Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
western Nebraska (oh that we would so lucky as to have enough snow to block roads), propane is hard to get from distributors and jumped from $1.67 at the end of December, to $3.29 last week.
We don't have a wood stove in this house, just a propane furnace, so I just invested in a couple of those portable oil radiators. My inlaws heated a 3 season camper through a South Dakota winter with nothing but a couple of those things a few years ago...
I filled my tank just last week. Granted I only use it for BBQing but I had absolutely no problems because the area I live in isn't suffering from snow storms and cold. You choose to live in a place where that happens and that's why there are local spot shortages.
For the most part, the "shortage" appears to be caused by weather... too many cool wet days during harvest that required extra dryers, and too many below average cold days this winter. The breadth of winter storms nationwide is really taking a toll since states that could normally get extra from neighbors are finding those states running low as well.
Couple that with many people, including suppliers & distributors, operating on the JIT (just-in-time) principle, and there just isn't enough on hand to supply demand in the crunched areas. Poor planning for this winter considering how bad this fall harvest was... supply should have been replaced immediately with a bit of surplus.
I filled my tank just last week. Granted I only use it for BBQing but I had absolutely no problems because the area I live in isn't suffering from snow storms and cold. You choose to live in a place where that happens and that's why there are local spot shortages.
Spike just got here, topped off my parent's tank with a 100 gallons 3 weeks ago, still cost $250 bucks, but they have 1000 gallons for their backup heating system so with the woodstove as primary, they should be good until spring.
I'm wintering in our below 40 degree latitude home and we are freezing our rear ends off. The propane shortage (as others have tried to introduce facts into the matter) is due to a pipeline issue which crimped supply, wet crops in the fall that required drying (propane heaters) and much higher than average demand this winter due to extreme temperatures through most of the area of the US east of the Rocky Mountains.
In most cases it wasn't a failure to plan on the individual's part but rather that they are going through one or more tanks of propane this season alone to keep homes warm enough to live in. The price of propane started out at a $1.70 to $2.50 per gallon early on and is as high as $6.00 per gallon in some areas now with rationing. Suppliers in the hardest hit areas started tapping neighboring states that are now withholding their supplies. We are looking at another week of sub-zero lows with no end in sight to the pattern of Canadian high pressure grist mills dumping arctic air as far south as Mexico. We would have been better off staying in Alaska this winter.
I can say this as a fact: In Alaska our homes are built or retrofitted for this type of weather but this house (and most other older area homes) is not. Our furnace hasn't shut off for long in many, many days. We maximize solar gain and draw curtains against the cold nights. We have shut down our upstairs bedrooms, blocked the doors with draft stops and keep the upper hall and bath only warm enough to keep pipes from freezing. Our thermostat is set at 60 and most of the time we don't make that at night. We are sleeping in a makeshift bedroom in the warmest room in our house, the office/family room on the first floor. Normally there are respites to the cold spells here but those have been measured in a few short days or often enough in hours this winter.
Like in olden days we walk around in sweaters or sweatshirts, wool socks, have fuzzy throws on our chairs. I sleep in granny gowns and have pressed a thick mohair sweater into service for sleeping. On a few really cold nights the dogs were on the bed to keep us all warm. It looks like I'll be using that sweater again this week. The toilet seat is an awakening experience. Never have we had this happen in our Alaskan homes regardless of the cold. We are going to be fixing this house to Alaskan standards this spring. No more having the cold wind blowing through our window/door frames, fireplace, sill plates, attic hatches or electrical outlets. We are foaming gaps that we can reach now.
Fortunately we use propane only for cooking and clothes drying and we will have plenty to wait out the price hike but our electric bill for December was huge. I'm dreading January's which is due to come out soon. There are stories of people up north having to abandon their homes because they could not afford to heat them. Some turned down the thermostat only to have their pipes freeze up. Though they are used to cold winters, I can't imagine being in the high plains or upper mid-west right now, especially being poorer, on a fixed income or living paycheck to paycheck. Those folks have my sincere sympathy.
