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Net 49 below zero
- Thread starter Ironman
- Start date
Ironman
Ultra Member
Lot of regulations to deal with. We are more free here. I did all the work myself and called in the county gas inspector, and he gave me the ok. I called and asked him what he wanted to see first off, and then mostly complied.
Ironman
Ultra Member
I lived for 14 years in Yellowknife, and saw a week of -57 below there, but we had furnace oil so no problem. This is the coldest night I have ever seen in 24 years here, and another one tonight. I see the power plants are cranked up to bust and they are warning about overloads. Have to unplug the Tesla
Former Member
Guest
Park the Tesla close to the Propane tanks, hook up a cheap charger to it and the Tesla will heat the tank for you.I lived for 14 years in Yellowknife, and saw a week of -57 below there, but we had furnace oil so no problem. This is the coldest night I have ever seen in 24 years here, and another one tonight. I see the power plants are cranked up to bust and they are warning about overloads. Have to unplug the Tesla
Solve two problems, you get heat and you get rid of the Tesla.
Ironman
Ultra Member
That's priceless.
But what to do when I run out of Tesla's to heat the 'pane?
I got a 12x14" heat pad meant for an aching back on the side of the tank now. Sun has bumped up the temp to -36, and my daughter is coming out from Edmonton with a couple of electric heaters. Meanwhile the #@!&% furnace exhaust blower has taken a crap, and squeals like a pig. So I'm going to pull that out and lubricate it.
140mower
Don
....... just when you start to think, what else could possibly go wrong?
Wood heat is a lot of work, but I am sure thankful for it at this time of the year......
The boiling temp of propane is -42 C so if it gets colder than that you'll need a heat source to get the liquid in the tank a bit warmer than that or there will be no vapor to burn. The forecast for the Edmonton area is -50 for tomorrow morning. Hope you get it sorted out!
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Ironman
Ultra Member
Update:
My daughter and SIL showed up with 3 electric heaters they bought so I have 2 running now. I put the heat pad on the tank and the tank started making pressure as the cookstove flame became as strong as normal. I removed the combustion blower from the furnace and it was very stiff, so I pulled off the two fans and put a bit of Duralube oil into each bearing, and it instantly became free and spun over well.
One of those jobs I should have done yearly but shone it on. Reassembled it and started up the furnace. So now the house is up to 16 degrees and climbing. I guess tonight we will find out if the heating pad I strapped on to the tank is enough, I hope so. But we will be able to recover in the daytime with the sunshine even if the heat pad is not enough.
The really impressive thing here is my water system. I moved this house onto the property 5 years ago, and when I put in the water line, I needed a good insulator for the water line. I buried it 8ft deep but it has to come up at some point. Closed cell polyurethane foam is another good oil product
and I got some 4" pool noodles from Dollar store, split them with a knife and snapped them around the pipe. It comes up 3 ft into the crawl space and then through the floor so I used 2 noodles for 10ft total.
I wanted an internal heat tape and I bought one from the East. It cost me $600 for 15 ft, but there is no better system than a self regulated heat tape inside the pipe.
I have never yet turned it on even once. At 50 below zero my water is flowing well with only the pool noodle insulators.
My daughter and SIL showed up with 3 electric heaters they bought so I have 2 running now. I put the heat pad on the tank and the tank started making pressure as the cookstove flame became as strong as normal. I removed the combustion blower from the furnace and it was very stiff, so I pulled off the two fans and put a bit of Duralube oil into each bearing, and it instantly became free and spun over well.
One of those jobs I should have done yearly but shone it on. Reassembled it and started up the furnace. So now the house is up to 16 degrees and climbing. I guess tonight we will find out if the heating pad I strapped on to the tank is enough, I hope so. But we will be able to recover in the daytime with the sunshine even if the heat pad is not enough.
The really impressive thing here is my water system. I moved this house onto the property 5 years ago, and when I put in the water line, I needed a good insulator for the water line. I buried it 8ft deep but it has to come up at some point. Closed cell polyurethane foam is another good oil product
and I got some 4" pool noodles from Dollar store, split them with a knife and snapped them around the pipe. It comes up 3 ft into the crawl space and then through the floor so I used 2 noodles for 10ft total.I wanted an internal heat tape and I bought one from the East. It cost me $600 for 15 ft, but there is no better system than a self regulated heat tape inside the pipe.
