hooking up 100lb propane tank to fireplaces
I am hooking up a propane tank to a stubout. The stubout was inspected a while ago. I was originally going to have two large tanks to supply the fireplaces and a pool heater, garage heater and grill. plans have changed and for now I want to temporarily hook up propane to supply just the fireplaces. I called a gas company and guy came out and said to be honest it will be cheaper for me to just buy tank from tractor supply company and no permit required to install it. See pictures below: the black iron pipe is 1 OD. I am buying the tank and 1/2 lb regulator. what size will threads be on the regulator and what will I need to connect to the stub out? Be aware that propane companies (at least all the ones where I live) do not supply 100-lb tanks and will not service one you purchase yourself. So you'd have to continually disconnect it and hauling it somewhere to get it refilled. I recommend getting a bit larger tank from a propane supplier. You won't have to purchase it (unless you want to) and they will come and refill it. Pretty much the same with several companies in my area. It is not worth the expense of sending out a truck to fill a 100lb bottle. They also will not fill any tank transported in the trunk of a car (that they can see). If they see your vehicle they want an open truck bed or trailer with the bottle secured in an upright position. The smallest tank I was able to get for my warehouse that the gas company would come fill was a 100 gallon tank. If you want something somewhat temporary without going to a large tank you could consider a 20lb tank. They are much easier to transport for filling and pretty inexpensive. You will have to check the btu output of your fireplace logs to see if one 20lb tank can supply enough vapor but I don't think you get cold enough in MD to cause too much trouble. Just keep an extra tank on hand to swap out when needed. As for your fitting sizes I think it depends on what regulator you buy. All of mine are female 1/2 npt. At your stub out on the house I would install a shutoff so you can change tanks without depressurizing the lines in the house. If you are relatively quick with your bottle change the pilot lights will not go out. I had propane supplier out before to give me estimate when I was going to get the big tanks and I had him com back for seeing about hooking up for just fireplaces. They just ran natural gas down my road and I think I eventually will tap into it so that is why I only want to hook up fireplaces temporarily. I wanted to surprise wife on christmas eve by giving her the remote to start the fireplace in bedroom! anyway, the propane supplier said they would charge $300 (maybe $350 can't remember) to bring the tank and set it up. then the charge for the propane. He is one who suggested I do it myself. I can buy the tank for $99. I have truck and motorcycle tie-downs to haul it. I do have 2 20lb grill tanks and would use those if I could? i only have one fireplace ready to go, the other one is larger 35k maybe. The fireplace ready to go is 20,000 btu max and guy said I could run for 4 hours and use 1 gallon. he said a 100lb tank holds 27 gallon. so I guess a 20lb tank holds about 5 gallon? so I could run fireplace 20 hours. that is lot of tank swapping. I guess could mount tanks together for 40 hours which would be better. can I do this? what supplies needed? parents have two 100lb tanks for cooking/fireplace and I think just one regulator and they do not have to manually switch over. they used to have to switch but I don't think anymore. do you mean another shutoff besides the one right in house where line comes in? there is about 18-24 from stub out to the valves in picture. In Central America the 20lb tanks are all anyone uses. They hook up multiple tanks up to a manifold when they need more than one. They put a shutoff valve between each tank and manifold so any number of tanks can be used and tanks can be switched while the system is running. Often then run one until it's totally empty and then switch on the next one since those size tanks are often charged the same price for a filling even if the tank has fuel remaining. One pound of propane contains about 21'000 btu and a 20lb tank actually holds about 18 pounds with the new safety valves so you should get a solid 18 hours out of each tank. I was looking for some natural gas stuff and came acroos this website: BBQ Pits by Tejas | Barbecue Pit Smoker | Barbecue Grill | Houston Texas tradition of wood smokers I never bought from them, but they have all kinds of things related to propane and natural gas hook ups. I recall seeing them sell manifolds so you can connect two tanks together. I think you were able to use one then swap the other over. They may have setups for more tanks and they may custom make one for you if you want. Just make sure the regulator will supply enough btu's to run everything at the same time. They don't seem to be labeled, so I don't know how you would know other than product descriptions when you order. Also make sure you piping is large enough to supply the volume of gas needed when running everything at once. That black pipe with the 1 OD is 3/4 on the inside and is referred to as 3/4 piping. thanks for the replies. Thinking about using the 20lb tanks. went and tried to buy some suppplies. but can't seem to find what the pressure is on the regulator for gas grill that I bought (or any grill regulator for that matter). but here is what I got: so regulator with attached 18long hose with 3/8 flare end (female), 3/8 flare (male) to 3/8 flare (male) fitting, 3/8 flare (female) to 3/8 NPT (male), 3/8 (female) to 3/4(male) adapter, 3/4 elbow to attach to my stubout. so how does this look? I just curious about code and these rubber hoses? I cold get black pipe to replace the long coild hose (would need 24 I think have to measure) then would need adapter to go from 3/8 flare (male) to 3/8 NPT (male). could not find any valve so that is why don't have that right now. I'm not en expert in this area, but I think to run one fireplace, you should be good to go with what you have. The BBQ regulator should be giving you the pressure you need inside the house. The only issue would be volume if you tried to run both at the same time and the regulator wasn't large enough. I'm not 100% sure, but I think your most basic regular is good up to about 50,000 BTU. I don't know why they aren't more clearly labeled. High pressure regulators are painted red. Low pressure ones are either painted gray or silver or are natural unpainted aluminum which is gray/silver in color. was able to find info about regulator. It is Fairview GR-766. rated to 150K BTU. there is graph showing output but you have to know input pressure and output BTU I guess. But looking at graph I would say it outputs from 10 1/2 to 12 in water column at 20K BTU output depending on input pressure. 1/2 PSI=13.8 in WC so I would think this is fine. Any comments on my setup Pilot Dane since you are Moderator? rubber hose connected together a code violation? I do not think most codes allow the use of flexible rubber hose to connect to a hard point like a building's black pipe or to a fixed appliance like a furnace. I have always seen rubber hoses only used for items not covered under building codes like outdoor gas grills and turkey fryers. In my area the use of CSST flexible stainless steel covered with a plastic sheath is permitted as is flexible copper tubing. My local propane supply company has a service dept. and they will make up whatever hose is needed. Iell them what I are doing and they will cut the CSST to length and put the appropriate fittings on the end. I recently converted my warehouse's natural gas gas pack to propane and they put together the flexible hose needed to go between the 100 gallon tank and my gas pack. --- The inlet pressure from the tank and into the regulator will vary quite a bit depending on temperature and that's why the output capacity from the regulator varies. And as by brother in law in central Alaska can confirm it can get cold enough that nothing comes out of the tank when you open the valve. That's should not be a concern for you in MD since your 150k btu regulator should easily provide 20k worth of gas even a cold winter's night and a 20lb tank can vaporize enough gas under most circumstances you will see. 10 pounds of propane can provide 28k btu at zero degrees Fahrenheit. So only on a very, very cold night with the tank less than 1/3 full will one 20lb cylinder start coming up low on horsepower feeding your gas logs. I have some 1/4 ID copper line (leftover from the stuff used for my heating oil tank to furnace. I could take off the rubber hose which is attached to regulator with a male NPT fitting, then use fitting to go from NPT to flare (I can flare the copper) and then do same kind of fitting at other end to go into stubout. does that sound better?
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