The lack of a gauge on the LPG tank causes me to be very, very frugal with my LPG. For example, though we were having record low temperatures two weeks ago when I was camping along the west coast of California, I didn't run the Olympia 3100a catalytic heater in the evening because I didn't want to find I could not easily boil water for coffee in the morning. As a result, I was pretty uncomfortable once the sun went down.* So that got me thinking: what is the rate of consumption of this heater? I could not find any real specifications for it, except that it puts out 2800 BTU on max, and 1600 BTU on min. They don't say, but I presume that BTU's per hour. A gallon of LPG (propane) has about 140,000 btu/gallon. The tank on the Westy is -- what? 2 gallons? So . . . if the heater is on max (2800BTU/hr) then 2 gallons of LPG (280,000 btu) should last 100 hours, assuming 100% efficiency? (And if it is not 100% efficiency, wouldn't it be releasing LPG into the van?) *Yeah, yeah, it dropped to about 30F, which is tinkertoys to people who don't live in our sunny clime, but we San Diegans are unprepared for temps that low, and let's face it: the Westfalia is not a paragon of insulation. -- Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana") 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano KG6RCR |
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