Why Build with Propane?
Propane helps builders create more marketable homes and communities by offering buyers efficient performance, dependable energy, greater comfort and versatility. Whether you’re building a single home or an entire development, propane can add value from construction through move-in.
Build Homes That Appeal to Today’s Buyers
Nearly 12 million U.S. households choose propane for their space and water heating needs. Propane powers a variety of daily household applications, including:
- Home heating: Comfortable, consistent heat from high-efficiency systems.
- Tankless water heating: Reliable hot water on demand with less wasted energy than traditional storage systems.
- Cooking: Responsive temperature control for precise cooking.
- Clothes drying: Dries laundry in nearly half the time it takes non-gas dryers with reduced static cling.
- Fireplaces: Warmth and ambience without the work that comes with burning wood.
- Standby generators: Dependable backup power during an outage.
- Outdoor living: Fuel for grills, outdoor kitchens, fire pits, patio heaters, pool and spa heaters.
By offering propane from the start, builders can give buyers more ways to customize their homes around the features they value.
Help Homeowners Manage Energy Costs
High-efficiency propane appliances can help homeowners reduce energy use and control operating costs. For instance, homeowners in colder regions may spend less annually with a propane tankless water heater than with electric, heat pump, or oil-fired options. Compared with an electric heat pump model, a propane tankless system can trim about $100 from annual costs for a typical household, while delivering hot water at more than three times the flow rate. Homeowners who use high-efficiency propane furnaces also spend up to 10 percent less on heating than those with standard-efficiency air source heat pumps. They also operate at up to 98 percent efficiency. That can make energy performance another selling point when buyers compare homes.
Create More Attractive Outdoor Spaces
Propane doesn’t have to mean placing a large individual tank in every yard. Sharp Energy’s Community Gas Systems™ (CGS) distribute fuel through a shared network of underground pipes. Each participating home is individually metered, allowing them to only pay for the gas they use. This approach provides propane in communities where yard space is limited while preserving more usable outdoor space for homeowners.
Build with Reliable Energy
Propane is stored on-site, providing homes with an energy source that does not depend on the electric grid for fuel delivery. It can also power standby generators that help homeowners maintain essential systems during electrical outages. For builders, that means another way to offer buyers greater energy flexibility and preparedness.
Support High-Performance Building Goals
High-efficiency propane appliances can reduce a home’s overall energy consumption and help builders pursue increasingly stringent energy-efficiency goals. Propane can be incorporated into homes designed to meet IECC requirements and other above-code or high-performance building standards.
Earn Incentives on Qualifying Homes
Builders may be eligible to earn up to $1,500 per home through the Propane Construction Incentive Program when qualifying propane appliances are installed in new or remodeled homes. This gives builders another reason to consider propane during the planning stage rather than adding it later.
Keep Construction Moving With Temporary Heat
Propane can provide reliable temporary heat during new construction and remodeling projects, helping crews stay productive and projects stay on schedule during colder conditions. Sharp Energy can assess your jobsite, determine your fuel and equipment needs, provide tanks or meters, and coordinate installation. Red Dragon heaters and other equipment may also be available for purchase or rental.
Scale Propane Across an Entire Development
Building more than one home? Community propane systems give developers a scalable way to provide propane throughout a neighborhood without installing a large tank in every yard. A shared propane supply and underground distribution network can help you create a cleaner-looking community while giving individual homeowners the comfort and performance of propane.
Build Propane Into Your Next Project
From a single new home to a large residential development, Sharp Energy can help you determine the right propane solution from the start.
Talk with a Sharp Energy representative about your next building project.
Get started by calling 888.742.7740 or filling out our contact form.
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