Quote:
Originally Posted by blake5676
Natural gas not available. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking. But from what I've read, shouldn't be too big of a deal to still have gas in the house by burying propane. I guess outside of cost and people's opinion of whether a buried tank is smart (seems like a common solution although apparently most here haven't seen them) I was wondering if there was a downside to propane vs natural gas. Efficiency, heating capability, etc.
I appreciate the feedback thus far!
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As far as efficiency and heating capacity, "propane" is often used as a general term.
LPG is usually a mix of different types of LP Gases including (but not limited to) Butane and Propane.
Mixes (should be referred to as "LPG mix") is less efficient than pure propane and it is what they generally use to fill underground tanks, especially the leased ones, because you can't buy from any other supplier. It's less expensive than pure propane but if the tank is rented you will probably pay LPG as much or more than pure propane.
Small tanks usually contain pure propane, so they have much better heating capacity.
The time required to boil some water when using pure propane is signifcantly less than LPG. This is even more evident if you use propane or LPG for silver soldering or brazing. LPG takes forever.
This is something to consider when evaluating the price of the gas you buy, although its hard to know if the gas company can be trusted about what they claim to deliver - let alone if the guy who delivers it even knows the difference.
If you have neighbors who have been using LPG's for a while you may want to ask them if they noticed any difference, if they ever bought from different suppliers, because the difference is evident.
Any LPG, even mix, has much better heating capacity than natural gas but it is more expensive and LPG's (especially mixes) tend to blacken your pans after a few months, while natural gas burns cleaner.
Hope this answers some of your questions.