The Arctic freeze is receding, but leaving behind it an impending dump of snow. News of this came too late yesterday to go out for propane so I knew I needed to squeeze in a town run first thing this morning.
As it turns out, I had 25lbs of propane left between all my tanks but I was unable to run any one of them for any length of time last night. It looks like in temperatures below -30C I can only use up half of each of my 20lb tanks and about two thirds of my 30lb. I still get enough gas from them to light the stove, but not to feed the furnace. Anyway, it’s definitely warmer today and going into a warming trend, so I’m not worried about this in the least.
I left home at about 9:00 this morning into a very dark and ominous sky. The road out of the hamlet to the highway was less icy than it was on Friday so I made it to town quickly. The snow started to come down as I pulled into the Co-Op.
I’m posted a few times about how I’ve been caught a number of times with very little gas in the truck tank since I forget to check the gauge regularly. Well, I impressed myself this morning when I had the foresight to see how I was doing for gas and saw that I was nearly in the red, a huge no-no for winter conditions in rural country. So I got gas while my propane tanks were being filled, then I went inside for a coffee.
Visibility coming home was fine on the road although I couldn’t see far beyond the road, the sky was so low and heavy. The snow was just blowing though, so the roads were clear and I got home without any issues. The whole trip took about an hour and fifteen minutes, which is really good and probably a record for needing to get three propane tanks filled. This past summer, I learned that I can drive to town, get one tank filled, and drive straight back home in exactly one hour.
Well, I’d better get to work. Being three hours behind is not a good way to start the week!
Just a couple thoughts: Bring one of the cylinders in the house let it warm up. Wrap a blanket around it and put a low watt light bulb under the blanket or block up the cyl. and put the bulb under it with the blanket wrapped around it. You don’t have to keep it above freezing just warm it up a bit.
Very good thought. I’ve been keeping them in the garage where it is surprisingly warm (well above freezing) but not wrapping them up. I’ve been putting a blanket on them outside. I’m now going to put the blanket on them inside and see if that helps.
Or, put the cyl. in a cardboard box (with a top) put a low watt bulb in the box and wrap some insulation around the box, a blanket or bubble wrap et.al.
I’ll try that for the next deep freeze. We’re past temps where going to have issues. Or, rather, we’re at temps where I’ve never had issues and if I keep having them, I’ll know there’s actually a problem!
I’ll have to see if anyone has a box and bulb for me to borrow. 🙂
Would putting a lightbulb in the RV storage area where the tanks are kept help at all? Hope you can keep warm enough to carry on with all the work you are getting.
The tanks have to sit outside the RV. So really, sheltering them from the wind with a blanket or trying L’s idea for containing them is my best bet.
I am plenty warm enough! I’ve just had a couple of rough nights because I had keep getting up and switching tanks, but that’s it. My comfort level is high.