Heating Cost: Electric vs. Propane

[DallasSteve]

I'm not sure if this is the best forum category for this thread.

I am spending the winter in South Texas and we are back to heating the motorhome. I bought an electric heater because I like to minimize my trips to refill the propane tanks. Here at this park they have a propane service that comes by every week and I can pay them to refill my tanks.

My question is: Is there much difference in the cost of heating with the electric heater (at 16.5 cents per KWH in this park) versus using the propane heater. The propane heater uses the thermostat and so it is a little easier to control the temperature throughout the rig, but other than that the electric heater can keep us warm.

Also, do you trust a propane service to use good propane and fill your tanks? (I don't know if using bad propane is a real problem as I am new to this) Generally I took my tanks to Tractor Supply and trusted the to give me a good liquid/gas.

[ktmrfs]

philh wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:


Modern 20# tanks don't hold 20#...but that's mostly due to the overfill device limiting how full they can fill.

Incorrect. Modern 20lb tanks hold 4.4 gallons, aka 20 lbs.

Exchange services fill them to 15 or 16 lbs for cost reasons. Take an exchange tank to a refilling service like tractor supply, and you'll get 20lbs of propane.

exactly. and the exchange places put the fill amount in fine print. IMHO the only use for a exchange tank is to exchange an expired tank with a newer one!

[philh]

valhalla360 wrote:


Modern 20# tanks don't hold 20#...but that's mostly due to the overfill device limiting how full they can fill.

Incorrect. Modern 20lb tanks hold 4.4 gallons, aka 20 lbs.

Exchange services fill them to 15 or 16 lbs for cost reasons. Take an exchange tank to a refilling service like tractor supply, and you'll get 20lbs of propane.

[ktmrfs]

CarnationSailor wrote:
Last year we were in an RV park in Palm Springs from November thru March, and we paid for the electricity we used. I kept close track of our heating costs when using our heat pump and when using the propance furnace. The cost to heat by electric was virtually identical to the cost of heating with propane.

heat pump is about 3x more efficient that resistance heating. So in many cases a heat pump vs. propane may be a wash, but resistance heating then would be much more expensive.

[CavemanCharlie]

JRscooby wrote:
At home we use the furnace to keep the house about 62. We have electric heaters to run in bathroom, DWs sewing room, and living room.
When I was in the sleeper, down to about 20, I would use blankets and electric mattress pad. A small inverter powered a heat lamp that shined on the area next to bed. Turn it on, out of bed to crank the cat, stay in beam to dress and make coffee.

I've worked on the farm all my life and we have trucks to haul the grain so I know what you mean by your post. That being said when I first read that you ",out of bed to crank the cat" I laughed...

Poor kitty. lol :B

That and "When I was in the sleeper" could confuse some people that have never been around trucks.

I could never sleep at 20 even with all the effort you put in to make it tolerable.

Edit: Come to think of it. How did you even get a cat to start when it was 20 unless it was plugged in. And if it was why couldn't you just use that electric source to heat the sleeper ?

[DrewE]

I'd happily take $.165 per kWh; at my home in Vermont, I have to pay about $.18 per kWh between power company's rate and the state's (mandatory) charge to cover efficiency programs.

Electric rates vary quite a bit over the country. The northeast and California are the highest in the continental US (Alaska and Hawaii are even higher--understandable given their isolation). Louisiana is the lowest.

Interesting data (well, if you're interested in electric rates): https://www.chooseenergy.com/electricity-rates-by-state/

[DallasSteve]

travelnutz wrote:
Wow, 16.5/KWH is crazy expensive as here at owned home our electric power is 9.6/KWH and when in our Florida CG with our RV it's 10.3/KWH.

I agree the electric rate in this park is very high, but the rent here is very low, only $275, and it's a nice quiet park in the area where I want to be. So I figure they are making another $25 or so a month on my electric bill. I'd rather pay that than stay at one of the $500 parks around here even if their electric was 10 cents per KWH. If my electric bill runs high here, I will just switch my heating and cooking over to propane.

[travelnutz]

Wow, 16.5/KWH is crazy expensive as here at owned home our electric power is 9.6/KWH and when in our Florida CG with our RV it's 10.3/KWH. Both states forbid marking up the resale of propane unless you are a licensed propane dealer open to the public or the producers of the electrical power. CG must pass on the price paid per measure in these 2 states but others may have different laws to enable them to rip you off.

