In the winter, our monthly energy uses are expected to rise. With the exception of particularly warm winters, this should be no surprise. However, it’s still possible to budget your energy costs by making more conscious choices regarding your appliances.
Here are the following common appliances that may drive up your energy uses during these chilly months:
- HVAC Furnace – 200,000 BTU/hour or one gallon/hour
- Fireplace with ceramic logs – 26,000 BTU/hour or one gallon every three hours
- Gas cooktop/range – 65,000 BTU/hour or five to 10 gallons per month
- Tankless water heater – 40,000 BTU/hour or 1.5 gallons per day
- Gas clothes dryer – 35,000 BTU/hr or less than one gallon per day
So how do you manage stretching out and budgeting your gas usage during the long winter? It’s actually quite simple. Use the following tips to cut back on your propane uses.
- If your home gets toasty quickly, forego your heater and try to rely more on your fireplace. While an HVAC furnace can blow through a whole gallon of gas in just one hour, it takes three hours to drain one gallon with a fireplace. Of course, you should still keep your furnace on, just low, in order to make sure that your pipes don’t freeze.
- How often are you drying your clothes? Did you know that drying your jeans and some sweaters is unnecessary? Hanging them to dry better preserves their integrity and doesn’t cause shrinkage. Also, running your gas clothes dryer less frequently can help conserve your gas tanks over time.
- Don’t shower and run the washing machine at the same time. While it may seem convenient to take a shower while waiting for your clothes to wash, you’re probably not going to step into a toasty warm shower, and your clothes may not be washed properly. A tankless water heater may use up a lot of energy, but splitting the heat between two appliances may not always work out. It’s best to choose one at a time.
- Consider signing up for the Lin-Gas EZ-Pay option, which delivers filtered propane tanks to your doorstep at set intervals. Lin-Gas keeps track of your gas usage and will sign you up for auto-fill in case of a longer-than-expected winter and will deliver the tanks in set intervals. This way, despite your gas intake, you will always have as much gas as you need.
Propane is 270 times more compact as a liquid than a gas, making it easier to transport, especially in low quantities. When you sign up for our EZ-Pay program, you’re sure to receive as much fuel as you need to last you all winter long.