Four Reasons to Consider Propane over Natural Gas?
Written on: May 27, 2019
There’s a lot of information – and misinformation – out there when it comes to choosing between natural gas and propane – two clean-burning home energy alternatives that offer good value for your money.
While aggressive marketing paints a picture of natural gas being the clearly better of the two options, the truth much more complicated – in fact, propane offers several advantages over natural gas that could tip the scale in its favor, depending on your priorities.
Here are five key reasons to consider choosing (or sticking with) propane rather than switching to natural gas for your Pennsylvania home:
- Propane delivery is safer – Propane can easily be compressed for safe transport, where it is handled by highly trained technicians using equipment and procedures that are heavily regulated by authorities at federal, state, and local levels. Natural gas, on the other hand, is difficult to compress, which means it must be delivered via pipeline. If there are no pipelines near your home, you can’t use natural gas; if there are pipelines near your home, you run the risk of a potentially disastrous pipeline failure.
- Propane is more flexible to use – In most cases, a propane line can enter the home wherever you want it to, as long as there’s a tank nearby (while there are some requirements for distance from the home for a propane tank, they are not overly restrictive). This may not be true with a natural gas line.
- Propane produces more energy – Propane contains double the amount of usable energy content per cubic foot as natural gas – about 2,490 BTUs versus 1,030.
- Propane burns cleaner – While both fuels are considered to be “clean,” natural gas is a fossil fuel that releases methane when burned; propane combustion produces almost no greenhouse gas.
- As a fuel, propane is also safer – Propane has a much narrower range of flammability (minimum and maximum burn temperatures) than natural gas; propane will not ignite when combined with air unless the ignition source reaches at least 920 degrees F.
When it comes down to it, you will probably pay a little more for propane than you will for natural gas, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right choice for you. At Ace-Robbins, we connect natural gas systems and install propane equipment every day – if you’re trying to decide between these two options, give us a call today.
Expert propane and natural gas installations – just one more way Ace-Robbins puts customers like you first. To learn more about our professional heating appliance installations, contact us today.
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