Four 500 gl. Tanks of Propane in about five months. Sound excessive?

[Hollynla]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

I am so glad, we have natural gas here in Montana, with a 3,700 sq. ft. house, it has not exceeded $69 any month for gas to run 2 different forced air furnaces, and hot water. And this year has been a cold one. Not a lot of snow, just plain cold.

That's interesting because when I lived in south Louisiana, where it doesn't get very cold, we had natural gas in a 4200 sq ft house. Two central units and two water heaters. My bill would run several hundred dollars during cold months. One winter when we had some unusually cold weather for the area, I had a $570 bill.

[Nik4me]

Nothing you can do about high ceilings this winter.
Do you have a fireplace without doors, what chimneys do you have on the house? Any Attic fans?

I would look into your water heaters. Are they tank? Or tankless?
Why do you need 2 water heaters? How old are they and what their efficiency? Age? Manufacturer?
How long the hot water pipe run before it reaches showers? Do you have a recirculating pump on those pipes?
Are hot water pipes up Insulated?
Find these answers, it could be water heaters.

People don’t realize that even a household of 4 only uses hot water maybe max 2 hours a day ( 4 showers 10 min average x4 =40 min, dishwasher, cleaning - 30 min of tap opened?, laundry- use cold water. However tank water heater keeps the tank hot 24/7/365.
If you add a recirculating pump so your water is hot the moment you open your shower or kitchen sink faucet- then the pump keeps going 24/7/365 and if your pipes are uninsulated and have longer run and in unheated space- you just blown through a lot of propane., out of which 30% goes literally up the chimney if you have an old water heater atmosphericly vented.

Close the faucet while brushing, shaving - use a cup for rinsing. Only cold water while doing laundry- detergents are that good now. Do not take baths- take showers.
Let us know what you find out about that- more advice to follow re next steps to investigate

[Nik4me]

Your 4 ton HVAC sounds oversized- for your climate- wasteful due to cycling. Look into/ talk to your building contractor. Did HVAC guy do proper load calculations? What insulation should be in your house and how it was made sure it is all there.
Read this about widespread insulation fraud
Home Energy Magazine :: Cheating - The Insulation Industry's Dirty Secret

[JDuke]

I'll give lots of detail so you can compare as much as possible given the circumstances.

I'm in NW Arkansas, 3300 square foot house with lofted ceiling to a bonus area over living room. Propane runs the main furnace which is a 4 ton, hot water, and cooktop. I also have a 2 ton A/C-heat pump for the upstairs that never has to run due to the heat rising. I have a 500 gallon propane tank and had it filled in Sept and January, and am at 25% so will fill again soon. We also have a wood pellet stove that we use during the day when we are in the living room, and go though about 2/3 bag a day on average. Furnace set at 66 except for an hour in the morning and night when it's at 70. There are also radiator style space heaters in the master bedroom and our son's room, since the pellet stove heat never makes it to bedrooms. Attic fan runs all winter in living room. Also have a recirc pump on HW tank that only runs 8am-8pm.

Furnace, A/C, and Hot water heater replaced in 2018. Old furnace was a heat pump with propane backup, our bills were about same. We went without the heat pump option on the new one. New furnace was upsized to match the ductwork, with the old one the blower was too small and did not distribute heat well.

As a ballpark estimate, I'm paying monthly about $100 for pellets, 200 for propane, and 100 for electricity. Propane was 1.79 plus tax at last fillup.

I moved here from MI, and two years ago my natural gas bill and electric were probably $200+ for heating in winter, but that was in 1200 square foot house. My costs are probably high due to the house layout and other people who are always cold and leave the space heaters on all day

[sherrenee]

Yes that sounds excessive. We have a 1750 square foot house and typically use abut 600-800 gallons of propane a year along with a wood burning fireplace. Propane runs our furnace, dryer, stove/oven and hot water tank. We fill up when the prices are low and we make the call for the fill ups vs the automatic option. We just ordered 200 gallons (we had 15% left in our tank from fall 2018) at $1.69 a gallon which should last us until late summer early fall.