con reasons
1) if its not easy to transport, you dont have to worry about someone coming over and stealing some in the middle of the night to run there generator
2) propane has a simular thing for "ag" use.
3) while it might be more efficent in BTU/Kw its also twice as expensive.
-when everyone else in the area wants diesel for there gennies perhaps it will be easyer to get propane in bulk a week after the storm hits.
The company I used to work for, ran 2 50Kw gennies in FL for there office durring the last large FL hurricanes. had to get there 1000 gals of diesel trucked in from AL because they couldnt get any in FL a week after the hurricane. finding bulk diesel WILL be an issue after a major natural disaster
4) why make the system more complex, more you have to maintain, more that can go wrong. you gonna buy 500gal of winter blend in the middle of summer? what happens if you by 400gal of summer blend and the tank is 7/8 full by the middle of winter when an ice storm knocks out power for a week? then what do you with your fuel? heated tank? shure but again, more complex.
do a survey of the area large scale gennies in the area. pop in behind the lowes, the supermarkets, the office buildings and see what kind they are useing.
personally i like the idea of buying 1000 gal of propane and letting it sit indefinitely with no concerns about shelf life, operating temp, no water or other contamination issues...
I guess the only thing we can all agree on is that gasoline is a bad option
A few counterpoints to Schmism's counterpoints:
1) If you have to worry about people stealing your stuff in a crisis, there are other terms that come to mind (marshal law, looting, self defense, etc.) When running a generator (any type) and you have lights you're announcing to the world that you have power and resources. In the aftermath of Katrina, it was pretty clear (from what I saw on television) how that worked in rural Mississippi and Louisiana, and how that didn't work when the NOPD took away the law abiding citizen's only means defense. I don't mean to go off on a rant...I'm just sayin'.
2) That's probably true, however I didn't think that propane was generally taxed.
3) Wow, I sure wish propane was 1/2 the price of diesel. Maybe it's just my area.
4) Does it really get that cold in S. Indiana? Even summer fuel can be made into winter blend with the right additives. Heck, you can even use heating oil, which by definition is meant to be used in the winter.
--the large data centers that I work with all have diesel generators. Maybe this is just a Northwest thing.
Ok, here's a new proposal: For the NG/LP gennies, how hard is it to switch between the two? Is it a major operation? Or a 5 minute procedure? Your primary backup could be NG, but have the tank of LP installed filled and plumbed ready to go. Have the hardware on hand and practice changing the oriface between the two.