January '23 Energy News

Jan 04, 2023


Winter Propane

January 2023.

Welcome to 2023. Please keep your legs and arms inside the ride at all times. I wish you all good health and prosperity.

Will call propane customers, please call in your propane orders when the tank gauge reads 30%. This will allow us to get to all of our customers in an efficient, timely manner. 

We’ve changed our computerized routing system and we’ve been tweaking it to maximize our delivery personnel’s efficiency. If you are on our route delivery system, please be patient. The majority of our tanks have monitors on them so that we know how much propane is in your tank. We will get to you. You may see your propane level get below 20%. Don’t be alarmed. On a 500 gallon tank, that means there are 100 gallons left. Most houses go through 5 to 7 gallons of propane per day. That means you’ve still got 10 days to 2 weeks of propane left in your tank. 

The Propane Education and Research Council is still offering incentives for the installation of propane water heaters. It can be either new construction or a replacement. The incentive amount is $300. Get in touch with your local energy office to learn more. 

If you’re interested in learning how to convert your gasoline vehicle to run on propane as well, there are some pretty hefty incentives available. Typical conversions run about $8,000 and as of the first of the year we are able to get you $5,500 in incentives. I’ve saved over $13,000 in fuel costs since converting my Ford F150 to run on propane. Another plus of this type of conversion is that if you go on a trip somewhere and don’t have access to propane, you can still run your vehicle on gasoline. If you run out of propane it automatically switches back to gasoline. The control beeps at you to let you know it happened but there is no change in performance. 

Propane supplies look pretty good this winter in the U.S. We’ve made it through one cold snap relatively unscathed but I’m sure Mother Nature has a few more tricks up her sleeve. We’ll see what that does to the U.S. propane supply.  

Are you interested in locking in your farm diesel price for 2023? One thing contracting will do for you is lock in your price so that you have a good idea of what your inputs will be. Will it save you money? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. You need to decide if that is the right decision for your operation. If you’d like to learn more about contracting your diesel, please call your local energy office or call Addison at 608.479.1357. If you’re serviced out of our Westby location, please ask for Greg Pedretti at 608.634.3184.

If you enjoy winter sports, I hope we keep a bit of snow cover and temps don’t get too crazy one way or the other. If you’re a snow bird, enjoy your time down south and we’ll see you next spring. Thank you for your business. 
 

Tim Lease

Division Manager

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May 03, 2023
Well, my snowmobiles, snow thrower, winter clothes, salt and shovels are all put away until they’re needed again in about 230 days. I know no one wants to think about next winter but our propane contracts will be mailed out in June. Once again, those who contracted last year came out money ahead as propane prices this past winter exceeded the contract price. I lock my propane price in every year because I know after 32 years in this business that propane prices typically increase during the winter months. You can almost set your watch by it.
May 03, 2023

As I write this the last week of April, we still have a couple of nights of sub-freezing temperatures to deal with, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing down our agronomy locations that are now entering their busiest time of the year. Long days and short nights can be the norm this time of year for our agronomy division and our producer members as they work to get this year’s crop in the ground. This is a great reminder to please pay special attention over the next couple of months to farm machinery pulling in and out of the fields and wide loads coming around the next corner or over the next hill. Whether you are in your car on your way to work, or in the tractor moving to the next field, never assume the other person sees you. Slow down and be extra careful.