On Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 11:19:39 PM UTC-5, Uncle Monster wrote:
On Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 4:55:05 PM UTC-6, M. Stradbury wrote:
I just bought a house with a 1,000 gallon propane tank owned
by the house and property tax is paid on the tank which is
a California-only thing I hear.

They just filled the tank up to 85% (they wouldn't fill further
they told my wife, otherwise it could blow up, they said).

They told me the price is $1.45 per gallon of propane plus
about a twenty dollar "hazmat" fee whatever that means, for a
total price a bit over a thousand dollars for the fill.

They said they "inspected" the system (which was existing), and
they inspected the tank which is on on four-inch thick concrete
slab bolted down by straps for earthquakes), and they charge $100
for that inspection (my wife let them in the house but she doesn't
know what they did).

I never had propane before.
I don't begrudge them anything.

But, I also don't know what's normal.
Is this normal stuff?

It's my understanding that the tank isn't filled all the way because room in the tank is needed for the liquid propane to evaporate into gas and the gas, not liquid propane is what is fed into the home. The higher the demand for propane gas from a tank, the more surface area is needed inside the tank thus a larger tank is needed. That's why you can't run a large furnace from a 20 pound cylinder. The liquid in the small tank can't boil into gas fast enough to supply the furnace with enough gas except for testing. (ヅ)


When I run my furnace off of a 20 lb tank, I use another 20 lb tank
to heat the tank used for the furnace so that the liquid boils faster.

Cousin "BOOM" Monster