100 pound propane bottles and gas range.

Wish I would have had mine in during the summer.

I would consider 2 smaller bottles with a dual regulator. Empty one bottle and switch to the other without interuption and fill the empty. That gives you the liberty to fill the empty at your leisure.

For over 30 years the house I was born in had 2 100lb propane tanks which was used for our cook stove and oven. We had a propane company that came around and swapped out the tanks. it didn't have an automatic change over. You Just went out and lifted the lid and closed one tank, opened the other and then re-lit the pilot lights. We eventually installed a propane hot water heater also and that 2 tank set-up was there when we left in 1985.

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Oz,

A few thoughts in addition to the advice you have already recieved. You are not living full time at your cabin yet. I suggest 20 lb tanks for now. They will fire up your stove for about 2 months of use so you can haul them home with you and fill them, they are easily transportable, and they won't freeze at the temperatures you are likely to encounter. You can have several tanks if you want one in reserve.

When you move in full time, buy (not rent) the biggest tank you can afford if there is access to fill it, 500 or even a 1000 gallon tank is good. You can have a large tank filled with delivered propane, during off peak times, for about $1.50 a gallon here. Small tanks cost $3.50 a gallon and you have to take them to town to have them filled.

If you own your tank the propane companies can't play their little games with you. I went to have my rented tank filled and the company said they had to have 1 1/2 times the regular price of the propane because i had't had it filled in over a year. If you own the tank you can shop arround for the best price. Having a large amount of propane on hand is good prepping. Tanks are on Craigs list from time to time or maybe a neighbor has one they are not using. The local propane company here is selling used tanks for $1 a gallon capacity so $500 for a 500 gallon one.

To hook up a tank you should check the local codes. Here, for a big one,you have to have a regulator at the tank to bring the pressure down to about 3 PSI. for a stove. You have to run a single, unbroken length, of flexible copper tubing (type L or K, I can't remember) buried from the tank to the house. Flare fittings have to be used so you have to flare the ends of the pipe. You can get a cheap flaring tool at Harbor Freight or rent one at a tool rental place. Many auto parts stores rent them too.

Remember, if you chose to accept this assignment, we will dissavow any knowledge of your actions.

Let's see now, using two 8000 btu burners at 1/2 setting
equals 8000 btu's/hr. x 3 times a day or 24000 btu's/day.
100 # cylinder is 2,100,590 btu's divided by 24000 equals
87.5 days on a 100 lb. cylinder

I used two 100# tanks at my homestead, but I use gas for cooking, heat, and hot water. I actually had two 100# tanks, which were regulated with an RV propane regulator. That way when one tank would run out it would automatically switch to the other tank without interrupting gas service. That always kept the pilot lights going.

The 100# tanks hold about 23 gallons of propane each. That's a lot of propane for just a cook stove. You could save a lot on tanks by using a pair a 30# tanks on an RV regulator instead of the 100# tanks. The 30# tanks hold about 7 gallons each. I suspect that you will find a pair of 30# tanks to be satisfactory for your use.

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Do it Pony! You won't regret it and it is fairly cheap to run. I think to refill a tank it cost us about $74. We got out oven cheap off Craigslist too. Worked great.

If you were to rent a large tank, for just the gas oven, you may run into trouble. Our company demands that you have it refilled at least once a year, if not, then you pay quite a sum to 'rent' the tank, otherwise it is free.

Seems much more sensible to either get two small tanks to a 100lb tank.

Propane comes in various weights and types of containers. For example, the long bottle used for soldering pipe fittings, the short, fat one used for portable propane stoves and lights, then 20, 30, 100 on up.

I highly recommend a 30-lb one over a 20-lb one. Initial cost isn't all that much and you save time by not having to take them to be refilled so often.

I would be leary of the propane tank exchange places. As I recall one copy was recently cited for not filling them up all the way.

If you use the small bottles, they can be refilled from a 20-lb or more tank. Adaptation valve is available from Harbor Freight. Essentilly you put the bottle to be refilled in your freezer for about 24 hours, then hook it to propane tankvia the valve, set propane upside down. Now open the valve to the bottle and the valve on the tank. If you put an ear on the larger tank you can hiss during the transfer. When transfer has stopped, reverse the process.

I weighed a full, store-bought bottle, let it run out and then refilled via the above method. The refilled tank weighed exactly what the store bought one did.

You guys are life savers! Thanks everyone for all the information.

I told my husband the other day that life would be perfect if I had a stove on our homestead with an oven that I could use to bake and roast with. Bless him, he immediately began to think about it and plan where it could be put and how we could power it with LP.

We have been at our homestead, BaDland Farm for over a year now, and it is amazing how much it has taught us in that time.

We have pondered going on the grid with electricity but recently, Husband asked me if I really missed electricity and surprisingly I told him no, I didn't. Our generator and solar cells provide us with what we need in the way of lighting and power for appliances. What I missed was a stove. Our box wood stove has two cook eyes but no oven. It heats our home beautifully but you can only do so much with a dutch oven.

We were wondering about the feasibility of getting a propane tank in 300 or 500 pounder, but a 100 pound tank would probably just about suit our needs.

Merry Christmas to everyone from the two BaDlanders!

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Well after talking to various different gas companies and such,it would be cheaper for us to rent a 125 gallon tank,and have it hooked up than to buy two 100 pound bottles and do what we wanted.

Tank rental is $48/year.
Plus we might look into adding some propane heaters for the rooms downstairs in the future,so the bigger tank would be quite helpful.

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I think others have said it but if it's just for a stove a 100lb tank works great, less than $70.00 to refill and it lasts us most of a year and we cook on top and in the oven a lot.
We live in Central MN, the tank sits in the open on the NW corner of the house and have never in five years had a cold tank problem.
Good luck, it would be hard to live with out an oven.

If it was just going to be the stove top we would use the 100 pound bottles but after seeing the heaters that would work in the downstairs area we think those would work out great for us.

Right now the space is 'workshop/storage of junk,LOL, but it is to be converted into two bedrooms and a living area,we thought putting individual heaters would allow us to turn off rooms if not needed.

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If you are planning on using propane heaters in the future then it would only make sense to go with the larger tank. That rental is pretty good!

Sounds like it would be perfect!

Happy New Year to you!

Anyone have any experience with the room sized propane wall heaters,or propane heaters in general?

We have zero experience,almost all homes down here are electric.

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I grew up with one in the basement rec room (kids TV area), it worked well, it had a fan to circulate, some don't though, keep the door to the upstairs closed to contain the heat

Well if it can keep it warm up in MN it should work good down this way...LOL

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In our 600 sq ft cabin we had a propane 'wood' stove. Got it from a local farm supply for about $500, looked like a wood stove and heated the place great.

Here we have a propane furnace which I dont like as it guzzles propane, and a vent free gas log fireplace which I love and seems VERY economical!

We had ventless ones in the last house we lived in. In fact, the second floor heat was supplied solely by a fairly new ventless propane wall heater.
It created so much moisture that not only did anything that touched a wall develop mold between it and the wall, the exterior of the west wall of the house had black stuff on it. We finally figured out that was mold, too!!

SERIOUS moisture problems.
I would never put one in a house unless there were some way to guarantee it was venting outside. Even then, I'd be very hesitant.

I've often wondered if we noticed such dramatic problems because the one upstairs ran almost constantly. Ie, if it ran less often, we probably wouldn't have even noticed the moisture issues...

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