E went under the house to plumb the water boiler into the system and remembered we had procrastinated putting the insulation under the flooring of the new room. He couldn’t ignore it any longer so spent the last several days on his back in a 36 inch space stuffing insulation between the floorboards and then screwing sheets of plywood over top. Although it was dry under there it was a miserable, miserable job. He ran out of insulation so will need another day to finish up.
He also plumbed the water boiler which we bought from a scrap yard, into the house system. As of last night we have free hot water. We have turned the on demand hot water heater off for the winter and our propane usage will be confined to the stove , BBQ and fire pit.
Propane costs
2012 $580.00 (7 months delivered)
2013 $840.00 (delivered)
2014 $570.00
2015 $760.00
2016 $590.00
2017 ?? (I can’t find my total but we installed the solar fridge in October)
2018 $200.00 (added a propane fire pit)
We are expecting high winds along with 15 mm of rain tomorrow. The two 500 gallon water tanks down at the garden are full so we can now concentrate on filling the main ones. It is cold and sunny today with calm seas so E has made a quick dash to town to pick up insulation and a few groceries. A trip made so much easier by our recent return to moorage at the closer marina
We plan to hunker down and ignore the bad weather. When E finishes the insulation project, I should think he could take a day or two off
Off the Grid Islander 
I was really interested in your propane usage chart. We use propane for the fridge, stove and a few lights. We bring ours in by boat with 40-pound tanks. I estimate our usage is 40-pounds every 20 days or so. That puts our annual cost at about $800. When we were having fridge problems we were considering trading it in on a solar model. Looks like that would pay for itself in a few years. How well does you work in winter months? Does it have a large draw on you battery bank? – Margy
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We upgraded our batteries at the same time as the new fridge. The fridges have come down in price with unique now delivering their fridges to coast appliances in Nanaimo (good thing as sun frost has stopped making them) . Several on the island have switched. We were away last Christmas for five days and there was negligible draw on the battery bank with limited sunshine… E is under the house right now but I will get him to confirm the usage info.. but check the unique site online…
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I found the blog post from last thanksgiving when we plugged it in. It needs 800 watts in a 24 hour period. Our propane fridge needed 1.5 pounds a day.. we also use 40 pounders. We put four on in June and they are still going…
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Thanks for all the information. We had a problem with our propane fridge and were contemplating a change, but got it back running. For now we’ll wait but the chance to reduce our propane usage (and town refills) makes it tempting. – Margy
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