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Old 04-30-2021, 06:02 AM   #1
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Propane life

About how long should I get out of a 5 lb tank running just the heater. Hours, days, a week ? It's in the mid 30's at night.
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Old 04-30-2021, 06:16 AM   #2
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Depends on BTU Usage , if its cold Might get 2 nights out of a 20LB Tank
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Old 04-30-2021, 08:35 AM   #3
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I wouldn't think you would get very far with a 5 pound tank running a furnace. Our furnace is the most propane hungry appliance in our camper...
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Old 04-30-2021, 10:28 AM   #4
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As an example I have a Big Buddy heater that will run on two one pound propane bottles. On low, it will eat both of those up in about 6 hours. A furnace set at 60 degrees in 30 degree temps will probably go through 5 lbs in short order. That is just a guess but I cannot see 5 lbs going very far on a cold night.
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Old 04-30-2021, 11:15 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rpall View Post
About how long should I get out of a 5 lb tank running just the heater. Hours, days, a week ? It's in the mid 30's at night.
If you know the BTU rating of the furnace you can get an idea of run time. Propane weighs 4.25lb per gallon and you get ~91500 btu per gallon or ~21500 btu per pound. A 20lb cylinder has ~4.7 gallons - a 30lb cylinder ~7 gallons. If your furnace is rated at say 25K btu you will get a little over 3.5 hours of solid furnace runtime per gallon. If the furnace only runs ~15 minutes per hour you would get ~14-15 hours out of a gallon. You'll need to monitor the furnace usage a little bit to get a feel for how long it runs per hour to maintain the specific conditions you want. Then you can get a pretty good estimate of how long the propane will last.
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Old 04-30-2021, 11:21 AM   #6
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At those temperatures in a pop-up, there isn't any insulation to speak of, the furnace will run almost constantly. As said in the first response, a 20# tank will last about 2 nights, that's from experience. Camped many cold nights in late Oct. in a pop-up.

A 5# tank? Use warm sleeping bags, or bring lots of warm blankets as it won't last too long.
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Old 04-30-2021, 11:25 AM   #7
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There are approximately 91,000 BTU in 1 gallon (~5lbs) of Propane. In a 20lb (~5 gallon) tank that is about 450,000 BTU. Check your furnace rating (BTU/hr) and divide your available propane BTU by that rating to get the run time. In other words, if you have a 45,000 BTU/hr furnace (for ease of math) it will run for about 10 hours on a single 20lb tank.

If that furnace cycles on for 20 minutes every hour, you should go about 50 hours (2 days) on a tank.

And yes, this is a simplistic ballpark estimate as furnaces are not 100% efficient, and you never really know if you have 5 gallons in that 20 lb tank (those trade in tanks seem to always be underfilled).
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Old 04-30-2021, 11:25 AM   #8
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Welcome aboard!

A 5 lbs tank has about 91KBTU of available heat. Most RV furnaces are rated at 30KBTU/hr and are only about 70% efficient. So you will burn up that 5 lbs tank fast. Just remember, typically your furnace will cycle on/off, so it will not use the full 30KBTU each hour.

In a PU, you will go through a lot of propane for heat, as you only have a piece of cloth between you and the elements. On a 30 degree night, you may use most of a 20 lbs tank, especially if the daytime high stays on the cooler side, and what setpoint you like the thermostat at.

Our old PU did not have a furnace. When it is that cool, we tried to have an electric site and use a 1500 watt space heater. It helps alot.

Currently we have a HTT. We still use the same electric heater, and have added electric mattress pad heaters. Helps a lot, we often just turn the furnace off at night. In the morning, flip the furnace on to bring the HTT back up to temp.

We have a lot of camper friends most say they can get 1 -2 nights out of a 20 lbs tank in their PU. I think a lot depends on the thermostat setpoint and if they supplement with electric heat.

I would say a 5 lbs tank is to small for a cool night in a PU.

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