GAS prices

[Admin]

Just a bit to add to this debate.

In Birmingham LPG can be purchased for as little as 43p per litre.
For me to visit go outdoors would cost money in fuel which I would not spend if I topped up with gas whilst refuelling my van.
To get the C,C&C or CC discount requires a membership to these clubs.
My van only carries one bottle, I do not have space to carry another one. Being able to top up before the bottle is empty saves me returning bottles that still have gas in.

Really the convenience of being able to top up and know I have a full bottle far out weighs the cost of the kit, and in any cause the cost will be recovered after a couple of years.

 

[maxi77]

The figures you refer to are not quite accurate - see my post above (Page 4, No. 35):

The specific gravity of Calor propane according to Section 9.1 of their HSE Data Sheet is 0.512 at 15 degrees Celsius, so a 13kG cylinder filled to the recommended 80% maximum safe fill actually contains 25.39 litres of gas at that temperature, not 26 litres.

If you follow the advice I gave in post #3 (page 1) and buy from Go Outdoors using a C&CC discount in addition to Go Outdoors' own membership card discount a 13 Kg cylinder of propane will currently cost you £21.26, (i.e. a total 19% discount off the full retail price of £26.25 - see here), the actual cost per litre is £21.26/25.39 litres = £0.84p per litre. However, according to THIS SITE the average weekly price per litre of lpg in filling stations has only fallen below 60p per litre in the last few months, giving a maximum saving, at best, of around 25p per litre over buying your gas from Go Outdoors (I'm not connected to or with that company, BTW). So, given the cost of fitting a refillable system will be anything from £300 - £600 depending whether you go for a single or twin cylinder system, the break-even point will occur only after you've used around 1200 litres (at the lower install figure), but only you know how long it would take you to use 1200 litres of propane (and whether you would still own your van at the end of that time).

Another thing which most folk who fit refillable cylinders omit to mention is that Gaslow recommend that to comply with safety regulations their refillable cylinders are replaced after 10 years - which is why they give a discount for replacements - and I have no reason to believe that this safety requirement does not apply to other makes of refillable cylinders or tanks. This replacement cost should also be factored into your calculations.

For me, living on a budget, the cost of refillables is simply not justifiable, so I'm prepared to keep humping my propane from Go Outdoors, unless I go to France where I use Intermarche's own brand of gas cylinder as it's the cheapest I've found and available almost everywhere (9Kg propane - the biggest I can get in my gas-locker) cost me £16.29 for exchange in June this year). Note that you don't need a French address to buy it, there's no paperwork involved, unlike with Calor, and the 'consigne' - deposit - on the first bottle is only €1 which you never have to pay again.

HTH.

Dont know how close your nearest Go Outdoors shop is but the round trip for me eats up all the savings you make from your discounts, which you omit include their costs in your sums. Like most with installed gas I top up when getting fuel so no extra costs involved. I am happy my installation has paid for itself, with a good few years before the need to update bottles. The downside of course is the upfront cost but there is the benefit of being able to top up a partly full tank when convenient. I certainly do not regret spending the money

 

[Seannachie]

Dont know how close your nearest Go Outdoors shop is but the round trip for me eats up all the savings you make from your discounts, which you omit include their costs in your sums. Like most with installed gas I top up when getting fuel so no extra costs involved. I am happy my installation has paid for itself, with a good few years before the need to update bottles. The downside of course is the upfront cost but there is the benefit of being able to top up a partly full tank when convenient. I certainly do not regret spending the money

I factored in those costs, but they are negligible as the nearest shop is only a couple of hundred yards away, and so I'd still need to use over 200 cylinders' worth to break even on the price of a fixed installation, which excludes the costs of replacing the fixed cylinders every 10 years. At the rate I use gas it would take me over 15 years just to recoup the initial capital outlay.

Your decision may be fine for you, but it is not for everyone - and neither is mine, so it boils down to individual choices. All I did was give some figures to someone who asked for them.