Home propane question

[AnthonyC]

I recently moved to a new house that has an underground propane tank that supplies gas for the cooktop, water heater, etc. They conveniently put a gas outlet on the patio which will be perfect for running my SP10 burner.

The outlet has a shutoff valve and terminates in a Quick Disconnect that looks identical to a natural gas QD (had one at a previous house).

So does anyone else have a similar setup, and if so, what parts do I need to get this going? Can I just remove the bottle adapter and replace that with a standard natural gas line you can get at Home Depot? This would keep the inline regulator and valve of the SP10 intact.

Admittedly, my burner is still in storage behind some of my other junk...er...equipment so I haven't been able to examine the hose to see if everything will hook up as I envision it.

How are everyone else's whole-house propane setups plumbed?

Thanks

 

[samc]

More than likely you have a low pressure propane outlet. Your burner is set up for high pressure so you will have to tinker with the orifice size on the burner. I've done propane to NG with good success. You need to find out what pressure you have coming out or just try using it and then incrementally drill the orifice larger to get it working.

 

[AnthonyC]

Interesting. I didn't realize there may be a pressure difference between bottle & home service (well at least not enough to affect it post-regulator).

I've also done a Propane -> NG conversion on a grill and it was a piece of cake. But for some reason this propane tank -> propane service seems more difficult than it probably is.

 

[AnthonyC]

For anybody in a similar situation, here is what I have learned in the last couple of days. (Thanks to samc for pointing me in the right direction. Sometimes you just need to know the right questions to ask).

A home propane service setup (mine is an underground tank) is generally a 2 regulator system. There is a high pressure regulator by the tank that throttles the tank pressure down to pressures that are safe for the piping. Then there are low pressure regulators by the outputs that drop the pressure to "appliance" levels. Usually 11" of water column (less than .5 psi). Many hoses with quick disconnects designed for natural gas work equally well with low pressure liquid propane.

Most cookers/turkey fryers are of the high pressure variety and are suited for use with LP cylinders. From what I can tell, high pressure regulators are typically red in color and high pressure tank connectors are usually green in color. Low pressure tank connectors are usually black. I don't know if this is a true standard, or just a de facto one.

Propane through a high pressure regulator will require a smaller orifice when entering the burner than propane at lower pressure. Lower pressure will not supply enough gas through the smaller orifice, hence the possible solution of drilling out the orifice to a larger size.

I think the solution I am going to take is to buy or build a separate burner designed specifically for low pressure propane that can still provide enough btu's to boil a batch in a reasonable time.

 

[Flomaster]

23 tip jet flame throwing Natural gas burner for $25.00

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/na...ner-10-tip-conversion-build-91020/index2.html

it MIGHT work for me I know it work great from my 1/2" NG I have stubbed out to my backyard.

-=Jason=-