What is the price of heating/cooking gas?

750nt for the medium tank last week. Not much of a rise in over a year here in Banciao.

B Pie, you can get a gauge easy enough, just go to any of the mom and pop ‘random stuff’ stores, or BnQ. Cold showers in the summer are not a big deal, but some of the winter months can make it a cruddy way to start the day. But the old lift it up method works I suppose.

Why is the price for gas so high when the price of natural gas is so low? Are we using a different kind of gas? Pardon my ignorance and perhaps I should put this in the Ask Urodacus thread. :eh:

Because LPG is made from oil, not natural gas. Because some ayatollah decided to enrich some uranium, the price of oil jumped really high. Consequently anytime shit happens in the Middle East people panic and oil price jumps. But then shit has been happening in the Middle East for as long as we all remember…

Because LPG is made from oil, not natural gas. Because some ayatollah decided to enrich some uranium, the price of oil jumped really high. Consequently anytime shit happens in the Middle East people panic and oil price jumps. But then shit has been happening in the Middle East for as long as we all remember…[/quote]

Thanks. Question 2: Why can’t we use ‘natural’ gas? It’s so f’n cheap.

Because LPG is made from oil, not natural gas. Because some ayatollah decided to enrich some uranium, the price of oil jumped really high. Consequently anytime shit happens in the Middle East people panic and oil price jumps. But then shit has been happening in the Middle East for as long as we all remember…[/quote]

Thanks. Question 2: Why can’t we use ‘natural’ gas? It’s so f’n cheap.[/quote]

Well, you can’t put natural gas in a bottle… because it boils at the same temperature as normal air so the only means of delivery is through a pipe, unless its one of those LNG barges…

The problem is I think it costs like 30,000NT to install a natural gas pipe and most Taiwanese/landlord just won’t do it because they’re cheap.

Because LPG is made from oil, not natural gas. Because some ayatollah decided to enrich some uranium, the price of oil jumped really high. Consequently anytime shit happens in the Middle East people panic and oil price jumps. But then shit has been happening in the Middle East for as long as we all remember…[/quote]

Thanks. Question 2: Why can’t we use ‘natural’ gas? It’s so f’n cheap.[/quote]

Well, you can’t put natural gas in a bottle… because it boils at the same temperature as normal air so the only means of delivery is through a pipe, unless its one of those LNG barges…

The problem is I think it costs like 30,000NT to install a natural gas pipe and most Taiwanese/landlord just won’t do it because they’re cheap.[/quote]

You can certainly stuff natural gas into a tank by compressing it (in the same way as air is stuffed into scuba tanks), but the problem is the pressure would be dangerously high (tanks prone to cracking/explosion). Also the energy density of propane (LPG) is about 3 times that of natural gas (mostly methane) so you’d need 3 times the volume of gas to do the same amount of heating. It’s just not safe nor economical to use compressed natural gas for domestic heating/cooking.

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Thanks TL and Monkey for edifying me on these great mysteries. I now know the difference between LPG and NG and the reasons for the price differentials. Forumosa has once again been found to be a source of enlightenment :bow:

You know given how high the price of LPG has become, would it be more economical if I just installed electric water heater and used induction to cook with?

At least electricity doesn’t jump in price every 2 weeks!

[quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]You know given how high the price of LPG has become, would it be more economical if I just installed electric water heater and used induction to cook with?

At least electricity doesn’t jump in price every 2 weeks![/quote]

I’ve always wondered why we don’t have electric hot water systems in Taiwan. It seems more civilised and efficient. My apartment is not bad, but it doesn’t have hot water in the kitchen. I have two bottles, one for the bathroom and one for cooking.

Would much prefer to have electric water system and gas for cooking. Don’t mistake my post as another hating on Taiwan thread, but why haven’t the locals worked this out yet? They seem pretty smart in other areas.

[quote=“Charlie Phillips”][quote=“Taiwan Luthiers”]You know given how high the price of LPG has become, would it be more economical if I just installed electric water heater and used induction to cook with?

At least electricity doesn’t jump in price every 2 weeks![/quote]

I’ve always wondered why we don’t have electric hot water systems in Taiwan. It seems more civilised and efficient. My apartment is not bad, but it doesn’t have hot water in the kitchen. I have two bottles, one for the bathroom and one for cooking.

