badmajon

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Question- if I go from say a 50,000 BTU burner to a 100,000 BTU burner, that is twice the power...

1) will it heat my water twice as fast?

2) will it consume twice the amount of propane in a given amount of time?

Basically Im trying to figure out of propane consumption is linear (100K btus eats twice as much as 50K) or more like an automobile, where going 100 mph eats up around 3 times as much gas as going 50 mph if you see what I'm saying.

I'm considering upgrading to one of those nice 44 jet 250,000 btu burners from my bayou burner, but I dont want to do it if it means it'll eat propane not in proportion to how fast it is heating.

Thanks

onthekeg

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Your kettle can only absorb so much heat over a given period of time. I would wager that if a burner puts out 100K it will need at least that much energy on the input so yes you will consume more fuel.
I found that propane burners were 20% efficient at best due to all the heat lost around the sides so I switched to electric.

kladue

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You can switch up to a larger burner but you will have it throttled down to where the smaller burner output is. The jet burners are way to much for anything with a 16" bottom, most of the fire is up the sides, so do not waste your money and efforts with them. The BG-14 is about the largest and best burner for kegs and 16" pots, great turn down and easy conversion from high pressure to low pressure and NG with a $8 part. With the jet burners you have to replace all the nozzles at $5 - $7 apiece.
If the burner you have is not adjusted correctly you can improve the heating and drop the propane use by adjusting the air shutter until the tip of the flame starts to show yellow, this keeps the heat under the keg longer. Here is an example of a yellow tip flame burner for reference https://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/BoilKettle#5225673202891787298

badmajon

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Huh, interesting. Thanks for the feedback.

BTW, did you braze/weld that copper burner yourself?

kladue

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The burner is 6 - 1" X 6" ss tubing arms with 3/32" holes in rows 45 degrees from top on each side, tig welded together. The gas jet is 1/16" hole in a piece of high pressure 1/4" Od ss tubing, and fuel flow is electronically controlled by PLC, fire shown was at 10 SLM flow of propane through mass flow controller.

dallasdb

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250,000 btu's might melt or disform your kettle.

badmajon

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I think stainless melts at like 2700 degrees- it'd take pure o2 to help it to get that hot.

badmajon

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Sweet. One day I need to get a TIG welder and spun up on that stuff. Nice job.