Propane heater questions

[camdigger]

When our propane tanks stopped evaporating enough propane to run the 20 man camp, we put a couple 100 Watt halogen lamps aimed at the tank outlet regulators and tarped the tanks with plastic sheeting. Kept us from freezing to death in the -40 C weather.

If you need a manifold to connect some small tanks together, look at the RV market. They almost all have a tank manifold for dual 20 & 30 lb tanks.

[Jerrythepilot]

85000 btu's is enough to heat a two story house. I would manifold your hundred pounders together and get home delivery. Your local propane dealer might hydro your tanks and manifold them together for you for a reasonable fee, and keep them filled through the winter.

[Gazz]

I previously used a 35K btu propane heater but it takes awhile to warm the place up. Consider the iron ice cubes, the Index mill, SB 9" lathe, Atlas 6"shaper, several drill presses, anvils, 4x8'x 1/2' thick welding table, large war time Porter cable belt grinder, tool boxes, stock etc.. It's probably 30% iron / 70% air in there not to mention the frozen concrete floor. Those things sucked up most of the heat the 35k would make. It does give me plenty of time to procrastinate while things warm up though. I have used the forge to warm the place up in the past but have a tough time doing machine tool work or fabrication as when the forge runs, I should be forging and I have lathe work to do.