1) Turn off valve to large tank (250 gallons).
2) Open line (wearing gloves & pointing away from face)
3) Connect the small tank (20 gallons) taking care to prevent air entry
Is there more to it from a safety standpoint than that obvious procedure?
How fast are you consuming the propane? Like, are you using it to run a furnace? The faster propane is drawn off the faster the tank contents cool off. Eventually the propane will freeze and no more will be available and the system will 'go out'. When the tank thaws out flow resumes but the pilot lights are out and you are getting set up for a propane explosion! Think about that ..... pdk
100# tank. Does the existing tank have a regulator?
My propane vendor changed the regulator on my tank from a one stage to a two stage this spring. I'll pass on what he said as I watched him turn off the valve. He would close it 30 degrees or so and back it out, repeating the process gradually until the vale was seated. His theory was old valve that haven't been turned off in years tend to leak if you just crank them down tight.
ymmv, but taking a few seconds longer to turn it off can't hurt.
I'm sure you know but j.i.c -- POL fittings have left handed threads. I use soapy water in a spray bottle to make sure everything is good when I'm done.
If you have a gas stove turn the burners on to purge the lines. No matter how fast you are the propane tends to escape and leave some air in the line.
On Wed, 19 Sep 2018 20:20:10 -0400, Clare Snyder wrote
Road collapsed so it is being worked on for a month or more. One lane only. One way at a time only. No trucks over 5K pounds allowed. Cops giving tickets so propane delivery sent notice they can't come. Same with garbage but garbage can just pile up. Just need to tide over for a month or two. Should have thought ahead but didn't think about it in time.
Amerigas. They only have big trucks. Really big trucks. Nowhere near 5K pounds.
They were coming until the cops parked at the weight limit sign. Apparently it's bad news for their license class to get tickets.
It's not a big deal for most of the residents since they planned ahead.
I didn't realize Lowes sells the small propane tanks. So that should tide me over.
(I wonder if I can slightly fill the big tank? I'll look for a second opening because that might be a second method, but I just thought of that as I was typing so I haven't looked to see if there is a second pipe on the big tank that I can tap into.)
To save propane I've been turning off the hot water heater every day. It takes about a half hour to heat up 50 gallons.
I'm curious if that's your experience that it takes about a half hour of propane to heat 50 gallons of water from ambient of about, oh, I don't know, room temperature of 70 degrees or so.
Well, I would suggest pointing your face away from the open line instead of pointing away from your face. After all, the escaping gas might not see which way you are pointing given that you are wearing the gloves.
It can be calculated and I may still have the formula. You have to know the output of the burner and you can figure how long it will burn on a tank of propane.
Gallon of propane has 91,000 BTU. Water heater is about 30 - 40,000 BTU
A BTU is the energy required to raise a pound of water 1 degree. Gallon of water is 8.3 pounds. to raise it from 70 to 120 takes 50 x 8.3 x how many gallons you used.
He might run into issues there of regulations regarding the transport of nat gas and what kind of vehicles and equipment are approved for that. Bringing home a couple of 20 lb tanks in an SUV I'm pretty sure is legal. Towing a trailer with a 150 gallon tank of propane down a road that has a weight limit, where cops are checking and stopping trucks, IDK about that.
Looks like more than I thought. Have to be upright too
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maximum number of propane cylinders that can be transported at one time is five. For open vehicles, the total combined mass of the propane and cylinders should not exceed 500 kg. The maximum number of propane cylinders that can be transported in enclosed vehicles is five, as long as each individual cylinder weighs a total of less than 30 kg (600 lbs). Typically, a full barbecue cylinder weights approximately 17 kg (34.5 lbs).
The maximum number of propane cylinders that can be transported at one
They have an extra zero in that 600 lbs above. If this road work is only for a month or two, he doesn't have to heat a house, limiting usage and his plan of relying on barbecue size cylinders sounds reasonable for some cooking and WH.
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