When is the best time to buy heating fuel?

[midjd]

We have propane heat. I called yesterday and the per gallon rate (with the fill discount and current customer discount) is about $2.28 a gallon, so it would be $1140 to fill our 500-gallon tank. One tank should last us all winter.

We got 200 gallons at the end of January and it cost about $550, so prices have gone down a bit - but not much.

I'm thinking about getting it filled - should I do it now or wait? Do prices generally drop near the end of summer, or is now the cheapest time? Is there any potential for leakage if I get the tank filled 4+ months before using it?

This is our first full winter with propane heat (we always had electric) so I have a lot of questions

[kimber45]

Our propane dealer usually has a "summer special" you can lock in a certain amount of gallons at a lower rate. Last year it was under $2/gallon. Currently we only heat our shop with propane, the house is fuel oil.

When it comes time to replace our house furnace we will definitely go with propane.

[Deleted]

I've been in a house with a propane tank for the past 12 years or so and I fill the tank and prebuy 5 or 600 gallons every August and take my chances. So far there's only been one year that I remember that prices dropped from the summer prebuy rate and I would have been better off buying in the winter, so it's worked out well for me. Besides, I like having it out of the way and knowing I'll have heat for a year.

[muttleynfelix]

I've noticed that Propane hasn't dropped a whole lot here. I think it will a bit more as gas prices drop, but I would fill up before September..... I get daily pricing on propane by the company that does ours because they also own the truck stop at my exit and the price of propane is on their sign. We only use a little over 1 tank a winter so we never use their minimum to lock in summer pricing all year. The summer of 2008 a lot of people got burned because the bottom dropped out (price was 2.24 per gal in August, but dropped to 1.20 by the next summer, it is now back up to 1.90) but they did refund as much as they could.

[midjd]

Thanks for the responses! I think I will hold off for now, maybe check back in mid-July to see if the price has dropped. Their website says that prices are "approximately 40% lower during the summer" and I'm not seeing that yet. I would think that when we bought in late January prices would have been at their highest, and they're only about 15% lower now.

Hopefully 500 gallons gets us through the winter. I felt like we timed it perfectly last year, but then we were hit with an early May cold snap. It was a chilly few days!