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Comment by amluto | Hacker News Reader

Propane, I’d guess. With propane, you are paying someone to truck propane to you and pump it into your tank. You are also paying all the costs of owning and maintaining the tank.

If you live in a place with reliable electricity, I don’t think propane really makes sense any more. You can get heat and hot water from heat pumps, and induction stoves work well and are vastly more efficient than gas.

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Induction is alright, and some people prefer it. Vastly superior to radiant electric.

If you really like cooking on gas (I happen to) the expense of running a propane range is insignificant compared to the amount of propane you'd burn to heat water or a home.

In rural areas, where propane is common, with some density (1-5 acre lots), lots of places converted to natural gas after the fracking boom.

That’s not to say that propane is still not common.

Fun factoid: Propane leaks are far more dangerous than methane leaks. Methane is less dense than air, so it tends to mix more fully. But propane is more dense than air, so it tends to pool near the floor. And the lower flammability limit for propane is lower (2.1% vs 5.0%). So you reach the lower flammability limit faster. Plus the fact that pilot lights are often near the floor.

You get natural gas delivered? What’s so special about propane anyway that it’s the defacto portable gas?

Propane is easily transported and stored as a moderately pressurized liquid at ambient temperatures. Propane has a big volumetric advantage over natural gas. Natural gas is mainly methane, liquifies at -160°C, and requires active refrigeration. If your use point is within natural gas piping range, gas is usually the better choice. Propane is the choice for locations not served by piped natural gas.

It’s liquid at ambient temperatures under pressure so it transports and stores well. Also it’s a tad more energy dense than natural gas.

Propane has higher energy density, can be liquified by compression, and doesn't need cryogenic tanks.

Why would you go with propane? Natural gas is ubiquitous and everywhere (at least in the US). Maybe it's less so in the south? In the north it's mandatory for not dying in the winter unless you're so rural that you need to chop wood to stay warm.

No, natural gas is not ubiquitous. Maybe within certain urban and suburban areas, but once you get a little rural you are out of luck.

Then again, a lot of people don’t realize cable internet isn’t a given, even within 15 minutes of the capital city of a state in the contiguous United States. They also don’t have natural gas available. :-)

Water and sewer too.

Copper telephone and electricity are the only two utilities you can count on in the most rural 10% of America.

In rural eastern Oregon, there is not ubiquitous natural gas.

I don’t think anybody chooses propane over natural gas, but natural gas is unavailable to a great many people.

In suburban NY you don't have ubiquitous natural gas. Some, but not all, new developments are natural gas, but many existing ones are heating oil. Propane is also a possibility, but much more expensive so is not used as often as oil except for cooking.

in rural Sierra Nevada foothills California counties there is not ubiquitous natural gas

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