Alternative energy source, LP?

Geo-TH,In · Mar 19, 2021

When I was a kid my dad bought a dairy farm. We had an irrigation pump that started on gas and then switched over to LP.

I recall seeing new tractors back then with a built in LP tanks.

I knew a man in the 70's, after the oil embargo, had a 100 gallon LP tank in the bed of his F250.

Today many forklifts today run on LP.

You can buy generators that will run on gas or LP.

Some places in the country where NG isn't available, people use LP to heat their homes.

Do you use LP in your tractors, truck, car, generators, home?

So what's the good, bad and ugly concerning LP? Cost?

WAYNE-N-TEXAS · Mar 19, 2021

It can set for long periods of time and not go bad. One bad thing, they don't like to have a truck come out to sell 25/40 gallons, they want you buy at least a 100 gallons. I have a JD 730 LP.

Vicinalvictor · Mar 19, 2021

Years ago I had a home with LP gas, then one morning in November I woke up, and both my canary Finch's were dead in their cage, compliments of a cracked heat exchanger I didn't know about, and a carbon monoxide detector that never went off. My home is total electric now. The only thing I own that is LP now, is a forklift.

Tech 7 · Mar 19, 2021

Shop is heated with LP, in that shop is an LP fueled forklift and a John Deere 3020 side console Factory LP. Corn is all dried with an LP fueled dryer. Natural Gas would be preferred for the stationary units but don't see a line coming down the road for a long time

moresmoke · Mar 19, 2021

There is a huge variation in cost of LP across this great country. In the Midwest, it is a cost effective source of energy most times. Where I grew up in the northeast, LP was double the cost of fuel oil.

I heat my shop with LP, costs a bit more than electric would currently, but I would need to upgrade the service for whole yard to handle more electric demand. And I see electric rates rising faster than LP here in the future.

dahlin · Mar 19, 2021

I have a champion generator works good with 20lb LP tank. Randy

Richard G. · Mar 19, 2021

We have LP gas logs as backup to the wood heat.
I own my 330 gal tank and pay within 10 days of fillup and get it a bit cheaper.
Gonna put a tiny LP heater in my wife's sewing room on the back of my shop to be able to heat it quickly.
Use an oil filled electric heater in there now.
LP here is about $2 a gallon right now.
Is usually about $1.70 a gallon when I fill up in the summer.
Don't know why it is so high here compared to other places.
We have NG up on the highway, but I would have to put in over 1200 feet of line to get to my house.
May do it in a few years.
Richard in NW SC

Determined · Mar 19, 2021

Before they taxed it to the point where it no longer was a cost savings I had a half a dozen or so vehicles that had been converted over to propane.
You would loose a little power but the money saved made it worthwhile.

It was good while it lasted.

About all we use it for now is home heating, kitchen stove, bbq, travel trailer, tiger torch.

Bruce from Can. · Mar 19, 2021

I switched our old farm house to LP 5 years ago.

As you can see, this is a big old house, and when it gets in the neighborhood of 0F I have a wood stove that helps keep us extra cozy. It was a no brainer to switch from oil to propane for me. Both my oil tank and furnaces were at the end of their life. And a new oil furnace was going to cost almost double my new gas furnace. And the new oil tank also would cost $2,000.00. Our new LP furnace, installed, complete with all tax included, $4,500.00. I rent the propane tank from my fuel supplier, $60.00 per year. And my insurance company reduced my home owners insurance policy by $100.00 per year because I no longer had a oil tank in the basement of my house. I can contact LP gas in late summer or fall if I wish. It is a good idea to contact because the contact customer will always get provided with LP before a non contract customer if there becomes some kind of supply issue. Also no chimney is required for a LP gas furnace, just a vent pipe

Russ from MN · Mar 19, 2021

My father said one reason LP tractors were popular years ago was before cracking was perfected there was a surplus of LP near refineries and it was dirt cheap. Most forklifts that are used in enclosed spaces are LP because they don't give off nearly as much carbon monoxide.

ss55 · Mar 19, 2021

If you don't have a nurse tank, can you convert to 100 pound LPG bottles?

