We live in the Hill Country in Austin, Texas and although natural gas is common in most areas of Austin, and is a less expensive fossil fuel for heating, our street doesn’t have a gas line. Instead we have a 500-gallon liquid propane tank buried on our property. Propane prices fluctuate throughout the year, generally the summertime offers the lowest prices. We do our best to time our fill-ups so that we aren’t purchasing propane during the winter months when it is most expensive. From 2011-2014 the lowest price we paid per gallon was $2.05, and the highest we paid was $2.95.
In the Winter of 2014 propane prices were approximately $2.20 delivered a full .75 cents lower than 2013 prices. However, at $2.20 propane is still an expensive fossil fuel for heating. In an effort to reduce our propane use during the winter we purchased a Honeywell RedLink Wireless Thermostat kit. I was curious about cost savings so I did some research, here is what I learned.
The average furnace runs 14 minutes less per day for every 1 degree lowered. For example, if you have a non-programmable thermostat and keep your temperature at 72 degrees, lowering it to 71 degrees would cause the furnace to run 14 minutes less during the day.
The average propane furnace uses 2.2 gallons of propane per hour. Therefore, reducing the average temperature of the house from 72 degrees to 71 degrees would result in a savings of 15.4 gallons of propane per month. Multiply 15.4 gallons by the cost of $2.20/gallon and you would see a savings of $33.88 per month.
With a programmable thermostat you can save significantly more, here are a few examples:
Simple (You do not have a Programmable Thermostat, and still prefer to use an Abacus)
Lower the temperature permanently from 72 to 70, and save $67.76 during the month.
Advanced (You may or may not have a Programmable Thermostat, and you know how to reheat food in a Microwave)
If 70 is too cold for you, turn down the temperature only when you are sleeping. If you lower the temperature to 68 before you go to bed from 10PM-6AM, and then raise it to 72 when you wake up your average temperature would be 70.67 and you would save $45.06 for the month.
Expert (You have a Programmable Thermostat, and an advanced degree in Computer Science or have fixed the blinking 12:00AM on someone’s VCR)
If you work away from home and lower the thermostat to 60 degrees from 9AM-5PM (Note: 50 degrees is the lowest recommended to avoid pipes from freezing), raise it to 72 degrees while you are home (awake) 6AM-9AM and 5PM-10PM, and lower it again to 68 degrees while you are home (sleeping) 10PM-6AM. Your average temperature would be 66.67 and you would save a staggering $180.58 for the month.
