It seems like we just finished our last heating season and here we are heading into another one. September weather was difficult to beat so let’s see what October has in store for us. It’s time to start buttoning up your house in preparation for winter. This is a great time to call your heating professional and have them make sure your furnace is tuned up and ready to go. Per Wisconsin statute, carbon monoxide and smoke detectors are required on every floor of your home. It isn’t just a suggestion, it’s the law. For your family’s sake, please follow it.
If you read my newsletter last month, you will remember that I was getting my Dodge Challenger converted to run on propane. I’m happy to report that the operation was a success. The car can now run on propane or gasoline. If there is any change in performance, it’s not perceptible. It’ll still smoke the tires off of the car. Which of course I would never do (wink, wink).
I have to buy premium gasoline for the Challenger but with the octane level of propane around 110, I can replace premium gasoline with propane. The conversion cost me $7,242.52 including tax. There is $5,500 available in incentives so I had to fork over $1,742.52 out of my pocket. The fuel cost savings should be approximately 11.9 cents per mile. That means my break even point is just under 15,000 miles. For me that’s a no brainer, which is fortunate because I’ve been told that I’m as dumb as a bag of hammers.
Speaking of hammers, we have so many in our hardware stores that we’re selling them. Since I’m giving a plug to our hardware stores, it’s worth mentioning that they also sell kerosene at our Mt. Horeb location and refill propane cylinders at both our Mt. Horeb and Westby locations. Here’s a tidbit of information that you may find interesting. When filling cylinders for our customers, we fill them to 80% or when the overfill protection device shuts off the flow of propane. That’s 20 pounds of propane. If you look at the fine print on most cylinder exchange cabinets, you’ll find that they are only filling them to 15 lbs. so you’re only getting 75% of the propane that our propane filling station would put in the cylinder. Propane weighs 4.2 pounds per cylinder so you’re getting over a gallon less propane on a 20 pound cylinder by exchanging it. Our propane filling stations provide a much better value, not to mention that our price of filling your cylinder is probably less than you would pay for an underfilled exchange. Plus you get 25% more propane.
Moving on to diesel fuel, did you know that you can buy the best on-road diesel fuel on the market from our refueling system in Mineral Point? While harvesting your crops, efficient use of your time is extremely important. As you bring in your crop to our Mineral Point facility, save time by refueling at the same site. You’ll need a card issued by us to fill your truck there. Please contact Shane McCully at 608-504-6281 to find out more.
If you’re interested in locking in a price for diesel fuel, you can always get a price for the future from us. All you need to do is let us know what months you want to lock in your price for and the expected volume. Give your local Premier energy office a call and we’ll work up a price for you based upon the information you give us.
The Propane Education and Research Council is still offering incentives for propane water heaters ($500), fireplaces ($300), ranges ($300) and clothes dryers ($300). I purchased a new propane range and of course a week later my electric clothes dryer quit working so I’m in the process of purchasing a propane dryer as well. These incentives take the edge off of purchasing new appliances. For more information, please contact your local Premier energy location.
I hope you have a fantastic October and please be careful during harvest. Thank you for the business.
