Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Eric and have been reading this forumn for a few months now.I find it very helpful.I recently purchased a used WoodGun E 180. I am a union fitter/welder and inspected the boiler very carefully before I bought it. The boiler is 22 years old and its integrity is amazing.It's an all carbon steel unit. It is A.S.M.E. certified and has oil backup and a dhw coil. I have a question on storage. As far as stratification goes.Is it better to have the tanks(in my case) installed verticle or horizontal.Im thinking verticle but really have zero experience with this. Also I will be using 4 120 propane tanks 30 inches in diameter and 48 inches long.I plan on cutting them in half and welding them back together too make two tanks-roughly 480 gallons. Twinned together through a simple manifold.My house is roughly 1700sf. The insulation is good to fair.Wondering if anyone has anything similiar.My heating system is oil fired base board. Just trying to get some ideas on what my volume of storage should be and and if the tank being placed vert or horz has any bearing on effeciency.
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Nofossil
Moderator Emeritus
Welcome to the forum. Storage sizing is somewhat complex, but it has to do mostly with three things:
1) your heat loss from the building
2) Your heat distribution system (baseboard / hot air / radiant)
3) The length of time that you'd like to go between fires.
The prevailing wisdom is that vertical is better. 480 gallons is marginal in most cases - too little to give you a lot of benefit.
1) your heat loss from the building
2) Your heat distribution system (baseboard / hot air / radiant)
3) The length of time that you'd like to go between fires.
The prevailing wisdom is that vertical is better. 480 gallons is marginal in most cases - too little to give you a lot of benefit.
Thanks-I thought it would be light.Having a hard time locating 500 gallon tanks.Can only get the 30 inch diameter tanks. If I could get 2 500's-well thats a horse of a different color.I have an 8 foot ceiling.Chopped down 500's would be the ticket. The gas co's have bone yards of them here.There like the holy grail though.Guess they wanna watch them rot.I dont get it.Are you running a pressurized system?
Nofossil
Moderator Emeritus
Eric G said:
I'm not running pressurized now, but I'm hoping to switch. In my case, probably four 250 gallon propane tanks.
I think the 250's are what im calling 120's. I could be wrong (what a suprise) Any how there od is 30 inches correct?
The 500's are 37 inches from the ones ive seen. The thing with these tanks-well there rolled and you pretty much need the same manufacturer cause there can be a mismatch in od. Im talking from a welding standpoint. I am searching for a set of 500's. Well a single first too see how involved it would be too slip a 250 inside a 500. It would involve some some fitting and lots of welding-cutting etc. I think thats ok though. I didnt do this cause I thought it was easy. Its all new to an extent.Ive been around wood too. My father used to heat the house with a woodstove through a forced hot air system.Woodstove had a heat exchanger and fan-blew it into the main duct-Main fan pushed it from there.It worked great for what it was.Warmest I remember the house being come too think of it.Soo your thinking 4 -250's verticle with a manifold obviously.Is this system in your cellar?
The 500's are 37 inches from the ones ive seen. The thing with these tanks-well there rolled and you pretty much need the same manufacturer cause there can be a mismatch in od. Im talking from a welding standpoint. I am searching for a set of 500's. Well a single first too see how involved it would be too slip a 250 inside a 500. It would involve some some fitting and lots of welding-cutting etc. I think thats ok though. I didnt do this cause I thought it was easy. Its all new to an extent.Ive been around wood too. My father used to heat the house with a woodstove through a forced hot air system.Woodstove had a heat exchanger and fan-blew it into the main duct-Main fan pushed it from there.It worked great for what it was.Warmest I remember the house being come too think of it.Soo your thinking 4 -250's verticle with a manifold obviously.Is this system in your cellar?
Gooserider
Mod Emeritus
If you look at the sig in NoFo's posts he has a link to his excellent website that goes into the details of his setup quite nicely...
My opinion is that the difference between horizontal and vertical isn't that significant, I think you'd do better with an 8' ceiling to try and find two 500's and stack them vertically - there have been several of our users that have done it that way, and it makes a neat setup... The big question is how to connect the two tanks, which you could probably come up with a good approach as a welder that would know how best to plan these things...
What I have visualized is putting the tanks on surplus industrial pallet racking, and then cutting matching holes top and bottom in the two tanks and connecting them with some sort of welded in unions - however I'm not sure how one would get several such connections all to line up at the same time, and also allow for thermal expansion / contraction between the tanks... Your thoughts?
Gooserider
My opinion is that the difference between horizontal and vertical isn't that significant, I think you'd do better with an 8' ceiling to try and find two 500's and stack them vertically - there have been several of our users that have done it that way, and it makes a neat setup... The big question is how to connect the two tanks, which you could probably come up with a good approach as a welder that would know how best to plan these things...
What I have visualized is putting the tanks on surplus industrial pallet racking, and then cutting matching holes top and bottom in the two tanks and connecting them with some sort of welded in unions - however I'm not sure how one would get several such connections all to line up at the same time, and also allow for thermal expansion / contraction between the tanks... Your thoughts?
Gooserider
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