(Wow, that book The Moonstone is still quite a story!)

We all live by a white submarine–a 1000-gallon propane tank. A) Even though I’m not a terrific fan of the Beatles, it’s the first phrase that came to mind. B) I meant to get a picture of our propane tank this morning, but then I thought, Do we really need a picture of a propane tank? Nah. C) It does kind of does look submariney. It helps ensure our self reliance–at least until it has to be refilled. (Is anybody entirely self-reliant? No.) Since we could go some four years between refills, it’s nice to know it’s there.

As I mentioned yesterday, this tank powers our generator when the power goes out. It also supplies the water heater and the oven/range. What, quoth you, no furnace? Well actually, yes furnace. We had to have one installed in order to have the house insured. (The insurer wanted a self-regulating heat source, you understand, so the pipes won’t freeze in the winter. Should we ever choose to be gone in the winter, we’ll be sure to hook it up.)

Since we don’t actually use the furnace, this giant tank is only emits tiny intermittent streams of vapor, for heating water and cooking. Beautiful cooks a lot, but our tankless water heater is pretty efficient. We had the tank installed in November 2007. We just filled it up this month, and 200 gallons did the trick.

200 gallons used in 17 months!

Well no, not exactly. We didn’t start burning propane until we moved in, one year ago today. So that’s 200 gallons in 12 months, or 16.6 gallons a month. At $1.55 per gallon, our propane bill comes out to $25.83 a month, or about $0.86 per day.

Not bad for a family of nine.