HVAC Company Finds Benefits from Propane Extend to Service Fleet
Heating and cooling companies know that propane appliances provide efficient and dependable service to their customers. Warmer and more comfortable heat from the registers, cost-savings for their customers, and furnaces with a longer service life are all common themes. However, one HVAC company has discovered that the benefits of propane extend to their fleet.
In 2008, HVAC company Gibson’s Heating & Plumbing decided to convert its service fleet to bi-fuel vehicles, operating on both propane and gasoline. The dual-fuel performance resulted in lower operating costs and reliability, but the Indiana-based company believed that going all-propane would further increase the savings.
“Our service vehicles are out on the road all day, every day. We need them to be dependable,” Mark Gibson, president of Gibson’s Heating & Plumbing told LPGas. So the company replaced the gas/propane vehicles with 10 dedicated propane (autogas) service trucks from Roush CleanTech. The new vehicles are certified by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board for meeting stringent emissions guidelines.
To determine the economic impact of making the switch to propane autogas, Gibson’s measured the average mileage traveled per fleet vehicle and miles per gallon of the vehicle tank. In one year, the company saved $106,284 by operating propane vehicles, an average of $8,857 per month in fuel savings, according to Roush CleanTech.
The company found even more benefits from their new propane autogas fleet. In addition to reducing carbon emissions, the company found the new propane autogas vehicles to be lower in operating costs and quieter than their gasoline-fueled counterparts.
The company’s experience with propane autogas was reported in a 2020 case study with Roush CleanTech. According to LPGas, Gibson’s Heating & Plumbing is committed to staying a 100 percent propane fleet and plans to add 10 more propane vehicles to their fleet in the next two years.
Learn more about the benefits of propane autogas for fleets.
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