Why Choose Propane over Natural Gas?

Choosing between natural gas and propane as a home energy source can be a difficult task: both are clean burning alternatives that offer good value for your money.

But propane offers several advantages over natural gas that tip the scale in its favor. Here are four key reasons to choose propane rather than natural gas for your Delaware-area home:

• Propane delivery is safer and more flexible – 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 is why it must be delivered via pipeline. If there are no pipelines installed near your home, you can’t use natural gas; if there are pipelines near your home, you run the risk of pipeline failure – a dangerous situation that can easily turn disastrous.

  Propane is also more flexible to use within your home: 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 produces fewer greenhouse gases when burned – 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.

So there you have it – four great reasons propane comes out at the top of gas class. If you do choose to power with propane, there’s only one place to get it in our service area: Poore’s Propane and Oil!

Contact the propane experts at Poore’s today to learn more and see if propane is right for your home!