It’s easy to underestimate your propane usage in the warm weather months, since most of your heating appliances are not typically in use.
But several of your propane appliances are still hard at work this time of year, including your water heaters and propane outdoor living equipment such as patio heaters, built-in grills and pool heaters.
If you get a propane bill that’s higher than you expected this time of year, you might jump to the conclusion that you’re losing propane somewhere in your system. If that’s the case, it’s better to be safe than sorry: follow propane safety procedures to rule out a problem leak.
Estimating propane use
Most of the time, however, you won’t have a leak – you just underestimated how much propane you were going to use. Keep in mind estimates like these when you’re calculating the amount of propane you’ll need in the coming months:
- Pool Heater (average size about 21,000 gallons): – 4 gallons/hour
- Gas cooktop/range @ 65,000 BTU/hour = 5 to 10 gallons per month
- Built-in propane grill (four burner) – .75 gallons/hour (all burners on medium)
- Tankless water heater @40,000 BTU/hour = 1.5 gallons per day
- Gas clothes dryer @ 35,000 BTU/hr = less than one gallon per day when in operation
As you can see, propane gallons can add up quickly!
Automatic propane delivery in Maryland
Propane use in the summer is a little more up and down than in the winter months, since you use summer propane appliances more sporadically than, say, a heating system. If you don’t want to keep an eye on your propane fuel gauge all summer, we suggest signing up for automatic propane delivery from Q-Dog.
With automatic propane delivery, we’ll estimate your fuel use based on a combination of your past usage and the current weather, then deliver your propane when your tank is about one-quarter full. There is no charge for this service.
Switching to automatic propane delivery is FREE and takes just a few minutes to set up – contact us today to learn more about it. And remember: for residential and commercial propane delivery in Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, Southern Anne Arundel and Southern Prince George’s counties in Maryland, nobody beats Q-Dog.