Avoiding Minimum Usage Charges from LP company.

[Greg Omagh]

Since switching our LP Fireplace to a Pellet Stove we are using barely any gas and now are being hit with minimum usage charges, on top of a marked up price per gallon. We only have an propane stove now and it's only the rings that burn gas. We'd like top keep it since it works even in power outages, so I was wondering if it is feasible to return the 50 gal tank and use a grill tank, of which we have plenty!

Thanks for any advice.

G.

 

[Stegman]

Can't comment on your question directly, but you could buy a 100 pound tank for pretty short money [$150 or so] and then be free to shop around for the best propane price.

We did this last year on a larger scale [bought a 400 pound/100 gallon] tank and are saving more than $1 a gallon over what we had been paying when we leased a tank from one company.

 

[Jags]

Just a side note:
Around here the designation of pound or gallon is important when looking at tanks. It is not uncommon for the "per Pound" price of LP to be vastly different than the "per gallon" cost (when you calculate out an apples to apples comparison).

 

[dmmoss51]

I have nat gas now but I would agree that a tank purchase over a lease would be the best option. At least so far the "customer fee" or "meter fee" from the gas company is not toooooo outrageous... yet. Last season was my first year burning wood... they came out in May and wanted to replace the meter (it must have been malfunctioning based on how little gas I used )