Propane tank

[dr3131]

I initially was looking to obtain a propane tank to appease my wife. I would rather not buy one and just hide it. I have no structures to hide it behind and it apparently needs to be with 120' of a driveway.
What things have you planted or put around your propane tanks to hide them.
I'm hoping to take these to the boss to see if they will satisfy her
Thanks in advance.

 

[Richard]

Can you get one that can be buried?

(I'm asking, not suggesting you can.. I do not know if it's made)

Richard

 

[PBMAX]

My tank is probly 200ft from the road but is easily accessable from the drive.
i would suggest you call and ask a couple of LP suppliers what there needs for access are. Mine does not like bushes but suggested I build a box out of latice to hide it from site with a take off or hinged top that does not inter fear with filling.
What I plan to do is build one and just leave the side off facing the house so they can just flip it on the one side- fill and flip it back up...

Buried sound cool but I hit rock at 2" were mine is.

Just keep in mind if you obstruct it to much they may not provide service...or will ask you to move/remove what ever is in the way before they will deliver...

good luck...

oh' they also appreciate it if you spray for wasp on ocasion /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif they love nesting under the lid on mine in early fall and late spring... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Junkman]

You can purchase a propane tank that is suitable for burying, however they are very expensive. Around here, if you have one that is above ground, it has to be accessible without much difficulty. If it is buried, then it has to be a certain distance from the house, but I don't know what that distance is. If you have it any distance from the house, you have to use expensive piping to get it to the house and that piping has to be buried in a bed of sand. Where it enters the ground and comes out of the ground, requires some special fittings that are also expensive. I would check with a few local propane dealers to see what the regs are in your area. Around here, the installation can easily be $400 - 500 for a tank located 50 - 75 feet from the house. This is why I haven't gone for the big one yet. 100 gallon cylinder is more than enough and they fill it as needed.....

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Buried is not a bad idea but you cannot do it in some states and I was surpised years ago when I visited a friend's house in NJ and they had their's buried.

That's been a long time ago and maybe that has changed but I was always told that Propane seeks the lowest level and you always had to have air moving under a tank in case of a leak.

But, things change as well as rules.

Tom

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Well, I guess Junkman answered what I wondered.

Tom

 

[thcri]

They just started leasing buried tanks around here. No special piping and are pretty relaxed on distanced from house. I think you do have to take a 2 year lease though. But I have found it does vary from state to state and even some counties have regulations of their own.

murph

 

[Junkman]

A buried tank in from my propane dealer in CT will cost you about $3500 installed. I know that they do lease them also, but they tend to want a long term commitment, that I am not going to make. Propane prices vary greatly around here from dealer to dealer and you have to change dealers every few years to get the best price. Last week, I was paying about $1.00 gallon... in the middle of the summer it was down to 85 cents a gallon...... in the middle of the winter, it is out of sight... We can go through over a 1000 gallons a month for heating the store in the dead of winter...

 

[OkeeDon]

<font color="blue"> ...I was always told that Propane seeks the lowest level... </font>

That's true, propane is heavier than air in its gas state (and lighter than water in the liquid state). I have a good friend who is one of the Florida LP Gas Inspectors, and he gets to play detective whenever there is a major leak, spill or fire. A few years ago, he was called out to a building which had a propane explosion, even though there was no propane in the building! Everyone was mystified, but he solved it. Seems the building had a basement (which is actually very, very rare here in Florida). On the property next door was a buried propane tank which had sprung a leak. Since it won't go up, the gas migrated through the ground, entered the basement through cracks, and exploded when exposed to a source of ignition.They excavated, and he was able to trace the path of the gas with a gas detector. Made him a hero among the other inspectors for a while... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

Good explanation, Don. When I was doing gas leakage surveys for natural gas, I occasionally had customers who also had LPG and wanted that checked also. No problem. But when checking natural gas lines, you check along the top of the line while with LPG you check along the bottom of the line to find tiny leaks. So for buried lines, we expected natural gas to rise through the dirt to the surface, but when they had buried LPG lines, I'd check along the surface of the ground, but made sure that the customer understood there were no guarantees since LPG would sink instead of rise and all but major leaks could be missed.