Temp LP in place of Natural Gas

[RichK]

Hi,

I'm thinking of connecting, as temporary service, an LP tank to my gas line at home.

What I have in mind is a small tank, that is normally used with outdoor grills. I could adapt it somehow to feed the pipes.

I only need it for small amount of cooking and heating the hot water at min temp and min usage.

I do realize that LP does not have the same energy content, but so what. It would take a little longer to make coffee :-) Well the coffee is not the problem, the microwave is fine for that, but it's difficult to heat the water for a shower with uwave.

Anyone see a problem with this?

Regards,

RichK

[zero]

Yes!

You're just trolling to see if anyone knows anything about propane, right?

Nat. Gas: 1 cu.ft.= 1000 btu Propane: 1 cu. ft.= 2500 btu

You can get retrofit kits for everything, then put back the natural parts when you paid the gas bill. Oops! I mean when your done with your experiment.

-zero

[PipeDown]

So propane has more energy per unit volume. The stove would be hotter if you did not retrofit. Could end up with a dangerous towering flame instead of the cool flame you expect. Maybe you can throttle down the range top but the oven and water heater would be dangerous to operate.

For the short term, if it is primarily a warm shower you are after, I suggest you buy a camping style solar water shower and shower in the evening. It's basically a plastic bag with a hose attached, you fill it in the morning and set it in the sun until you are ready to use it. Shower quickly, they only hold a few gallons.

[RichK]

Sorry had the energy content backwards.

I felt the stove is no problem, as you have good control over the flame and good visual feedback of what's going on.

For that matter, it's summer here, so even cold water is not that cold. Or a friends house.

Since I had it backwards, I did not feel there was any problem with lower heat output. Water heater cannot control the flame, unless I change over, which I do not want to do for a very short time. With the heat about 2.5 times it could accelerate the aging of the WH. Did not think the diff was big enough for a short time to cause any serious harm.

And to Zero - yeh those gas bills will kill you, if you don't watch it man. You're very perceptive - consider doing palm readings too.

Regards,

RichK

[hallerb]

so why do you want to do this? attempting to save on gas bill? gas shut off for non payment of bill?

the orifices and controls arent easily compatble, and the conversoion costs will kill you

[pipedown]

I assume Zero is right, I didn't check the fact

If all you wanted was the stove, I would have suggested a gas BBQ

I was about to suggest you look for a small propane tank WH and just swap it out then I found this little beauty

Wal-Mart of all places. Looks like you would need an adapter to use with a bigger tank. Remember Propane makes lots of CO so don't use it indoors without lots of ventilation.

I might just get one for camping and that earthquake that's supposed to happen someday.

[RichK]

Actually have to do major work on a wall, where the meter is, so have to shut of off. But might save money, since I'm a minimal user and the gas co charges more just to maintain the account, than I use in the commodity.

It probably would, if the intent was to operate with LP on continuous basis. Just thought for a short time, nothing would get terribly overheated. The stove I'm not at all worried about, bigger flame would benefit the wok cooking that I do.

RichK

[m Ransley]

You cant just put propane into apliances without having them set up right, jetting and a regulator are needed, you will honestly probably blow your house up or have a fire. Call your apliance makers first

[David Martel]

Rich,

Perhaps the others have not explained it well. The air-fuel mix is important to the proper function of your gas devices.Using a different gas requires that you adjust the air-fuel mix of all of your gas appliances. This will require buying some new parts and probably some new tools. It won't be cost effective to do this for a week's hot water. Trying to use the improper air-fuel mix will not work in your case.

Dave M.

[RichK]

Thanks David for a sensible answer.

RichK

"David Martel"

[Jeff]

As others have said propane and methane have different volume mixes.

Methane CH4 + 2 O2 = CO2 + 2 H2O

Propane C3H8 + 5 O2 = 3 CO2 + 4 H2O

so for a given volume of propane you need 2.5 times more air to burn. I don't believe propane has an additive to give it the strong odor that is added to natural gas so leak detection is more difficult as for example a burner on the stove on low that went out. Except for home heating the cost of natural gas is quite low. Most of my summer time gas bill is due to fixed costs (I use gas for hot water, cooking and clothes drying).