April 2023 - Irish Family Companies

Protect Your Family and Employees

As spring continues to bring warmer and warmer weather, and with summer just around the corner, propane is likely to factor more into your life at home and work. You may use it in your backyard to fuel you BBQ, heat you pool or patio, or provide lighting. Perhaps your business uses propane in its forklifts for cost-effective temporary heating or cooking.

However you use propane in your home or business, now is a good time to make sure you’ve got propane safety front of mind. Here are some important propane safety reminders for your home and business. Make sure your family and employees are well-versed in propane safety.

Knowing How to Detect a Gas Leak

Detecting a propane gas leak is actually fairly easy most of the time. In fact, your nose usually knows best. Propane producers add a strong odor to propane (which is naturally odorless). If you smell rotten eggs, it’s time to take quick action. Make sure everyone in your household and business knows what to do if they smell propane. Keep reading for instructions on what to do if there’s a propane gas leak.

There are some cases when the odor added to propane may not be enough to alert you to a leak before it causes problems for those in the vicinity of the leak. Perhaps your sense of smell has been impaired by a cold or Covid-19. Perhaps your propane tank has corroded a bit and the corrosion has absorbed some of the odorant. Maybe everyone is sleeping.

Just as you have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors strategically placed throughout your home and/or business, you Irish Propane recommends adding propane gas detectors.

Knowing What to Do When There’s a Gas Leak

Now that everyone knows how to detect a propane gas leak, let’s review what to do when there’s a propane gas leak in your home or business.

Whenever you suspect there’s a propane gas leak, take the following steps immediately:

Extinguish all open flames.

Do not operate any appliance or accessory that can create a spark. That includes lights, land line telephones, and cell phones.

Shut the valve on your propane gas tank.

Leave the house or facility immediately. Make sure no one (not even pets) stay behind. As you leave the home or business facility, be careful not to touch any electrical outlets or light switches.

Once at a safe distance from your home or business, call 911.

Wait for authorities to clear you to return to your home or business.

Have your propane appliances professionally inspected before you use them again.

At Irish Propane, the safety of your family and coworkers is one of our top priorities. Make sure everyone has good propane safety knowledge.

Irish Propane is a fourth generation, family-owned, certified women’s enterprise serving both residential and commercial customers in western and central New York.

Contact Irish Propane today to benefit from our expertise or schedule your next propane delivery.

Indoors and Out, Propane Adds Value And Improves Comfort

If you’ve never lived in a propane-fueled home before, you might be surprised to know how versatile it is and how many ways it can be used in your home. Not only can propane provide steady, reliable heat energy at an affordable price, but it also offers exceptional performance and efficiency in a wide range of home appliances at a much lower cost than electricity.

You might also be surprised to learn that propane is a domestically sourced fuel that is one of the cleanest and efficient fuels around.

If you’re looking to enhance your home’s value and improve efficiency, updating or adding propane appliances is a savvy move.

Propane Appliance Options For Your Home

Heating: Propane generates more Btus than an equivalent amount of electricity, so you need much less propane to produce the same amount of heat or energy. Propane is also more efficient than natural gas, delivering twice the heating energy. Propane heating equipment requires less maintenance and lasts longer than heating oil-fueled equipment. And, you have a range of options for propane-fueled supplemental space heating as well as whole-home heating systems.

Water Heaters: Water heating is a big percentage of home energy bills—especially when you consider how much hot water a household uses: bathing, laundry, dishwashing. An energy-efficient propane water heater can help you reduce your energy costs, and perform better too. Tankless water heaters save energy by instantly heating water when you need it, rather than keeping a large tank hot all the time. As a result, you can enjoy virtually unlimited hot water—while seeing savings of up to 40%!

Cooking and Grilling: Nothing beats the precision and control you get cooking with gas. That’s why it’s the first choice of professional chefs in the kitchen—and on the patio. Recent stories about gas stoves and indoor air quality are a bit misleading: While natural gas stoves can potentially emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, propane contains no methane. And, cooking of any kind creates particulate matter and affects indoor air quality, no matter what fuel is used.

Outdoor Living: Adding safe and efficient propane patio heaters can let you enjoy your outdoor spaces earlier in the spring and later into the autumn. Fire pits and fire bowls are an attractive focal point and gathering space for entertaining friends and family. And propane-fueled pool and spa heaters will warm up the water much faster than an electric heater, and maintain the temperature better once the water is warm. As a result, propane pool heaters help you keep heating costs under control, while letting you enjoy your pool or spa more.

Indoor fireplaces: A propane fireplace brings all the ambiance and warmth of a wood-burning fireplace to any room, without the mess, smoke and ash. And unlike a traditional fireplace, you can install a propane-fueled fireplace just about anywhere: living room, dining room, bedroom, even the kitchen. Imagine the luxe, spa-like glamour of a fireplace in your master bath!

Generators: When storms knock out power, a propane-fueled backup generator will keep your lights on, your refrigerator running and everything else powered up until the utility companies can make repairs. What’s more, a whole house generator can boost your home’s value and get you a lower rate on your homeowner’s insurance.

Ready for Propane?

Whether you are refurbishing your existing home, shopping for a new place, or building your dream house, or just looking for ways to reduce your carbon footprint, propane provides great value.

The experts at Irish Propane have the experience and knowledge to answer all your questions and help make adding propane to your Rochester- or Buffalo-area home easy. We provide great propane services like on-time deliveries, smart payment plans to help keep costs manageable and so much more. Contact us to become a customer today.

Month: April 2023

Propane Safety Reminders for Your Home or Business