Virginia propane prices

Virginia's propane demand runs down the western half of the state, through the Shenandoah Valley, the Blue Ridge counties and Southside, where the gas mains give out. Poultry houses in the valley add a load that starts before home heating does. Supply comes north off the Gulf Coast pipeline system that serves the Carolinas and east from Appalachian gas processing, plus terminals on the James and the Chesapeake.

EIA builds this number by calling retail dealers in Virginia each week of the October to March heating season and averaging what they report, published Wednesday afternoon. The survey stops for the summer and picks back up in October. EIA also surveys a wholesale price for Virginia, plotted as the lower line. The distance between the two is the delivered-service stack, and it widens when the rack falls faster than dealers reprice. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey, on five-year estimates, puts propane as the main heating fuel in 4.3% of occupied Virginia homes, below the national middle.

The regional numbers around this price are Lower Atlantic propane prices and Lower Atlantic propane stocks, the inventory that has to cover the winter. The propane usage calculator will estimate your fill cost at this price: gallons per burner-hour from an appliance's rating, gallons a year, and how long a tank of a given size lasts between deliveries.