Propane Usage In A Tiny House

Downsizing to a tiny house you will automatically assume that you will use much less power that you ever did before, but how much do actually use when living in a tiny house?

We thought we would touch on that with each our Utilities (Water, Solar, Electricity and Gas) starting with Gas or in our case propane. Like Many Rvs, Tiny Houses and Off the Grid Cabins, we rely on Propane for our Gas Stove and on demand water heater (Many people rely on propane for a heater but we have a wood fire stove and a A/C Mini Split). We have been in our Tiny House for a bit over 6 months now so we have a pretty good idea of how much propane we use each month and we logged our tank refills since we have moved to our new spot. Let us show you our setup for gas

Propane Tank And Water Heater Closet

Propane Tank And Water Heater Closet

Here is our little Water Heater and Propane Tank “closet”. This setup provides easy access to our tank and hides it at the same time, it also provides protection for the on demand water heater next to it.

10 Gallon Propane Tank

10 Gallon Propane Tank

Our 10 Gallon Propane tank has a nice snug fit into the cabinet

Tank Fill Up Log

Tank Fill Up Log

On our first fill up on the big tank we started a log on the bottle to estimate our usage. as of now we pay about $22 a month in propane and plan for that cost to go down in the future. This also keeps track of the propane prices we pay. Following the price of propane is something we have never done but now we actively looks for prices just like standard petrol fuel rates.

Here is our On Demand Water Heater, Rinnai V65EP (E for exterior, P for Propane). I admit it took a bit of time to fine tune it to the perfect temp but after that it has been working flawlessly and we highly recommend it anyday.

Propane Uses:

We use propane in basically 3 different way: Hot Water, Cooking and Boiling Water in the Tea Kettle.

If you know my wife at all, you would know how much she loves coffee so the first duty of the day for the first person out of bed is to heat up a kettle of water for our french press coffee, no ifs ands or buts!

Boiling Water In "Chester" Copper Pot

Boiling Water In “Chester” Copper Pot

We pour some water from the tap in the kettle and set it on the stove on high for about 8-10 mins til the water boils then we are ready for some french press.

Chester At Work

Chester At Work

We realized that with just this little morning task, we end up using a good amount of propane during the month and we started to think of another way to heat up water for coffee and save a bit of money too. Using gas for boiling water is second nature to many campers out there because it is  either that or the campfire so it was kind of like second nature to use this method for making coffee in the tiny house also. The other option we decided on was to get a electric tea kettle and see if we can save some propane during the course of the month and on top of that they are very easy to use and shut off when the water is done boiling, so we gave it a shot.

After Searching and target and other local retailers we just couldn’t find any that we liked and didn’t cost more than $50. So like many people we turned to amazon and continued the search and thats when we came across this highly rated Ovente KG83B Glass Electric Kettle, 1.5-L, Black

This little kettle has been awesome and for only $25 it out performs ones that we have tried for double the price. Here is the little guy in action

Ovente Tea Kettle

Ovente Tea Kettle

My Only Request for when we buy a tea kettle was for a glass surround so i can see the water boil, many of the lower priced ones under $50 do not have glass and therefore you cant see the water boil at all.

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The Payoff: the Led Backlit Boiling Water. So far we have been please with this little kettle and plan to bring it with us when we go out of town (another benefit of a electric tea kettle when staying at hotels). Most importantly we look forward to see if this impacts our propane usage during the month because after all we will never shorten our hot water showers, there is just now negotiations on that!