Propane, that wonderful stuff

[Curt Sprenger]

Ralph,
GREAT input! Thank you for your time and the information.

Curt Sprenger 1987 PT38, Anaheim Hills, Calif.



Ralph L. Fullenwider wrote:

> Hi everyone:
>
> Since it is a slow day on the Forum, I thought I might start a little
> thread on LP gas. Ever wondered how long your tank will last during the
> winter months with the LP heaters going?
>
> Interesting facts on that:
>
> 1 gal of LP turns out 91,502 of BTU
>
> The ASME tanks on the Birds run about 45 gallons but remember that the
> tanks can only be filled to 80% of capacity so we actually have only 36
> gallons available.
>
> That means:
> 36 gallons X 91,502 = 3,294,072 BTU per tank fill
>
> Now then the Lp heaters are usually 16,000 BTU units per heater, so 3
> heaters would use 48,000 BTU per hour.
>
> So 3,294.072 divided by 48,000 = 68.6 hours @ 24/7 100% run time at 70
> deg
> F at sea level.
>
> Interesting:
>
> Now we know the heaters don't run 24/7 @ 100 percent so lets say they run
> 25 percent of the time. This takes the BTU's used from 68.6 to 120.06
> hours
> and that divided by 24 hours comes to, a total of 5 days of continuous
> heater run time. This does not include the refrigerator or cooking BTU's
> demand.
>
> And the colder it get's the fewer BTU's are available as pressure. Lp
> boils
> at -44 deg F so at sea level on a 100 deg F day the available pressure
> from
> the tank is 198 psi. then for every 10 F drop in temperature the pressure
> will drop aprox 1.5 percent. So it could actually be that you have 1/4
> tank
> showing on the readout but 0 pressure available to feed the heaters or
> any
> LP appliance. Hmm. if that happens, you can start the gen set and if you
> have a trouble light with a 60 watt bulb and turn it on and lay the
> trouble
> light inside the LP compartment, the heat from the lamp will actually
> heat
> the tank to a certain degree and give you more available LP pressure for
> cooking.
>
> I have not read all of the tables on LP so am not sure how altitude would
> be an effect on the BTU rate either.
>
> Just thought this was interesting though. What do you think?
>
> Safe travels,
>
> Ralph and Charolette Fullenwider
> Ralph's RV Solutions, Duncan, Oklahoma
> http://home.swbell.net/rlf47/index.htm
>
>
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