How Propane Changed Our Lives
Whenever I used to see those ubiquitous submarine shaped white tanks, I always imagined they were filled with the silver liquid metal like in Terminator 2. Now that we have our very own tank, I’ve learned so much about a special little substance called PROPANE.
What is it?
I had a lot of questions when I first moved here, many of which I posed to the local laundromat operator. She took it all in stride and explained that propane was liquid petroleum. Then before answering my other question about whether or not birds take naps, she said she heard a dryer going off and had to run. I did more digging (went to Wikipedia) and found out that propane is a by product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining. Amazing too is the fact that after it is produced, it’s stored in huge salt caverns.
How are we using it?
This sexy gas is heating our house and runs the clothes dryer. It’s not powering any of our lights or heating our water. Apparently something called, “electricity” does that. Every time we fill up the 250 gallon propane tank, it costs around $500. If we sustained our usage, we would spend near $2,500 in the cold season alone. And remember this is in addition to our ‘lectricity bills.
The Day the Propane Died
Right in the middle of what is the most bitter, harshest winter in recent history, we ran of propane. We were watching a documentary on how Samurai swords are made when Jon said he didn’t hear the heat kick back on and sped outside to check the tank. When he came back in, I could tell by his heavy breathing that either he one ran back in quickly because he got scared of the dark like I sometimes do after feeding the chickens at night, or two we were out of the sweet stuff.
How could this have happened? Well we made a series of mistakes including:
1) Not checking the percentage the tank was at when we first moved in
2) Assuming that the company we rent the tank was responsible for checking on the levels and keeping the tank filled
3) Underestimating the amount of propane we were using
The Transformation
Like all paradigm shifts, they are often accompanied with a rapidly decreasing body core temperature. After two rounds of the blame game and a whisky shot, Jon and I did the “partner handshake” and regrouped. The next couple days were filled with electric heaters (very expensive to run), line drying inside and many sweater layers. By the time we emerged from our icy cocoon, it was a whole new world.
Here are some of the habits and life-style shifts we’ve made since the incident:
1) We stopped using the dryer
We found out that the dryer is a huge propane hog. So we wrastled that hog to the ground and started line-drying inside all the time. Is it easy to line-dry inside? Well it bothers us less to line dry then to pay – so it’s a trade off that works for us.
2) We turned the thermostat down
So now we’re down to 68. Ok, I know this is really not some earth-shatteringly low number, but it’s a big deal for me and my desire to keep Cora warm in these frigid Michigan winters. In our quest to define the new normal for our family, we have every intention of getting this number even lower.
3) We put aside our plans for aesthetic renovations
Instead we focused on those that dealt with our fundamental security, finances and stability (that means the wood panelling stays for now).
4) We purchased an incredible wood-burning stove with a cook top. It has revolutionized our life so much that we have to do an entire post on that. And yes this is the exact one we own, not pancake stock photography.
In many ways it is this new IDEA of the tank that helped us the most – the thought that outside, there’s this physical thing that literally empties out. There are fancy usage graphs that come with the energy bill, but that’s not even close to being confronted with LE TANK.
Although it didn’t help our greenhorn status up here in the north woods, we’re so happy that we ran out of the juice. In the grand scheme, the discomfort to enlightenment ratio was fairly small. We got alotouttathisone. Do you have stories of misfortune that resulted in some fundamental shift in perspective? Of course you do. Please please do share in the comments below. We especially want to hear if the story involves a guard donkey.
