Who has a propane generator??

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Donald

Donald

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For those who do not heat with propane what size tanks have you gotten away with in the cold of winter? How may kW?

What do you notice when the liquid cannot boil off quickly enough?
 
I don't think there is anyway to know what size tank you'll need without knowing how much the generator will run. If it only runs 20 minutes for the winter, you might only need a few gallons. If you're running it 24 hours a day it will take significantly more propane.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
I don't think there is anyway to know what size tank you'll need without knowing how much the generator will run. If it only runs 20 minutes for the winter, you might only need a few gallons. If you're running it 24 hours a day it will take significantly more propane.


Your not understanding propane vaporization rates in cold weather. My 8kW generator might not even run at half load on a 100 lb tank even if it's full when it's 0F temp outside.
 
I have a 3kw converted to propane.

It'll start and run on a 20lb tank but the temp determines for how long. I have an auto changeover to go between two tanks and that helps some. I usually run it off the house 500 gallon tank though.

When it can't boil off enough it just starts to slow down.
 
I looked into it, but came to the conclusion that I would need some ridiculously huge tank. I mean, worst case is that it needs to work at -20F, right? Need a huge tank to get the required amount to vaporize. Practically need the tank to be indoors, in order to keep the tank temp high enough.

http://www.wincogen.com/Winco_Downloads/
Can't find the info at the moment, maybe it was off on a different site, but to support a 5kW generator in -20F it was something like 1,000 gallons.
 
Originally Posted By: AandPDan
I have a 3kw converted to propane.

It'll start and run on a 20lb tank but the temp determines for how long. I have an auto changeover to go between two tanks and that helps some. I usually run it off the house 500 gallon tank though.

When it can't boil off enough it just starts to slow down.


I wish I had a 500 gal house tank.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald


I wish I had a 500 gal house tank.


I wish I had natural gas piped in.
 
A friend of mine has a 100 Kw generator powered by a V10 Ford motor. I believe it is supplied by a 1000 gallon tank. I recall him running the tank dry after two days of extended outage after a spring ice and snow storm. He ran another two or three days after refilling the tank. Its a big house with heat pumps; all of the gas feeds the generator.
 
Air or water cooled engine? Air cooled engines work on the gas vapor taken from the top of the tank, Water cooled engines have water heated vaporizers that run off of Liquid propane taken from the bottom of the tank. So as the temp drops the coolant heated vaporizers will not freeze. The coolant heated vaporizers also are able to fuel higher output engines.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
Air or water cooled engine? Air cooled engines work on the gas vapor taken from the top of the tank, Water cooled engines have water heated vaporizers that run off of Liquid propane taken from the bottom of the tank. So as the temp drops the coolant heated vaporizers will not freeze. The coolant heated vaporizers also are able to fuel higher output engines.


It's just an air cooled engine.
 
Either I buy one or two 100 gallon tanks. They are about $600 each.

Or I can rent two 100 gallon tanks for about $65 / year plus $14 minimum propane charge/ month.

Propane companies do not like to supply large tanks unless your heating with propane as you don't use up a lot of propane with only a generator.

Last option would be to connect up several 100 lb tanks. They can be bought for maybe $125 each. They are about 25 gallon each. I would need at least 4. Maybe 6 or 8. Sounds like a pain to connect.
 
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Be aware that Propane is heavier than air. If you ever get a leak it can flow down-hill and pull, like in the basement of a building. So, if you are planing on having a generator in a building and just piping the exhaust outside, be aware that you probably want to include a gas sensor alarm unit to detect propane if it should leak.
 
No unless you find a vaporizer for an air cooled generator. I think I have seen them at one time. I wanna say it took heat from the exhaust.

The issue that is more prohibitive to doing vapor is the size of line needed to support it. You can do vapor on a 60 kw unit with 2000 gallon but the regulators have to be huge and needs 2 inch line with the tanks very close to the unit.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
Be aware that Propane is heavier than air. If you ever get a leak it can flow down-hill and pull, like in the basement of a building. So, if you are planing on having a generator in a building and just piping the exhaust outside, be aware that you probably want to include a gas sensor alarm unit to detect propane if it should leak.


Generator will be 10' feet from my house.
 
I have a 500 gal tank, they only fill to 80% so it's effectively 400 gallons for use. It has worked down to -15F with no problems. I wound never put a propane tank in a house or building. You can bury the tank in the ground if too cold of ambient temps is a problem.
 
We have a 20kW generac piped to a 250 gallon pig. Keep the tank filled and everything has been fine, propane generally stops vaporizing at -40F above that you should still have enough pressure to run the engine. Best thing you can do is park the tank in a spot where the sun can hit it, a little sun makes a big difference in tank temp.
 
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