Steve@Advance · Mar 19, 2021

There was a time it was a very economical fuel, both on and off road.

Lots of vehicles, mostly pick-ups because of the convenience of a place for the tank, were converted to propane. The carb stayed on, a regulator was attached to the top.

A properly tuned system worked very well, supposedly there was power loss, but I couldn't feel it. It eliminated the troublesome auto choke and need for an accelerator pump. You could switch back to gas if propane wasn't available.

It is a good fuel for indoor use, burns very clean, oil stays clean, very little carbon.

It is not very economical anymore. For small time operators like us, fuel for the forklift is done on the tank exchange program, overpriced, partially filled and charged for a full tank,(not sure how they get away with that, but they all do it). And the price never came down when gas went down, but you can bet it's on the way up now!

I've been considering getting a whole house generator, but it would have to be propane to be practical. That greatly raises the cost, leasing a tank that would probably never get a refill in my lifetime, if any supplier would even be interested.

Crazy Horse · Mar 19, 2021

Gas powered Zambonis (for indoor ice rinks) went away from gasoline many, many years ago. Then propane (tanks) for years and in this area, natural gas later on. Lately, the move has been to all-electric Zambonis. So 60 years ago I suspect some would be saying impossible, it'll never happen.

MarkB_MI · Mar 19, 2021

Back in the seventies, my dad converted three gasoline pickups to LP gas to save money. He gave up on it after about a year; the local propane had so much oil in it it would foul up the LP systems in the trucks.

One of the best investments we made in our house was to bring in natural gas. I don't miss the cost and aggravation of LP gas one bit.

Denny K · Mar 19, 2021

I had a 77 Dodge B300 van that I converted to lp in about 1981 and put about 170K on it with no problems. started in SDak winter easily. I would swi
tch back to gas about once a month just to clean the carb.

504 · Mar 19, 2021

One of the problems with a 100# is they draw vaper,most engines run liquide. besides the weight would be close to 180#.

GeneMO · Mar 19, 2021

(quoted from post at 07:48:17 03/19/21) There was a time it was a very economical fuel, both on and off road.

Lots of vehicles, mostly pick-ups because of the convenience of a place for the tank, were converted to propane. The carb stayed on, a regulator was attached to the top.

A properly tuned system worked very well, supposedly there was power loss, but I couldn't feel it. It eliminated the troublesome auto choke and need for an accelerator pump. You could switch back to gas if propane wasn't available.

It is a good fuel for indoor use, burns very clean, oil stays clean, very little carbon.

It is not very economical anymore. For small time operators like us, fuel for the forklift is done on the tank exchange program, overpriced, partially filled and charged for a full tank,(not sure how they get away with that, but they all do it). And the price never came down when gas went down, but you can bet it's on the way up now!

I've been considering getting a whole house generator, but it would have to be propane to be practical. That greatly raises the cost, leasing a tank that would probably never get a refill in my lifetime, if any supplier would even be interested.

I put in a Generac 16KW, 500 gallon propane tank, they charge me $1.00 a year rent. Last summer I topped it off for $ .85 a gallon.

Gene

CenTex Farmall · Mar 19, 2021

They have a process now where they can pull carbon from the atmosphere and convert it back to a gaseous fuel or something like that. Supposed to be a drop in replacement.

Blue Gas

MMDan · Mar 19, 2021

Majority of rural homes in my area (Nebraska) are heated with LP gas. I am still farming with LP fueled MM tractors. I have 4 : Two U-302's, a G-955 and a G-1000 Vista. We grind all the feed for a 200 sow farrow to finish hog operation with the U-302's. If they will turn over, they will start in cold weather without being plugged in even in the -30 temps we had a few weeks ago. I have used LP fueled MM tractors since 1974 and love them.

730virgil · Mar 19, 2021

cook stove, furnace , generator

Alternative energy source, LP?

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