Will a propane tank that is stored outdoors, where summers average 80 F and winters sometimes go below 0 F, last longer in the summer if used at a constant rate all year ?
I surly don’t know what you are asking with this question, But you can NEVER have a propane cylinder indoors. Other than the small disposables for lanterns and such should never be transported inside a motor vehicle.
Gbro, how would you transport one of the tanks for a home grill? The standard is 20lbs of propane in the tank.
I am trying to find out if the tank will run out of gas faster in the winter or the summer due to temperature.
Propane is sold by weight (which in this case really means mass) and the only accurate way to measure consumption is mass per unit time (e.g. pounds per hour). If this is what you mean by “constant rate”, the answer is no - temperature makes no difference.
The only reason to avoid storing a tank indoors is the risk of leaks. If it is well closed there is no risk. I have stored propane cylinders indoors all my life.
The question of whether it will run out of gas sooner if the temperature is higher needs to be qualified. If the valve is in exactly the same position then the gas will flow faster with higher temperature but you adjust the valve to suit your heat needs.
This is like the water runs faster if there is more pressure in the pipe but you adjust the faucet to use the flow you want.
If you leave a bic lighter in your car overnight in freezing temperatures, it won’t light. If you warm it up in your hand for a few minutes, it will. I’m thinking that this same principle somehow applies to the propane tank which is 100 lbs. and it will last longer in the summer due to higher pressure that will squeeze every bit of gas out.
I installed an on-demand LP water heater when I built my house, and had no money to get set up for delivery. I did have a couple 20lb tanks and a 40lb LP tank full, so I just bought a replacement gas grill regulator and hooked it up. We went through the first winter like that. I don’t remember the exact temperatures, but when it got cold the smaller the tank, the sooner it would stop working. I think it was ~20 degrees F for the 20 lb tank and ~10 degrees F for the 40lb tank that they wouldn’t work art all. Just above those temperatures, and they’d work until you had a chance to get into the shower and get soaped up, as the tanks cool as they’re used. I just rotated the tanks inside to keep them warm enough to operate. The tanks will not run out of gas faster, they just don’t maintain pressure enough to operate when cold.
The lighter uses butane, whose boiling point is around -0.5C at sea level. Propane’s is around -42C. So the problems associated with low temperatures are much different for the two.
But there is a trivial case in which ambient temperature does matter: when the propane tank is empty (i.e. no more liquid remains). When this is the case (and only then), a higher temperature will allow you to extract a tiny bit more gas from the tank.
LP gas is a mixture of propane and butane in various proportions - so the performance at low temperature may vary.
Huh, you learn something new every day! Still, it’s the same stuff the OP is describing, whether you get it delivered or by the gas grill tank.
I think your last sentence is the answer I’ve been looking for. I guess I was using the wrong terminology when I asked if the gas will last longer. It seems the warmer the temperature, the more gas there is available to be used.
When I went to set up delivery service and told the guy what I’d been doing, he said something about the small tanks not being able to maintain head pressure in cold weather, so I suspect it’s just the transition from liquid to gas is just not fast enough at low temp.
Not so for propane, except at seriously low temperatures or the trivial case described in post #9.
How about…the colder the temperature, the less gas there is available ?
What do you think the safety concerns might be as far as wrapping the tank in a heating pad and turning it on very low in extremely cold weather ?
IANA safety or propane expert, but I wouldn’t do this. Electrical apliance = possibility of spark. Possibility of spark + propane leak = Boom! (well, more likely a flamethrower effect, but still not good mojo.) When I heated my tanks, I did so by bringing them inside while not in use (ignoring the advice of experts).
I don’t know what your application or expected minimum temperature is. If it’s not as high demand as the water heater that I was running or the expected temperature is high enough, you may be fine. A bigger tank is all I needed - I think it’s a 100 gallon one. (~3’ diameter x ~5’ tall)
IIRC you said in another thread that you live on a boat, so this may not be practical. But I wouldn’t think you’d live on a boat anywhere where the temp would be low enough to cause problems. (though I have been wrong before once or twice.)
Suppose you had an outside water tank. All the water is available down to a temperature of 0C (32F), at which point none is available. Would it be accurate to say “The the colder the temperature, the less water there is available” ?
It’s all starting to make sense.
I also use the propane for an on demand tankless H2O heater, Made by BOSCH and hasn’t missed a beat in 5 years.