Good Morning!
I’m usually over at Knots but this question is best posted over here. I searched the archives and struck out so, here goes.
My wife and I are renovating. Installing a gas cooktop along with a gas backup heat pump for the new space. We will be adding, over the next couple of years, a gas dryer, gas log fireplace and a tankless gas water heater. I’ve just gotten off the phone with an LP supplier and he tells me I should have a 500 gallon tank for all that we’ll be hooking up. I’m looking at my neighbors and haven’t seen anything bigger than about 100 gallon.
My question is, is this just a salesman trying to get me up the line or do I really need that big a tank?
I appreciate any advice you can give!
Kell
Replies
The cooktop is nothing - I've ran for 9 months on one 40-pound tank once. Likewise the fireplace. The dryer will use more, maybe 50 gallons a year. The water heater will the big one - 200 to 300 gallons a year. More if there are some teenagers in the house.
The back-up to the heat pump? Guess that depends on the weather - I assume it won't run a lot of hours in the year.
So 500 gallons is not unreasonable if you want to fill up one a year. And that lets you buy (or top of) when the price goes down. That's a big payback if you will be there for a few years.
People with 100-gallon tanks might not have propane HWH. Or they may be getting deliveries every quarter.
I assume you are switching from electric. You will be very happy with the amount of hot water avilable to you now. And that the dryer timer only goes up to 70 minutes. Not to 3 hours like the current electric one!
Unless you're really squeezed for cash now, I'd get the bigger tank. And buy instead of borrow one. Then you can shop around for the chapest propane instead of being trapped with one supplier.
Kell,
Welcome to breaktime, the most informative, yet rambunctious site on the web.
Do any of your neighbors have a gas cooktop, gas backup heat pump, a gas dryer, gas log fireplace and a tankless gas water heater?
Will you be buying or leasing the tank?
Will you get a volume discount for 500 gals vs 100 gals?
mcf: One thousand cubic feet of natural gas having an energy value of one million British thermal units. A typical home might use six mcf in a month. (Nebraska)
SamT
Kell,
We still have an LP cooktop and dryer. We go through 2 to 3 100LBS cylinders a year. Water heater used to use about 100LBS every two months. (now nat. gas) This is just for two people.
BTW, at least hear in SE WI, the tanks are free from the supplier, so I typically keep four on hand, and fill up when I get to the last one.
Jon
A 500 gallon tank will be large and doesn't add to the view, but you'll probably get a lot better price when buying 500 gallons at a time vs. 100 gallons. We went from a 115 to a 250 and the price went down by .25 per gallon. Will they let you bury the tank in your jurisdiction?