On Friday, December 18, 2015 at 3:21:41 PM UTC-6, DerbyDad03 wrote:
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

Yea, you can run a small furnace off of one if the tank is inside the dwelling with the heater so the ambient air can warm the tank. I had an infrared heater that attached to and used the tank as a base. It worked on any upright tank that had the same type valve as a propane tank from a barbecue grill. That heater was about 12" square and put out a great deal of heat. I have a small one that screws on top of a propane torch cylinder. It had a round plastic base included which fit the bottom of the standard cylinder to give it more stability. The added base was unneeded with the larger diameter squat cylinders used on camping stoves. Those heaters served me well during power outages until I installed one of the natural gas infrared heaters on the wall in the hallway at the house. That type heater is a big improvement over the NG heaters we had at home when I was a kid. (€¢€¿€¢)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr15rPHEmeQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-nOPvXiIWQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsppNOHdQII

[8~{} Uncle Infrared Monster