Small Scale Propane

[nyone]

100lb tanks with the multi fill valve that the propane truck can fill are $150 that may be your easiest option once you find a new propane supplier.

Are you sure your cook top is 50kbtu? If it is thats with all burners on and on high.

Fo arguement sake lets say your normal use isnt more than 25kbtu. A 20lb tank isnt enough in the winter still. Its hardly enough at 60*. Going upto a 30lb tank dosnt really help much. Also at the price of two new 20lb tanks your about $50 shy of just getting a 100lb tank that will vaporize in a way you need for your max of 50kbtu.

If you do get two smaller tanks get 20lb ones. The way i see it i buy them once and exchange when old to a newer one and the cycle starts again.

Take a look at this propane cylinder vaporization chart.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

100lb tanks with the multi fill valve that the propane truck can fill are $150 that may be your easiest option once you find a new propane supplier.

Are you sure your cook top is 50kbtu? If it is thats with all burners on and on high.

Fo arguement sake lets say your normal use isnt more than 25kbtu. A 20lb tank isnt enough in the winter still. Its hardly enough at 60*. Going upto a 30lb tank dosnt really help much. Also at the price of two new 20lb tanks your about $50 shy of just getting a 100lb tank that will vaporize in a way you need for your max of 50kbtu.

If you do get two smaller tanks get 20lb ones. The way i see it i buy them once and exchange when old to a newer one and the cycle starts again.

Take a look at this propane cylinder vaporization chart.

Thanks. This is incredibly helpful, really gets to the question I'm asking. So a bigger tank does give better performance.

Cooktop is 50K BTU -- five burners, one 16K, three 10K, one 4K.

 

[Diggin It]

I'd be looking at:

>>> A 100 pound tank if I had a way to move it safely to a refilling station. Looks like they make 50s and 60s also.

>>> Replacing the LP cooktop with electric.

 

[3Ts]

I have an RV with 2- 30# propane tanks and a 36k btu heater, in the winter in central Texas I go thru a tank in 2 to 3 days. That's a lot of area exposed to the cold with only 1.5" insulation. Since you're only running a cooktop off your tanks, they'll last a whole lot longer. The point being that you're not drawing much and will last awhile. The outside temperature and shape of tank is important for vaporization, there are charts that can tell you the BTU rate of vaporization for temperature and tank size. (The vaporization rate changes based on how full the tank is.)

It is theoretically possible to determine how long a gallon of propane will last when you run your cooktop. If we assume you run 2 of the 10k burners full on (not likely) for a half hour each day that's 10K BTUs per day. Propane has 91,502 BTUs per gallon, so you could run your cook top for 9 days on one gallon of LPG. A 20# tank (if it's properly filled) has 430,270 BTUs and would last 43 days.

 

[nyone]

I'd be looking at:

>>> A 100 pound tank if I had a way to move it safely to a refilling station. Looks like they make 50s and 60s also.

>>> Replacing the LP cooktop with electric.

With a 100lb tank thats got a multifill valve you own the tank, can take it some where to get filled but can also call the truck and have them do it.

 

[Diggin It]

They also said that from now on they aren't serving tanks below 250 lbs, and wanted to sell me a 250 lb tank.

once you find a new propane supplier.

but can also call the truck and have them do it.

Maybe. Maybe not. Suppliers tend not to want to come out to fill small tanks. Mine won't do less than 150 gallons and offers discounts for over 200.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

This looks like a good idea. But I would buy a third tank as back up. That way when I ignore the red flag and run both tanks empty I could still finish Thanksgiving dinner. On my grill I have two tanks. When I empty one I take it off the grill and set it by the garage door as a constant reminder I need to get it filled. You mentioned putting them under a deck and I think it would be easy to miss the flag popping up.

Doug in SW IA

I now understand something the propane guy said, which made absolutely no sense to me at the time. I've been running off of just one of the 100 lb tanks at a time, I figure that way I know when one runs out and switch over. He said I'd get more capacity running both at the same time. Now I get why.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Maybe. Maybe not. Suppliers tend not to want to come out to fill small tanks. Mine won't do less than 150 gallons and offers discounts for over 200.

That's exactly the problem I have right now. I might use 20 lbs a year, I'm trying to figure out how to do it.

 

[nyone]

True. Finding a new supplier before you buy any tank would be key...or just going electric like someone else said.

Cast iron cooks alot nicer over gas than my current electric stove. When we go stove shopping it will be propane and our first propane appliance in our house. If i didnt enjoy cooking with cast iron i wouldnt own a gas stove.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I think I know the answer, but would it be completely illegal for me to put a 20 lb tank in the basement?