You can get tank heater blankets which might help keep your portable unit running although will increase overall fuel usage. We ran into the same issue when we were considering multiple 125gal tanks to run a 50kw gas generator. The site didn't have room for a large tank but 125gal are allowed to be placed alongside a building. In talking with a few local propane suppliers, their knowledge level varied considerably on specing a sufficient tank size for a large generator in very cold conditions (we see down to -20F occasionally). You can do buried propane tanks also which helps considerably by having the ground as a heatsink, but very expensive and an ongoing inspection cost. Ultimately just had a larger natural gas service installed. Some risk there of a gas outage but saves a LOT of cost and headache.
On Thu, Dec 5, 2024 at 11:14 AM Nate Burke <n...@blastcomm.com> wrote: > 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 >
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