Auto Refill Propane Mess Up

15 years ago

Hi group,

It has been many moons since I have posted on the forums. But we are slowly getting our life back in order.

I have a question for you all.

This is the second year in a row that the gas company supplying fuel to our greenhouse has allowed it to run out of gas! Almost to the day, we looked up at the greenhouse and noticed the blue flame was not burning. I lost almost all my stock last year and was just rebuilding the collection.

Here is my issue. They say they will reimburse the cost of the plants. Fine, but there is something to be said about the Total Cost of Ownership of these plants. The loss of the plants last year was about $550 for new plants, even though these were full grown beautiful plants.

What is your opinion about getting an actual cost for these plants.

8 Passiflora $30 dollars for the young plants now in 4 gallon containers

1 fifteen year old jade completely dropped it leaves

2- 5 year old stag horn ferns

1- 6 foot Australian tree fern

3- 10" pots of of String of hearts vine "Ceropegia woodii"

1- 4' euphoria that was about 10 years old

1- gallon container of euphorbia

2- 3 gallon pots of angel wing begonias 5 years old

1- three year old Datura

1- Large fiddle leaf philodendron

1- 7' banana that had not bloomed yet (4 years old)

There are others but these stick out in my mind at this time.

I was so discouraged that if it were not for the starter plants that i had that did live i would have told them to take their tank and shove it..

how do you figure the fuel from last year, the cost of maintaining the plants, and ect...

and on top of that they billed me $1,000 for the gas fill up on a 500 gallon tank.

I specifically signed up with this company because they understood that at NO time could i run out of gas.

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Comments (5)

sandy0225
15 years ago
The going rate for propane right now without a locked in contract here is $2.50 a gallon, so at 400 gallons, the most you can put in a 500 gallon tank, that price sounds right. (they can only fill a tank 80%)
I'd never trust an auto refill contract. I call my lp gas man when the tank goes to 30%. Maybe you should consider doing the same?
It doesn't sound like you have much in the greenhouse anyway. Is it really worth the price to keep it running? a grow light in a basement or garage area might be a lot cheaper....sorry for your loss....
Mike Larkin
15 years ago
WHy not call them when you get low?

I check my tanks each day and when I am at 30-40% I call them. My Gas company will come the next day.

Their method could only be a calculated guess anyway -

My method - if I run out, there is only one person to blame ---Me
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Well utluckly...its different in different places. Where I live, we dont get alot of freezing days on average and I am kinda in the country so all I had to do was go down about 6 inches. The reason I had to go 160 feet was because I didnt want the line to run across my yard, because I thought I might get a pool one day. So with that, I ran my line along my house and then over to the greenhouse, If I drew it out, it would be an "L" shape. I had my trench dug and my whole cut in the greenhouse, when the plumber came out, I showed him what I wanted, talked with him about the size of the pipe because of the distance and showed him the greenhouse. All the plumber did was lay the pipe in the trench, connect the pieces together, hook it to the gas meter and put me a stop value in the greenhouse. My plumber charge me $1.90 a foot. That included pipe and labor. Now, if you have someone that can tell you the size pipe you need, you can go buy your own pipe and bargan for the labor. Just remember that most plumbers charge by the foot for gas work. If I had ran it across my yard, it would only have been 113 feet and around $200. NOW...if you live where you have alot of rules and things have to be so so, you might want to check with your plumber and see about the depth of your area. If you have to dig deep, you can rent a ditch witch and save alot of time. Hope this helps, Rob
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highjack
15 years ago
Sorry about the loss of your plants but I also agree with the above posters. We are on automatic refill too but we also watch the tank.

We have to contract for auto refill because if we just call, it might be a few days before they can show up. On auto, if we call, they show up immediately.

Brooke
samuel
Original Author
15 years ago
I take responsibility for the checking, but what bothers me is they had just came by and left a note saying i had 200 gallons in the tank. It could have been prevented by a simple topping off. When I called the emergency number, the man, said "they didn't do that again" he said he ran out of his house and called me on his cell phone on the way to my house. Last year the reason was they could not get in the driveway because of ice. my 70 year old mother pulled up the same drive and walked right around the house, with a broken back in a brace and had not one problem.
Its seems to be a bit someone not wanting to do their job.

Just frustrating.
tom_va
15 years ago
We've done it both ways with no real problems although when critical planting time comes, we tell them to come EVERY TWO WEEKS AND THEY'D BETTER COME AT 10 DAYS RATHER THAN 15. They got the message, of course we were using a lot of fuel at the time with two 1000 gallon tanks and four full greenhouses plus a 500 gallon at the house. Still, you have to keep a watch on the gauges. We just filled up at the lowest cost in the past 5 years.

This year we'll start planting a lot later just to save fuel. We continue to fine tune our operation.

You might want to change gas dealers. I don't know where you live but around here [in SW'ern VA] there are several to choose from and we're very rural.

Check around for prices too---they'll vary a LOT from dealer to dealer. We found that out when we changed companies.

Regards,

Tom

Auto Refill Propane Mess Up

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