Propane is a Great Alternative to Electric and Gas Products! But How?

Propane is becoming more and more readily available in the United States. The many things it’s capable of are actually amazing, even serving as a fantastic alternative to electricity! There are a lot more ways you can use this gas, many of which you may never have considered, and the reasons for it are pretty surprising too. For example, gas and electricity. We use these things almost everyday of our lives, but it’s not very often we think about using propane as an alternative instead. If you never thought about using propane, here are a few point that are worth considering.

Back in 1990, propane was approved as a clean fuel in the Clean Air Act. Yep, it is indeed considered a clean-burning fuel. It produces very little emissions and is nontoxic, which means it won’t destroy water or soil. Although it may be a much cleaner alternative, that doesn’t mean it’s something you should ingest or breathe in. This gas is very deadly to the human body, which is why it’s required to take all necessary precautions before using it. While doing so, you can enjoy the great things it could do for all of us.

Generators can benefit from this. When a gasoline generators power on, it starts emitting the silent killer: carbon monoxide. That’s even more dangerous to breathe in. On the other hand, propane generators have little emissions, which makes it cleaner way to access emergency electricity and is also better from an environmental standpoint.

Cooking and heating are some of the more common applications for propane. It works much faster than electricity. With propane, things can heat faster and, in some cases, almost instantaneously! It’s more ideal to use propane for cooktop burners and grills. With it, the temperature changes extremely quickly, giving chefs a lot of control over cooking temperature. It even allows your food to keep a more authentic flavor. Meanwhile, with electricity, heating and cooling can take time, and your food just won’t taste the same.

Heating in general actually is better with propane. You can get a propane furnace to keep your house warm and it’ll work faster and more reliably than an electric one would. You can even use it for water heaters. It works much faster and more efficient than electric water heaters. Heating time takes a while with electric grills, and it takes even longer for both electric heating systems and electric water heaters (sometimes even two times longer). So if you’re looking for quicker heating methods, propane is the way to go.

Even cars that support propane can use it as a fuel! Like mentioned before, propane has very little emissions, and because of that, it would be better to use that rather than regular old gasoline. Interestingly, it’ll actually keep your engine alive longer, simply because of how little emission is burned and just how clean of a gas it is.

If you were to start using propane as an alternative for nearly all of these things, you’d probably be saving a lot of money. Propane heating systems cost way less than electric heating. In fact, it can be about 40% cheaper to operate. Propane water heaters can cost ⅓ cheaper and work twice as fast as electric.

For propane grills, electricity is involved, but in the form of a process called piezoelectricity. This is where electrical states in crystalline material and some mechanical pieces are applied together with enough pressure. The pressure sparks a charge of high voltage electricity. This is how the grill igniter works, so there’s nothing to plug in. That, along with the fact that heating and temperature control takes much less time, proves just how much cheaper and more impressive propane is.

There’s a major difference in fuel price when using propane instead of regular car fuel. Of course, you’d need to switch to a propane vehicle. Mississippi's Community Counseling Services saved over $1.50 per gallon when they made 29 vans convert to running on propane instead. They save over $60K every year due to this. The Energy Department’s Clean Cities initiative is always looking for opportunities to make transportation a more clean experience. It saves money and helps make the world just a little cleaner!

So if you like saving money, switch to propane, because you’ll save a load of money in the long run doing so.