I'm wintering in our below 40 degree latitude home and we are freezing our rear ends off. The propane shortage (as others have tried to introduce facts into the matter) is due to a pipeline issue which crimped supply, wet crops in the fall that required drying (propane heaters) and much higher than average demand this winter due to extreme temperatures through most of the area of the US east of the Rocky Mountains.
In most cases it wasn't a failure to plan on the individual's part but rather that they are going through one or more tanks of propane this season alone to keep homes warm enough to live in. The price of propane started out at a $1.70 to $2.50 per gallon early on and is as high as $6.00 per gallon in some areas now with rationing. Suppliers in the hardest hit areas started tapping neighboring states that are now withholding their supplies. We are looking at another week of sub-zero lows with no end in sight to the pattern of Canadian high pressure grist mills dumping arctic air as far south as Mexico. We would have been better off staying in Alaska this winter.
I can say this as a fact: In Alaska our homes are built or retrofitted for this type of weather but this house (and most other older area homes) is not. Our furnace hasn't shut off for long in many, many days. We maximize solar gain and draw curtains against the cold nights. We have shut down our upstairs bedrooms, blocked the doors with draft stops and keep the upper hall and bath only warm enough to keep pipes from freezing. Our thermostat is set at 60 and most of the time we don't make that at night. We are sleeping in a makeshift bedroom in the warmest room in our house, the office/family room on the first floor. Normally there are respites to the cold spells here but those have been measured in a few short days or often enough in hours this winter.
Like in olden days we walk around in sweaters or sweatshirts, wool socks, have fuzzy throws on our chairs. I sleep in granny gowns and have pressed a thick mohair sweater into service for sleeping. On a few really cold nights the dogs were on the bed to keep us all warm. It looks like I'll be using that sweater again this week. The toilet seat is an awakening experience. Never have we had this happen in our Alaskan homes regardless of the cold. We are going to be fixing this house to Alaskan standards this spring. No more having the cold wind blowing through our window/door frames, fireplace, sill plates, attic hatches or electrical outlets. We are foaming gaps that we can reach now.
Fortunately we use propane only for cooking and clothes drying and we will have plenty to wait out the price hike but our electric bill for December was huge. I'm dreading January's which is due to come out soon. There are stories of people up north having to abandon their homes because they could not afford to heat them. Some turned down the thermostat only to have their pipes freeze up. Though they are used to cold winters, I can't imagine being in the high plains or upper mid-west right now, especially being poorer, on a fixed income or living paycheck to paycheck. Those folks have my sincere sympathy.
I feel for you AK Cathy, I dang near froze to death one December in New Orleans, felt much colder than Montana that year!!
When I first got there and saw the houses up on blocks or whatever my first thought was, "How do they keep their pipes from freezing???"
It was -16 with -30 windchill at my house this morning, but like you say, we are set up for it so it isn't any real big deal as long as the woodpile holds out. I have a natural gas backup heater, but haven't turned it on. We had a cold snap in November that got down to -26 for a week, but what was funny was that the power company sent a guy to check my meter because my useage hadn't gone up and they thought I had done something to the meter!!
All I run off of my hookup is the fan for the stove, lights and refrigerator, TV and computer so my bill for November was $40 instead of like one friend of mine with electric heat who had a bill of $300
I can buy all the wood I need at $110/cord blocked and delivered if my pile runs low, and a cord will last me up to a month and a half-2 months depending on the weather. It took me a while to split what I needed last night though as it was so cold I split half, and had to come in to warm my hands as I couldn't hold onto the maul any more, then go out and split the rest I needed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AK-Cathy
The toilet seat is an awakening experience.
Boy do I remember as a kid when we had an outhouse and in the morning everyone would stand around waiting until someone couldn't take it anymore and had to go out and melt the ice of the seat!
Where is that global warming? It seems to me to be closer to an Ice Age
I read that in MN the Governor is asking farmers who used propane for drying corn to sell back any propane that is left over so it can be used by others.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
