friday and charges 3.15/gal. My credit card is on file now and all I have to is call sometime before Friday and they'll fill it up whether I'm here or not. So they seem equally convenient. Even if I had to drive to fill it up there is a place not a mile up the road, it's not exactly slave labor were talking about here.

Anyways from what I know about fridges I don't see how running it on propane couldn't be more efficient. From what I've heard a two way fridge on electric takes 5x or 10x the amount of electricity vs a traditional home unit. On top of that, at least when it's hot out, it seems to do a rather poor job of keeping the freezer as cold as possible. I've noticed when it's hot out and I'm running it on electric that my ice cream tends to get soft. I don't have that problem on propane and that's enough reason alone to run it on propane.

As far as the heater I have both the built in furnace and a ventless catalytic heater. I basically never use the furnace because as said earlier it's not particularly efficient. However the catalytic heater is supposedly 99% efficient or some such. I know using them in Rv's horrifies so people but I have to say I'm not concerned in the least. However I'm thinking I'll use the electric space heater just for convenience. Plus I can place it in the bedroom and only heat that area rather than the whole place. However I'm definitely going to check out that calculator, because I'm INTERESTED not WORRIED, lol.

Lastly as far as the water heater I'll probably run that on propane too because it heats the water up both warmer and quicker than the electric. In addition I'm pretty sure it'll be more efficient. I would think I could use that calculator to find out either way for that also. I know back at my home in Jacksonville gas was always more efficient.

Both electric and gas are about the same hassle, which is to say none at all, so why not use whatever is the most efficient?

Tim Czarkowski
TotalTravelers.com

I've never liked to use electric heating in my rig. Too uneven. On near-freezing nights it means 3,300 watts, add in the refrigerator, converter and whoopee - overload for a 30-amp circuit. Many propane distributors can set a 100 lb cylinder with a fast-fill valve and have the bulk truck drive around once every two weeks. Use your rig's tank for just in case backup.

Nothing as fun as having an electrical outage with your rig's tank 1/8th full.

TomG2 wrote:

racer4 wrote:
Calculator for The Cost of Heat.

Plug in YOUR numbers and find out.

Thanks for the link to some real numbers instead of guesses for those of us who might find it easier to give the delivery man $15 for a tank of propane instead of paying the park $20 for their electricity. I do know that some retirees still think their time is worth $40/hour. Mine isn't.

Sorry but for $5.00 why worry about it? Considering the extra I have to go thru to possibly save $5.00. It's just easier to use electric.
If I can have an unlimited supply of worry free energy. Why even mess around with the limited supply?

Fishinghat wrote:
Normally, electric is more efficient then propane cost wise. However, at some parks we've stayed at, the park doubles the cost per kilowatt that the local utility charges them. That is because the park owns the electrical system in the park, including the posts and the meters.

Still, for convenience, I'd still use the electric option. Otherwise, you'll have to have your propane tank refilled frequently. For us in Yuma, the cost was almost equal in the park. On a private lot, the cost of electric was half. The only exception would be the frig. It is a very efficient user of propane, but uses quite a bit of electric to accomplish heating the coils. So, leave the frig on propane.

In some areas hiking up the electric rates is not allowed unless the RV park is registered and regulated as a public utility. They can charge extra for reading the meter/billng and some infrastructure. How closely that is watched is up for anyone's guess