Any advice? Put one of those small tanks alongside the house and get on a service contract to keep it filled? Anyone done it and had a good/bad/easy/hard time of it?
Thanks.
Any advice? Put one of those small tanks alongside the house and get on a service contract to keep it filled? Anyone done it and had a good/bad/easy/hard time of it?
Thanks.
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Replies
When I lived in the country, and only had a need of gas for the range, we had two (not sure of the poundage size) 100# tanks that auto flipped to the other when drained. You would call and at their convenience, they's come and exchange the empty. Never had a problem. Gas use is minimal, so I don't think you'd be shocked with the bill. You could also pipe a grill off of it.
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Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
We have a small LP tank here that serves the range, clothes dryer, and water heater. It's a 125 gallon tank that holds approx. 100 gallons of LP when full(85% of total tank capacity). Our rate of usage only requires two tanks a year. But there is no monitoring of usage by the company that we use. We just check the gauge on the tank every few months and call if we need/want a refill.
With our rates for electricity, it's was and remains ####no- brainer financially. Much cheaper for us than doing these things electrically. When we switched over some years back, LP at full rate averaged $.65 a gallon. (You can't contract this small of an annual amount of LP around here) The LP company paid us $100 to change to a gas water heater. Since the old one was shot, we didn't throw anything away to make the replacement. We were just completing the kitchen remodel and had purchased a gas range already for that. The electric clothes dryer was more than 20 years old.
Our ComEd bills at that time dropped $40 a month immediately. The math is easy.
Just did this a couple months ago. You can buy those tanks, or lease from the propane company. I got a 125 gallon tank for $36 a year. The tank delivered and plumbed into my trailer with a new regulator was $176 with 80% full.
This is for a 30' trailer with a pop out I bought to use during construction out of state. It is NOT designed for cold weather I guess. It's been down to 10ºF at night and the furnace is cycling often. The stove and oven don't use much, and the furnace seems to be pretty efficient. Iim warm, it's cold outside.
Joe H
When living in a very rural location, we had two 40# travel trailer tanks. Hooked them up one at a time. It starts to stink before it runs out so it wasn't much of a problem. I hauled the little tanks in the back of the pickup. We cooked off that arrangement for about 5 years. That was 10-15 years ago and I remember that it only cost $5 or $6 a month.
Don't know what your code requires, but I recommend: Always use black pipe inside, never copper.
Average Joe says:
I'll wait here while YOU go wrestle the wild alligator.
Forgot to mention, gas is CHEAPER DELIVERED than if you drag the tank to town. Go figure? About 15¢ a gallon if then come to me.
Don't know if that's true in all areas though./
Joe H
I agree that propane is much cheaper delivered to a large on site tank. And I also agree with Boss that a two tank switch over system is easy, reliable and preferable. Average Joe says:
I'll wait here while YOU go wrestle the wild alligator.
Here on the island the power goes out often so we want gas to cook with, and of course there is no gas line under the ocean running out here so we all have propane- LPG.
The jets in the burner are smaller so the range has to be set up for it. Natual gas fro a line runs at no pressure but LPG is a pressurized gas requireing a different sized orifice.
Excellence is its own reward!
Natural gas in a home is approx. at 4oz. pressure the regulator at the meter cuts the pressure from whatever the system operates to the 40z. before the gas enters the structure. if it didnt have any pressure it would flash back down the pipe.
Propane is a liquidfied gas, hence the name LPG. it operates at about 1/2 pound pressure in a structure. as i recall.
The yellow jacketed corrugated stainless steel line is designed to operate at 2 lbs inside a structure the regulators at each appliance cuts this pressure down to the 4oz.
The company i worked for did not allow 2 pounds for residenial applications, however 2lbs or higher was common on large buildings where pipe size would be to large for a 4 oz system and equipment demands ( pressure and volume)
Piffin is correct that you do need the right orifice size for propane and most appliance companies have both burner kits for either LP or Natrual gas.
Thanks everyone. I'll keep you posted as construction on the house enters the kitchen phase (cha-ching$)
Charlie
http://www.home-addition.com
Edited 3/10/2003 8:14:28 PM ET by CSMART01
I'm with Calvin - 2 tanks, with a valve so you can switch tanks. But I'd get a manual switch-over valve, not an automatic one.
If one tank runs out, you switch over to the other one and keep cooking. But if the valve auto-switched over 2 months ago and you forgot to refill the empty, you're out of luck until you get 'em refilled.
We used small enough tanks that we could whrow 'em in the back of the pickup when we were headed into town for something else.
That's all we had to cook with most of the years I was growing up on the farm. It's particularly nice when the power is out for a couple of days. At least you can have a hot meal while you're freezing. (Should go w/o saying, but don't try to heat your house with a stove/oven)
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Mine auto-switches.
But I make it manual, by turning one tank off at all times. When one runs out, it takes me but a couple minutes to run out and turn the other tank on. Then, I know that I have to refill the first tank.
Quittin' Time