Would much prefer to have electric water system and gas for cooking. Don’t mistake my post as another hating on Taiwan thread, but why haven’t the locals worked this out yet? They seem pretty smart in other areas.[/quote]

Some flats I been to have electric water systems. In fact sometimes they have those little thing that mounts in the bathroom that turns on as soon as you turn on the hot water tap. I might think about having one of those installed… Its just the older traditional flats have gas heaters.

I’m moving to Hualian next month and my new apartment uses gas (first time using gas since coming to Taiwan). I’m calculating my budget and checked this thread to try to estimate the cost: Comments from 2012 seemed to indicate that a bottle costs in the $800~900 range. Is that still about the price? Do you think a bottle would last 2 months? I’m a single guy and the gas is only for hot water.

Here’s the size of my tank; I’m assuming they’re all the same.

I think my most recent gas bottle purchase (16 kg,
[color=#800000]*[/color]
which I think (not 100% sure) is like the one in your picture) was on April 21 (I’ve been taking cold showers lately), and I’ve forgotten what it cost.

I spoke to one of my coworkers who I think lives in Zhonghe (in any case, she lives in New Taipei City), and when she and I reached a point where we seemed to be talking about the same sized bottle, she said hers cost over NT$800.

Here’s what someone, apparently near Hualien City, posted on Facebook, apparently on July 2 of this year (I can’t guarantee its accuracy):

[quote]瓦斯…又漲價囉…
這次每桶瓦斯調漲20元…
自今日7/2起…各類桶裝瓦斯銷售價如下:
十六公斤裝:710元
二十公斤裝:880元[/quote] facebook.com/chingchan.LPG

Using Google Translate ( “* * *” means I left a word or words out because I didn’t understand it/them in translation):

[quote]Gas prices * * *
The gas hike 20 yuan a barrel …
Since today 7/2 from … all kinds of bottled gas sales prices are as follows:
Sixteen kg * * * : 710 yuan
Twenty kg * * * : 880 yuan[/quote]

On that same Facebook page, someone in Taipei, apparently posting on July 15 of this year, apparently paid NT$910 for a 16 kg bottle:


[color=#800000]*[/color]
Inside the collar on the top of an old, expired bottle that’s the size I use, there is a plate that, among other things, has “容器規格” (container specifications?) and “16公斤” (16 kilograms) stamped in the top right corner. I guess that’s the weight of the bottle itself (maybe I’m wrong and it’s the capacity, but whatever it means, I think it’s the way people identify the bottles). I guess your bottle will have a similar plate that will state its weight somewhere on it.

(By the way, I call them bottles, too, but the English-language information about them on the Internet usually seems to refer to them as cylinders–that’s just in case you ever want to do some googling about them.)

I think the price varies wildly because the deliveryman has to add the cost of delivery on top of it. Natural gas is cheaper for this reason but since there’s no incentive to have it installed and the gas company charges a lot to have it installed, no landlord would do it.

That size bottle lasted 2+ for a house of 2-3 when I had rommmate(s). A single guy should double that.

Regarding some previous comments about gas/electric heating/cooking. I’m not sure electric hot water heating would be cheaper. Electric heat (not hot water) for example was more expensive than gas heating in the US. At least based on my observation of living in different apartments/houses and comments from older engineers. Even if it was cheaper it might take several years to pay off the initial cost of switching to electric water heating. It would take almost infinitely long to pay off the cost of switching to electric cooking (unless you are only buying a simple hot plate). It took me over a year to use an entire gas bottle (the 800ish NT size) and I cook almost every meal.

Last week I paid 920NT$ for what they call large

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Two months ago we paid 700NT$ for 20 ltr cooking gas. Today when they delivered they said price increased to 800NT$.

What price have you paid recently?

It’s not liters they count in, it’s kilogram.

Seems like the prices have increased again! Just paid NT 890 for 20 kg natural gas.

Yes, gas prices have been increasing at a very fast pace since the beginning of 2017…I pay 900 for the 20kg cylinder here in Xinzhuang… It lasts just a little more than a mth (cooking, doing the dishes, shower etc)

I’m surprised at these price differences I’ve experienced: In Hualien I spent about 800nt every two months on bottled gas, but in Taoyuan I only pay about 400nt every 2 months for piped in gas. In both places the gas was only for heating water, and I haven’t changed my water usage habits.