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Date:         Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:06:50 +0000
Reply-To:     dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Subject:      Re: LPG > BTUs, check my math
Comments: To: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <45AFEF5D.3@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Propane only has ~ 96,000 BTUs/gallon and yes the Westy tank is only 2.5 gallons at best. That is why LPG is lousy as a motor fuel. As the tank empties and the surface area of the liquid is reduced the LPG will vaporize slower, especially at low temperatures making the last 1/4 or so difficult to use for running a heater.

Dennis

----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" Date: Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:09 pm Subject: LPG > BTUs, check my math To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> 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 > temperaturestwo 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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