Propane and Natgas - any FUEL-related issues ?

[davrow]

I would like to expand, just a bit. The biggest downside for me has been that propane doesn't contain as much energy as natural gas, which contains less than gasoline. So my 10Kw generator is seriously downrated using propane.

I was thinking home/farm/ranch use, not business. For me it's easy to have a big tank, 100 feet is how far away I want a combustible tank anyway.

My apologies here, but I have never experienced 20 below. I worry about wildfires. Last 10 day outage was from feeder poles burning down 20 miles away. All roads around me open, deliveries as normal.

Admittedly, I am totally unprepared for armaggedon, but a week or two, no probs.

 

[3930dave]

Good points about HP wrt. fuel type davrow, that needs to be assessed before installation.

CADPlans has me thinking about compressor stations. Looks like Roanoke has only about 3 months of the year where the Avg. Low just dips below freezing....... so it's possible that elec. grid-down consideration down South is not as high a priority as up here. Natgas down would be really bad dead of Winter here; plumbers would be busy for a long time after-event, given how many homes heat with gas here.

The last really widespread ice-storm I experienced was '98. Western Quebec and Eastern Ontario (upstate NY?) got hit hard. I bought my first generator then, and took it to my sister's place near Ottawa - fortunately the natgas lines stayed up perfectly - once we had a gen going, HEAT again ! Good thing, as it was olde school (-40) cold, and many areas were out for 1 week+.

I know "a guy" I need to talk to..... if he doesn't know exactly how compressor stations are set up here (re grid down), I'm betting he can find out fairly quickly.

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

I would like to expand, just a bit. The biggest downside for me has been that propane doesn't contain as much energy as natural gas, which contains less than gasoline. So my 10Kw generator is seriously downrated using propane.

I was thinking home/farm/ranch use, not business. For me it's easy to have a big tank, 100 feet is how far away I want a combustible tank anyway.

My apologies here, but I have never experienced 20 below. I worry about wildfires. Last 10 day outage was from feeder poles burning down 20 miles away. All roads around me open, deliveries as normal.

Admittedly, I am totally unprepared for armaggedon, but a week or two, no probs.

WHAT. Propane contains more energy than natural gas.. A generator will produce MORE power on propane than it does on natural gas. I have to take this into consideration when I size a generator. Now if you meant to say a propane conversion derates a gasoline generator, than that is correct

 

[Egon]

C1 is lighter than C5.

 

[3930dave]

WHAT. Propane contains more energy than natural gas.. A generator will produce MORE power on propane than it does on natural gas. I have to take this into consideration when I size a generator. Now if you meant to say a propane conversion derates a gasoline generator, than that is correct

Thanks g. I knew they were both less than gasoline, but hadn't checked their relative ranking.

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

3.9 GPH is over 90 gallons a day.



If you heat and cook with LP and your WH uses it, all those need to be added in. Most people with installed whole house gensets do it so they don't have to turn it off at night. They want seemingly normal power availability.

Most LP tanks should not be drained below 5% and are almost never filled over 80% unless you sweetalk the driver. Now you're talking about 75% or so of 500 gallons so we're in the area of under 400 gallons available IF you had it filled just before the outage. 90 gallons a day at 400 gallons available gets you around 4 days at the most.

Man you sure change what I said. I run at 2.2 not 3.9 GPH, and maybe run 6-8 hrs a day on average during the many ...many... outages we have had here at home in the 23 years I have had a backup generator. I only run mine enough to keep food frozen, and to stay comfortable in early evening. I don’t need to run it during daylight hours cept at lunch time. But I could run it 24/7 if I so felt like wasting gas. And if I did run it all day and night, the gen would suck about 50 gal or so of fuel per day.

 

[3930dave]

C1 is lighter than C5.

Some houses used to be built here with the garage on the basement level, under the main house. A guy in Toronto was working on his catering truck, which had a propane leak. Parked it at the end of the driveway, propane ran down the sloped driveway into the garage...... BOOM.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Man you sure change what I said. I run at 2.2 not 3.9 GPH, and maybe run 6-8 hrs a day on average during the many ...many... outages we have had here at home in the 23 years I have had a backup generator. I only run mine enough to keep food frozen, and to stay comfortable in early evening. I don’t need to run it during daylight hours cept at lunch time. But I could run it 24/7 if I so felt like wasting gas. And if I did run it all day and night, the gen would suck about 50 gal or so of fuel per day.

Real-use #'s. Thank you.

Rgds, D.

 

[check]

Never used one, but knew of propane filters, so figured they had reason to exist.....

Once things are up and running, then you can steal heat from coolant. Bootstrapping to that point may be "interesting", if it's cold enough, and you park outside.

Rgds, D.

Or, if the generator is running you could rig up a duct system to direct some of the exhaust gases over towards the propane tank to warm it up.

 

[3930dave]

Or, if the generator is running you could rig up a duct system to direct some of the exhaust gases over towards the propane tank to warm it up.

Many people choose to have the tank distant, and the gen close-in, so long runs there..... but only costs your time+ducting......

I suspect (haven't run the #'s) you get greater tank area with twin 500 gal tanks, than with a single 1000 gal, so that might help @ low temp a bit.

Propane shouldn't be enclosed (at least above ground), so am thinking some extra insulation would be enough in a lot of cases.

Rgds, D.