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Why Buy Propane During the Summer Months?
Why Buy Propane During the Summer Months?
Posted: June 10, 2019
When it comes to propane delivery, timing is everything: order your fuel at one time of the year and you could pay a significantly more for it than you would at another.
While there are no guarantees in the sometimes volatile world of propane pricing, you will generally do better when you schedule your propane delivery outside of heating season – like now, for example.
Why order your propane during the dog days of summer? Here are four important reasons:
You’re probably using more of it than you think. When most people think of seasons of heavy propane use, they think of late fall and winter. But water heaters, propane pool and spa heaters, propane grills, and other propane equipment inside and outside your Massachusetts home can use a surprising amount of the gas in the summer months. Make sure you don’t get caught short before fall arrives (see reason #2 below).
Demand drives up prices in the fall. Although propane is produced all year long, demand for the gas peaks during and just before heating season – especially in New England. When demand peaks, the price of gas rises – often significantly from pre-season prices. Purchasing your propane during the summer will usually save you money, especially compared to fall and winter.
Propane delivery companies are often motivated to move product. A supplier often wants to make summer propane deliveries to build an allocation of product for winter. When motivated, a propane supplier will sometimes operate at a lower margin, which means you could save on your propane purchases.
Ease of summer delivery can affect pricing. A propane delivery often takes much longer during the late fall and winter, when road conditions are often poor. That means that more drivers work overtime – a cost that will sometimes get passed to you in the form of slightly higher per gallon prices for your propane. This problem can be avoided by ordering propane in the summer months.
Does this mean propane prices will always be lower in the summer? Unfortunately, it does not – the price of propane is affected by many factors that sometimes have little to do with the timing of the seasons. But the law of averages is certainly in your favor if you schedule at least one propane delivery during the summer months.