Our Florida CG we stay at used to have a mobile propane truck go thru every 2 weeks and could refill 20, 30, and 40 lb portable tanks but the new law down there is only 100 lb plus stationary secured permanent or RV built in propane tanks can be refilled by a mobile propane service. Means you have to take them to a propane dealer to be refilled. Our family owns CG's in Florida and I served on the Board Of Directors at a huge GC resort in Michigan.

Propane is about the same price in both places, here in Michigan and in Florida per gallon at a dealer at .98 and 1.02 /liter. 1 liter = 1.06 quarts. 4 quarts = 1 gallon or 3.8 liters = 1 gallon.

The difference is at home on the 2nd Saturday of each month the propane at Redi Rental is 1/2 price so you need to have an extra 30 lb tank etc or 2 so you can span the time of a month's usage without running out. Thus, if doing so, propane does work out cheaper. If not 1/2 off, otherwise it's much closer to being the same cost for either for heating. A few degrees below freezing means the RV furnace must send some heat to the liquid tanks and if colder the plumbing lines also.

All depends on what you have to pay for either the propane/gal or the cost per KWH as to which is cheaper.

[Grit_dog]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Electric space heater does NOTHING to heat/keep warm RV Plumbing, waste tanks etc
RV Furnace is needed for that.

20# cylinders hold 20# of propane at 80% liquid level
4.2#/gal=4.7 gallons=19.7#

He’s
In
South
Texas....

[free_radical]

Fwiw
Id think diesel heater would be more eficient then either propane or electric
I use Espar and in small TC two galons of diesel last me a week in winter
In Edmonton.
They also sell Chinese copy of Espar which is obviously cheaper
Something to consider if youre handy

This guy has some vids on how to convert MH to diesel

https://youtu.be/ogLmROa1o9E

[SDcampowneroper]

propane nearly always works out as more economical / BTU over electric. Here at home with elec at .15 , propane at 3.50 elec. is alittle cheaper. Is Az. last winter with elec. at .22c and propane at 2.25 propane was considerably cheaper.
Theres no constant rule of thumb, other than when BTUs match, which is the math you will have to do wherever you are and the cost of each.
Add in the conveniece factors, the need to heat water systems- which elec. does not do well, the chioce is yours depending on your rig.
' tunas calculator is scientifically wondeful, only you can put in the variables.

[DallasSteve]

obgraham wrote:
I look at it a bit differently. When we had a 38' DP, and set the furnace to propane, it would heat the entire rig. But at night I could use an electric space heater (carefully) in the bedroom and just keep that space warm. Gotta be more economical.

This of course assumes it's not getting cold enough to threaten the plumbing with freezing.

I did a quick and dirty comparison using the link pianotuna posted and the cost looks pretty close, as several here have said. Electric and gas are about equal in cost. I'm not poor, and I tend to like a warmer room (when I worked my overweight workmates usually kept the office like a freezer even in the summer) so I'm not going much below 73 degrees. But I like conserving what I can so I will try blocking off the bedroom and bathroom at night and just heating that area with the electric. In the morning I may blast the living area a few minutes with the furnace to thaw it out.

[JimK-NY]

Unless you have concerns about freezing tanks, I would go with electric. LP tanks just don't last that long and depending on the area getting refills can be an issue.

I don't do exchanges for several reasons. First there is a major rip off because exchange tanks are filled at 15# versus 20# for a refill. That increases the cost and requires more frequent exchanges. Second the exchange sites often do not re-certify tanks. Numerous times I got very old, out of date tanks that could not legally be refilled.

[pianotuna]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Electric space heater does NOTHING to heat/keep warm RV Plumbing, waste tanks etc
RV Furnace is needed for that.

20# cylinders hold 20# of propane at 80% liquid level
4.2#/gal=4.7 gallons=19.7#

Replace the return air grill for the furnace with a twindow fan. That may pressurize the duct work and keep just a bit of warm air moving. I've not had a freeze up since I did this, and I've rv'ed at -37 c (-34 f).

[pianotuna]

BobsYourUncle wrote:

pianotuna wrote:

Here is a cost comparison calculator:

http://www.maxmcarter.com/fuels/fuelscalc.html

Gosh Don, where do you find these things? 🙂
That's excellent!

ummm I'm addicted to the wobbly wide web?