You could start it up on a warmer day to rule out a regulator, air filter, or whatever. But yeah it certainly could be the cold.
I'm sure I've seen tank heaters somewhere, but you know the best thing I ever did for myself on these things was get an account with a gas company. They supplied a massive tank at no charge. We just pay for fuel, and they come top it up twice a year (or on request). The first fillup was expensive because it was just a crapload of propane, but after that it was a minimal charge twice a year as long as the generator had only been exercising. Obviously, it's more money if you actually had a power outage, but you'll be buying the gas either way and it's just easier if someone else takes care of it. And freezing won't be an issue. If they know what they're doing they'll ask you about the fuel consumption of the generator and size the tank appropriately for the vaporization in cold weather. You can't do that if the gas truck can't drive up to the site, but as long as that's not an issue then it would behoove you to call around and see what you can get from a local gas company. -Adam ________________________________ From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> on behalf of Nate Burke <n...@blastcomm.com> Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2024 11:12 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> Subject: [AFMUG] Propane and Low temps Many years ago, I think Chuck had posted an excellent chart showing Propane tank sizes, and the offgas rate at different temperatures, but I can't find it anymore, and my Google results don't show what I think it was. We have several 2000-2500w Champion Dual-Fuel Generators that have been working flawlessly for us with propane. Last night was the first time I think that I deployed one in Cold temperatures though. We were about 13 degrees last night. I have it on a 30# tank, and it fired right up, and ran for about 5 minutes, then turned off. Fired it up again, and it ran for 2 hours and shut off. Propane tank was nearly full, but I'm wondering if it was too cold for the propane. Back-of-the-napkin math says that possibly it was. Working out some numbers based on run times@60F, it looks like it might draw about 14kbtu/hr At 10 degrees, it looks like a 30# tank will only do about 13kbtu/hr. Would a heater blanket work And/or provide enough heat to offset the lower temperatures? Or just stick with Gas for the winter. We're warming up now, so won't be able to test until it gets cold again. -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
