Hi all, I want to know if my propane company is screwing me over. We have 2 adults and one 3 year old in a house that has propane only for the hot water and for the dryer, which is used maybe 2 or 3 times a week.
How much propane should I be using. They say I'm using around 30 gallons a month.
Thanks,
Dean
Sounds "average" to me. Dryers use a good bit of gas. I use propane for hot water only and average about 8 gal/month. Bob S.
I told the wife to stop using the dryer just now, and she said but 2 words....
Fuck that!
lol
How are they screwing you? The tank has a finite capacity. The delivering truck is metered and the meter is inspected and sealed by the weights and measures department. You are given a metered receipt with each delivery.
How much should you be using? How often do you bathe, how much laundry and how long does the dryer run? Is the dryer vent clean and operating properly? A gallon of propane is 91,500 Btu, so 30 gallons would be
2,745,000 Btu.A gas dryer is in the range of 22,000 Btu per hour, so five hours run time uses.110,000 per week or 440,000 per month. That still leaves a lot of energy for hot water.
Where is the tank located? I'd also check for leaks in the lines outside
Sounds reasonable, but on the high-ish side.
Do you have energy efficient appliances? Water tank big enough? Set too hot? [especially with a kid in the house, if you need to add cold water to your hot to hold your hand under it, you're wasting fuel & creating a dangerous condition] Take long showers? Have a dishwasher? Launder in hot water [instead of warm or cold?].
Just as a wild comparison-- Family of 4; my kids were 7 & 8 in 96. My propane consumption for hot water, dryer, cooking stove. [no dishwasher, laundry on warm- dryer high efficiency, hot water tank a cheapie] [1 July to June 31]
96-97 = 288gal 97-98= 335 gal 98-99= 306 gal [99-00 I replaced my woodstove with propane & jumped to 543gal]Jim
When I was using propane for water heating, it seemed to average about 1 gal/day during the warm weather, when that was all the propane was being used for. I do have a propane cooktop also but ovens are electric, as is the dryer. Your drryer probably burns more than my cooktop, so 30 gal/mo sounds pretty reasonable to me. I now have an electric water heater, and dual fuel heat pumps with propane backup-- no regrets so far. (Had the W/H about 10 years, H/P's about 5) Larry
In addition, let me pass on a tip I got here in the past. When you clean the lint trap for your drier, don't just pull the lint off dry. Do that, but also wash it with dish soap and water. I found that my stuff dried faster when I do that between uses of the drier. I never did any comparisons of my electric bill (electric drier here), but I did measure the time it took to try a load of laundry (same items of clothing both times - its just me in this house). It cut about 25% off my drying time. Of course, YMMV!
steve
steve
My washer has a max extract setting. I use when ever I am putting clothes in the dryer. I hang towels and jeans on the line to dry partially then finish them off in the dryer.
Good luck with the SO
That was impressive...
So what's your theory on this remarkable phenomenon?
The screen is not sticky from "dryer sheets" and the smaller lint goes out the stack instead of plugging the screen.
We had a similar problem in our (new construction) house.
Turned out they had not replaced the nat'l gas orifices w/ propane ones in the furnace.
I've heard the same thing. Supposedly you can see the difference if you run the filter under water. If you don't clean it with soap occasionally, the fabric softener accumulates and you can run water over it and it will bead up and run off. Once cleaned the water will run through.
YMMV
I would agree with you that the lint trap should trap lint and not let it pass through. But the parts diagram that came with my drier also indicates that air from the drier passes through the trap. If the trap is clogged with lint, airflow is slowed - more and more drastically, as the trap becomes more clogged. Since better cleaning of the trap shortened drying time, I theorized that better airflow equated to more efficient drying. The possibility remains that even with shorter drying time, I am somehow NOT saving any electricity: I have no effective way to quantify the actual power usage of the drier before and after the change in "technique".
But, I'm into cars, and I know that a clogged air filter on a car is bad. I KNOW an internal combustion engine requires airflow, and I theorize that since the drier is moving air, it also requires airflow. I KNOW an internal combustion engine should have an air filter to prevent crap from getting into it, but when it gets clogged, the engine can't get as much air as it wants and will not run as efficiently as it should. You could run without an air filter to get even better airflow. A lot of drag racers do so - speed is more important than engine life. But most of us are better off with an air filter in place to protect the engine; getting down to the next traffic signal a hundredth of second faster than the next guy doesn't win us anything (OK, despite the way a lot of people seem to drive, ha ha). And, you don't want to run your drier without a lint trap, even if that gets you an even faster drying time, because that could lead to the vent pipe getting clogged and causing worse drying times (and potential fire hazard??
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