Natural Gas vs LPG or Electric

Euphemistic on 08/03/2017 - 11:56
Last edited 08/03/2017 - 11:57

I've looked back over our gas usage for about 18months. Seems we are getting charged the privilege of around $50 per quarter for using about 40c worth of gas per summer bill (cook top only) and about $60 worth of gas in winter (first winter). We love our gas heater, don't care about gas for cooking, but it's cheaper to run than electricity by the look of things.

Would converting to LPG be worth it? considering the minor hassle of bottled gas. The gas source would not be too difficult to tap into. Does anyone still use LPG for heating? Or should we cut off the gas, get an electric cooktop and deal with electricity prices for heating. We have 4kW of solar to offset the elect prices.

Thanks.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • mskeggs on 08/03/2017 - 12:10

    LPG costs about double for energy used, and has a bottle rental (waived sometimes) of around $100 a year.
    You didn't mention hot water, the other big energy user, but assuming it isn't gas, I would be considering electricity only in your circumstance.

    • Euphemistic on 08/03/2017 - 12:29

      Yeah, hot water is off peak elect.

      • Steptoe on 08/03/2017 - 15:28

        Maybe get some wiring changes so your water heats from excess solar power?

        • [Deactivated] on 08/03/2017 - 18:58

          The solar diverters are around $1000, unless you have one build into the inverter. Let's say they don't have one, so you could change the wiring. I'm not sure of wiring config for OP , but they might have to have a double pole change over switch installed if they wanted to keep off peak and then charge for solar during the day.
          One would need a 2.4/3.6 kw supply, contactor and timer (plus a licenced sparky). Expensive to retrofit

          I don't have excel on this tablet, but I'm thinking the payback would be a few years if OP is exporting most of the 4 kW..say

          Off peak electricity =14c/kWh
          Solar feed in tariff= 6 c/kWh
          Energy used behind meter = 24 c/kwh

          My off peak uses around 7-8kw day

          Without advanced controls though, you run the chance of heating the water up via the mains when it is a cloudy day negating any benefit…… If I was your sparky I'd tell you not to bother and save up for when batteries are cost beneficial and install with a Reposit (or similar)

        • Euphemistic on 08/03/2017 - 21:18

          @nrg2010: agree. Our inverter has the power out option, would cost around $600 to install. I don't think it is worth it while retaining the off peak option to keep the power costs as low as possible, especially when we use most of our hot water in the evenings so the sun won't have time to reheat before the off peak kicks in. If we were all showers in the morning people then it might be more beneficial.

  • outlander on 08/03/2017 - 13:03

    I've thought about doing this. Right now we only use gas for instantaneous water heater (when the solar is insufficient) and gas cooking. My plan was to fill up gas from the service station at around 70c a litre, and use that to run everything. That was the general idea, but the dangers involved require coming up with a whole bunch of safety systems, and for the time and cost involved it's probably cheaper to go electric.

    You know that LPG and natural gas are different gases? One is propane and the other is methane. Because of the difference, if you wanted to change you'd need to modify any gas burning appliances
    You can buy kits to do it sometimes, for bbq's at least, but it's still $100+

    • Euphemistic on 08/03/2017 - 13:29

      Yeah, I know about the gas difference, we had our heater converted to Natural Gas last year. Hadn't really thought about the cost of having gas for a couple of months of the year at that point though.

  • Cabrinha on 08/03/2017 - 14:25

    We have 2 x 45kg LPG bottles at our place mainly because there is no natural gas line in our street and use it for the bbq and the cooktop you are looking at about $125 for a refill and then $33 a bottle for rental each year. We normally go through a bottle every 18 months and cook every night. I have heard of people moving to the 9kg swap and go bottles to avoid rental and refill them from the servo but then you are up for $25 a refill and you need to ensure that the bottles are close enough to the regulator and its fitted by a licensed gas fitter

    • RockyRaccoon on 08/03/2017 - 14:59

      We did this. Bunnings have swap and go for $19.95 so the $66 rental saving gives 3 gas bottles a year as we only use that amount or less

  • Steptoe on 08/03/2017 - 15:26

    Suggest you do whatever you can to use the solar energy produced. Water or space heating.

    How big a space do you heat?

    Get Induction Cooktop from IKEA, or Bottle LPG for cooking. Then connect/disconnect the gas as needed for winter. Jemena is $16.28 each way.

    • [Deactivated] on 08/03/2017 - 19:02

      Agree get a reverse cycle for heating, put on a timer to use all the solar behind the meter. House will be pre-warmed when you get home during winter

      • Euphemistic on 08/03/2017 - 21:21

        Good idea. But will need to remeber to keep it turned off on cloudy days. Unfortunately sunny days are the warmer ones where the heating is not required as much.

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