Alright, you caught us.
There’s only ONE way to calculate your propane heating costs, but let’s be honest—it’s really complicated!
What we meant to say is: there are many variables affecting your family’s total propane cost per hour, so here is a neatly packaged list of 4 pieces of info you need to estimate how much dough you’ll be forking over each month.
Wondering if propane is actually saving you money or if you’d be better off with another fuel source? To settle this debate once and for all, keep reading.
Here’s how you calculate how much you’ll spend on propane…
A, B, C—It’s Easy as BTU
The first thing you need to do is figure out your home’s heating load, measured in BTU’s per year.
My what? Measured in what?
When you set your home thermostat to 70 degrees, you’re asking your heating system to use enough energy to get all the air in your home warmed up to 70 degrees within half an hour. The amount of energy that requires is your home’s heating load.
BTU stands for British Thermal Unit and is the only unit of measure in the world that describes thermal energy. (Whether you prefer Fahrenheit or Centigrade, everyone has to use BTU to describe heat energy!)
For example: If a basic, window-mounted air conditioner has a sticker on the back that says 10,000 BTU, the manufacturer is claiming the AC unit can remove 10,000 units of thermal energy per hour. This is the perfect BTU count to cool a room between 300-350sq ft.
So, how much heat energy are you demanding from your heating system every day? There are many factors that impact your home’s heating load:
- the temp you set your thermostat to
- how long you keep the thermostat on each day
- how drafty your home is
- how much heat you already get from sunlight through windows, etc.
While it’s practically impossible to get an exact number for your heat load, you can use an online heat load calculator to make a close estimation.
To put this into perspective, a home in Minnesota might require 90 million BTUs per year to live comfortably through snowy winters. A home in PA or DE will require a lot less.
Make sense?
But wait! There’s more…
Propane Has Its Own BTU, Too
Not all fuel sources are created equal, and you need to know how many thermal units are in a gallon of propane.
Every fuel source creates thermal energy that can be measured in BTUs. Propane is an excellent way to meet your home’s heat load because it packs a whopping 91,500 BTUs per gallon.
To put this into perspective:
- Electricity has 3,413 BTUs per kilowatt-hour
- Coal has 12,000 BTUs per pound
- Natural Gas has 1,030 BTUs per cubic foot
When you spend your hard-earned money on fuel, make sure you’re getting enough BTU’s for your buck.
Call And Ask For The Price Per Gallon
The cost per gallon of propane fluctuates all the time, just like car gasoline and the electricity provided by your utility company.
Call or research local propane dealers to find current propane prices. At the writing of this post, the US Energy Information Administration puts the average price of residential propane at $2.023 per gallon.
Great!
You should now know how many BTUs your home needs per year, and how much those BTUs will cost in propane—hypothetically.
But you don’t hang your stockings over a cozy tank of propane. You need some appliances to convert that fuel into heat your home can use.
How Fuel Efficient Are Your Propane Appliances?
The back of your home’s furnace should have a label telling you its AFUE rating.
AFUE stands for annual fuel utilization efficiency.
Even the most fuel-efficient devices in the world can’t have a 100% AFUE rating. It is always going to take a certain amount of energy to convert fuel into energy.
The question is, how much propane is your furnace actually converting into heat?
According to Energy.gov, you can expect an old and inefficient heater to have 56% to 70% AFUE. Most high-efficiency furnaces, however, should have 90% to 98.5% AFUE.
To recap:
Your home’s heating load, BTU per gallon of propane, the cost of propane, and how much propane your furnace burns is all you need to calculate your propane heating costs.
Calculating Your Total Propane Heating Costs
Now that we’ve got our data, let’s sit down and do the math:
Step 1
Take your home’s annual heating load (BTU) and divide it by your furnace AFUE rating.
Ex: 70 million BTU ÷ .90 = 77,777,777
Step 2
Take the current price of propane per gallon and divide it by propane’s BTU per gallon.
$2.023 ÷ 91,500 BTU = 0.000022
Step 3
Take the answer from Step 1 (gross BTU needed per year) and multiply it by the answer to Step 2 (cost per BTU).
77,777,777 x 0.000022 = $1,711 per year
Not too shabby!
Especially when you consider how environmentally friendly propane is compared to most other fuel sources.
If It’s Not Propane, It’s Just Not The Same
No matter how you add it up, propane is an amazing and cost-efficient fuel source. Now that you’ve estimated your annual propane heating costs using the steps in this post, why not stick around and start your propane budget plan?
The good news is, propane heaters tend to provide much more stable and well-distributed heat throughout your home than electric heaters. Your propane furnace will most likely operate smoothly for twice as long as an electric pump, too.
That’s a lot of propane!
If you live or work in Pennsylvania or Delaware, contact us today to schedule your next propane tank delivery.
FAQs
What factors do I need to know to estimate annual propane heating costs?
To estimate your annual propane heating cost, you need your home’s heating load in BTUs, your furnace’s AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency), the current cost per gallon of propane, and the number of BTUs delivered per gallon.
Combining those lets you calculate how much energy you’ll need and what you’ll pay.
How does your furnace’s AFUE rating affect propane heating cost?
AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) tells you how well your furnace converts propane into usable heat.
A higher AFUE means less propane waste and lower bills.
Older furnaces might only reach 56-70% efficiency, while high-efficiency models can hit 90-98.5%. Higher efficiency significantly reduces fuel costs.
Why is knowing propane’s BTU per gallon important for cost calculations?
Propane’s BTU (British Thermal Units) per gallon tells you how much heat energy is in each gallon.
Since each gallon delivers around 91,500 BTUs, knowing that lets you translate gallons of propane into heat output.
Combined with price per gallon, this helps convert heat demand into actual cost.