Which costs less? Propane vs electric in an RV
Since our motorhome has a few different heating options for the interior, we’ve often wondered which cost less? Propane vs electric in an RV. The short answer is propane will always be the cheapest option, unless you are staying somewhere with un-metered electricity in which case use all the electric devices you can since it’s already included in the cost of your stay! Don’t have time to read this now? Pin it for later!
Propane vs Electric in an RV
Metered vs un-metered electricity
Most campgrounds’ daily or weekly rates include the cost of electricity in the rate. On the other hand, if you are staying at a campground or resort at a monthly rate, then most (but not all!) will have metered connections and charge you based on actual use. It’s usually pretty clear when you check-in, but if not, just ask.
Running out of propane during long term stays in the winter
Even the cheapest electricity, such as $.08 KwH in Oregon, cannot compete with propane usually. The caveat is you should also take into account the length of your stay, the cost of both electric and propane, and whether you’ll need to refill your propane tank(s) during your stay. In the winter times, it’s easy to burn through all of your propane in just a few days or weeks depending on how warm you keep the inside and how big the propane tank is. Travel trailers and fifth wheels tend to have one or two smaller tanks than class A diesel pushers. If you’re staying for longer than a month and it’s the winter season, you’re going to have to do some planning because you will run out and need to refill. Ask the office if they have options to deliver a supplemental propane tank and setup at your site. For example, when we stayed at Crown Villa RV Resort in Bend, Oregon they had a special winter offering to deliver a massive 100-gallon tank and hook it up for $100 plus the cost of propane.
Alternatively, check with a local propane supplier that will do the same or at least send a truck to deliver propane to you at a higher cost for convenience. The alternative is breaking camp and bringing your RV to fill up at a store, which can be a pain, especially in winter conditions. Some campgrounds will have a propane fill station too you could check into.
The math behind why propane heat is cheaper
Propane: A Google search reveals that one gallon of propane has 91,500 BTUs of energy. The cheapest we’ve been able to get propane is $1.70/ga in Oregon. So to make things easier to make comparisons, rounding up to 100,000 BTU results in a propane cost of $1.86.
Electric: All electric space heaters work the same so there is no real fundamental differences in them beyond what wattage they consume to produce an equivalent level of heat. Our Presto Heat Dish is a 1,000-watt space heater that produces 3,415 BTU of energy per hour. Keeping consistent with our Oregon example, where the cheapest electricity cost we saw was $.08 per kilowatt-hour (KwH), the same 100,000 BTUs costs $2.34. Doesn’t seem like much, but that is is 25% more expensive than propane!
Some other interesting data
Propane tanks can only be filled to 80% for safety & design reasons. Our class A motorhome has a 35.7-gallon liquid propane (LP) tank so the usable is closer to 28.5 gallons. This is confirmed by the gauge on the tank which represents (F)ull only a smidge past 3/4 on the gauge.
28.5 gallons usable in the tank has 91500 BTU * 28.5 gallons = 2.6 million BTU worth of energy in an 80% full tank.
The front furnace has an input of 35000 BTU/hour and the rear furnace is 20000 BTU/hour. Running the front furnace uses 91500 / 35000 = 2.6 hours per gallon of propane. That means we can run the front furnace 73 hours before our tank is empty. That’s also assuming we run no other gas appliances too! This is why you will probably have to refill in winter for long-term stays.
Compare that to say the 1000 watt parabolic heat dish we have which is just another type of electric space heater. It produces only 3,415 BTU of heat per hour. Nowhere near the heat produced by even just one furnace! You would need almost ten heaters to produce the same amount of heat per hour as the one furnace. That’s why we say using a furnace or large propane heater is going to be the quickest way to heat your RV. The heat dish benefit is you can focus the heat on you vs heating an entire room/home so in that case, it could be beneficial and more cost-effective.
The cost differences become more profound in some states like California where the electricity costs are 3-4x higher than our Oregon example. Propane prices do not seem to rise as much in more expensive regions so they become an even better deal.
Want more RV repair and maintenance information? Take a look at our Motorhome articles. What are we doing next? Don’t miss an article, subscribe today.