I have never yet turned it on even once. At 50 below zero my water is flowing well with only the pool noodle insulators.
Ironman
Ultra Member
I be the furnace service guys are having their prayers answers this weekend. It's nice to have the knowledge to do thing like this for your self.
Ironman
Ultra Member
I have burned wood and coal my whole life, and my parents before me. But at 75 it is getting harder and harder for me so we were thankful for propane heat. Then global warming did not live up to it's promise so they had to change the name and I was already onto propane. If I could afford $6000 for a pellet stove I might consider going with that. A country boy will survive.
When we modernized our gas furnace to a high efficiency model, life was dandy till it wasn't. Same conditions, couple weeks of -40 crap, house temp going down down down with Mr. Repair booked for 2+ days. The LEDs kept giving error codes I didn't understand. Turns out the fresh air intake & the other vent? pipe are exiting at about 3ft elevation level in close proximity to each another, like maybe 16" apart. That area on side of house is maybe 4 feet from cornered fence & it look like a scene from Ice Capades, 6" frost coating everything, everywhere. Including plugging off the intake pipe so it could no longer breathe. Apparently this pipe offset distance is OK code wise, I had them check. (Cant recall what the 2nd pipe was, not exhaust but water condensate exit maybe?). Anyway I now have the pipes snorkeled with offset extensions pointing in opposite directions & a plywood barrier so there is no cross talk between pipes.
Former Member
Guest
Insult to injury its only -5 here in the GTA. 
Same thing kept happening to mine. A little adjustment to the pipe lengths and the problem never returned.
I've done a fair bit of propane research in my time when we were trying to build cars that ran on it. Canadian winters were a big problem.
When propane gets below - 42 you can carry propane in a pail. I know cuz I've done it.
In a tank, you can usually still get a little vapour pressure in there because the propane is never pure propane.
As many have said, you can heat the tank to build pressure. But don't just put a blanket on it. The blanket will add insulation and that will actually work against you.
There are a few other solutions.
You can add a pump. It doesn't take much of a pump to deliver Propane to the house under pressure. You just have to make sure that the pump draws from the bottom of the tank and then you need to add a vaporizer inside the house.
You can suck the propane out with a vacuum pump. This has the advantage that no vaporizer is needed. It also dramatically reduces the vapourizatuon temperature of the propane. Just like water boils at a lower temperature at altitude, propane does the same.
By far, the easiest solution is to heat the tank. An electric blanket works, but electric blankets are very low wattage. You are better off using high wattage radiant heat or a high wattage heat pad. Don't forget to turn them off when the temp goes up.
When propane gets below - 42 you can carry propane in a pail. I know cuz I've done it.
In a tank, you can usually still get a little vapour pressure in there because the propane is never pure propane.
As many have said, you can heat the tank to build pressure. But don't just put a blanket on it. The blanket will add insulation and that will actually work against you.
There are a few other solutions.
You can add a pump. It doesn't take much of a pump to deliver Propane to the house under pressure. You just have to make sure that the pump draws from the bottom of the tank and then you need to add a vaporizer inside the house.
You can suck the propane out with a vacuum pump. This has the advantage that no vaporizer is needed. It also dramatically reduces the vapourizatuon temperature of the propane. Just like water boils at a lower temperature at altitude, propane does the same.
By far, the easiest solution is to heat the tank. An electric blanket works, but electric blankets are very low wattage. You are better off using high wattage radiant heat or a high wattage heat pad. Don't forget to turn them off when the temp goes up.
Good to hear.
Damn straight.
Ironman
Ultra Member
Yes, it was good. And of course our grid was overloaded, and rolling brownouts were happening. We were warm, furnace was happy and then the power went out at 8pm and stayed out til 1 am. So we went backwards to the beginning of yesterday.
Think I would rather stay in -50 for 6 months and live here.Insult to injury its only -5 here in the GTA.
So power is on, electric heaters are on, and it's warmer, and it's only -45. The temp will be climbing to -28 today and -19 tomorrow.