/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.2440220]

I'd like to plumb a propane tank into my gas line.

I have natural gas in my city and I was to be able to have a backup supply in case the power goes out for an extended period of time my backup generator would continue to work, I figured I could just add one of these tanks between the gas meter and my house to act as a sort of battery.
My gas bill would be super high to get it filled up initially, but then from there on I would be okay.
I see these for sale/for free occasionally on craigslist.
Is this a viable idea? Thanks

[Anonymous No.2440224]

Gas is delivered to the home at about 0.25psi, you would need to provide some sort of compressor to fill the tank up. You will also definitely die if you try and do this yourself

[Anonymous No.2440225]

in order to liquify propane for storage at room temp, it is compressed to 120psi.
to liquify natural gas for tank storage you would need to either chill the tank down to -260F or compress it to 4640psi.

[Anonymous No.2440229]

>>2440224
So I should use a large compressor instead of a propane tank?

[Anonymous No.2440230]

>>2440229
Poor quality bait, fuck you

[Anonymous No.2440233]

>>2440220
>Is this a viable idea?
no

how will you purge all the air out of the tank to fill it up?

or how will the gas leave the tank once the main supply is cut off? you'd have to store the gas at a higher pressure and use a regulator to have normal gas pressure at the appliance/heater. if you don't, then as soon as you switch over to the tank, the pressure will slowly drop as it equalizes to atmospheric pressure. it would be funny to see you try to use an air compressor to increase the pressure in the tank.

pretty sure storage of gas of that size would be illegal in your city too

[Anonymous No.2440291]

Unironically just use a big ass balloon like a weather balloon. It will deliver gas at about the right pressure, doesn't involve any high temperatures or pressures and even if it blows up it will just make a fireball and not an ixplosion.

[Anonymous No.2441749]

>>2440220
>I'd like to plumb a bomb into my gas line.

[Anonymous No.2441773]

>>2440220
a propane tank is designed...wait for it...propane.
Propane condenses @ room temperature at about 12-15 bar, making it about 23x denser. Methane (natural gas) is still a gas even at 300 bar and less dense then propane to begin with. Propane tanks are usually rated to 25 bar. Shitty home despot compressor like one in 2nd pic will do maybe 8 bar on a good day and it's NOT designed to compresss hydrocarbons.

TL:DR
You will not store much gas at all and probably blow your house up in the process.

[Anonymous No.2442044]

>>2440220
3/10 troll post. And, no utilities will allow you to plumb a tank in their lines, for liability reasons. If you want a tank for a generator, then have one installed that isn't part of the city gas lines. If you were serious, that is. Because if you were, you'd know that city gas is actual gas in the lines, and those tanks hold liquid propane, and your city might be delivering methane to the home anyway
But herr derrr, I farmed (you)s, all that.

[Anonymous No.2442056]

>>2440220
Here, have a (You). In case you're not shitposting then no, this is not a viable plan.
You'd need to engineer a system with regulators and a compressor to fill it, the volume you could store would be minimal, etc etc etc.
If you are being serious, consider sinking a natural gas well on your property. You could tie a viable well in with utility gas and switch over as needed.
If you're concerned about heat, consider getting a dual fuel heating system that uses a heat pump in milder weather and switches to gas when it's colder. In the event the gas supply stops you could limp along with the heat pump. You could also install a backup electric water heater.

I have to ask, where are you located that utility-supplied gas lines go out for days? In thirty years of plumbing I've seen a few gas meters freeze up (easily fixed with hot water), but never had a utility dry up.

[Anonymous No.2443243]

I'm not sure how natural gas is where you live but even during power outages I still have gas. Couple years back a hurricane killed power here for 2 1/2 weeks. My backup generator ran my house the entire time. It was funny being the only house on the street with lights at night.

[Anonymous No.2443257]

>>2440229
Do your homework. Not hard. This is not /spoonfeed/

[Anonymous No.2443293]

>>2440233
>how will you purge all the air out of the tank to fill it up?

Same way you purge anything else, open an end until the natural gas starts flowing out

[Anonymous No.2443332]

>>2440220
besides that this is super dump and probably not legal you won't get that much gas in the tank at .25 psi.

1/10 troll harder

[Anonymous No.2443436]

>>2440229
Where do you live? So I can move further away if I have to.

[Anonymous No.2443857]

>>2440233
>>2442056
Out of curiosity, could the pressure be maintained if the tank is say buried underground? Then the earth around it might help it to not explode and maintain pressure.

[Anonymous No.2443860]

>>2443857

[Anonymous No.2444018]

>>2443857

[Anonymous No.2444094]

>>2440220
>Is this a viable idea?
Yes. The morons in this thread have no idea what they are talking about, nor do they have any basic of basic chemical engineering concepts.

First of all, this is a potential safety risk, so do some tnt equivalent and other shit to calculate how far you need it to be and make sure you get a tank rated for your needs. Don't connect it directly to your main. Rather have it be an alt. route to your 'work load', so when you want to use is you will have to physically get up, turn off the main, and turn your tank on. Gas is delivered to your house at a certain pressure, you have to match that pressure. When filling it up, purge tank till nothing but natrual gas is coming out. You will have to have a pump, not an compressed inline from the source to your tank. Look up basic diagrams of tank filling with back flow valves and shit. The amount of gas you will get as your 'battery' will not last that long, but it can work as long as the outlet pressure matches nominal city gas pressure. When it gets below that you are done, trying to force the pressure with a compressor it unethical.

You may find that the required tank specs and specs for filling it up may be expensive, complex, for the little amount of gas you will get from it and it might dissuade you.

[Anonymous No.2444352]

>>2444094
now tell him to record it and put it on youtube! tell him that.

[Anonymous No.2444356]

>>2441773
>a propane tank is designed...wait for it...propane.
This encapsulates the primary misunderstanding. Natural gas from the gas company is a relatively low pressure mixture of methane and other light hydrocarbons. Propane is, mostly, propane. LP cylinders contain Liquid Propane under pressure that boils as its released from the cylinder into gas form. Plumbing an empty LP cylinder into your natural gas line will not explode or anything silly like that, but it also won't accomplish the desired objective.

[Anonymous No.2444464]

>>2444352
nah he's gotta stream it retard

[Anonymous No.2444468]

>>2442056
>I have to ask, where are you located that utility-supplied gas lines go out for days?
At a guess, OP is a German looking to prepare for a winter without Russian natural gas.

[Anonymous No.2444663]

>>2441749
I love it

[Anonymous No.2444665]

>>2440220
Just have a separate backup tank and run your genset off that. Either way you buy the gas.

Periodic hydrostatic inspection matters too. Study your subject more and you'll figure out something workable.

[Anonymous No.2446132]

>>2440220
Store propane in the propane tank. You probably need a second set of appliances, since propane burner holes are smaller. Either that or you won't be able to simmer with propane.

[Anonymous No.2447378]

>>2446132
>You probably need a second set of appliances, since propane burner holes are smaller.
Isn't that just because of the difference in pressure? You can just regulate the propane pressure down to natural gas pressure and everything should just work.

[Anonymous No.2449385]

>>2440220
>>2440229

retard you need flammable gas compressor that looks like a fucking fridge compressor

and to reach up to 300 psi for CNG you fucking need step up compressors and cooling method in between.

add a check valve and explosion proof valve after the meter, and do not just fucking blindly mix up the Natural gas and propane if you are going to use a fucking gas wall heater not a boiler

[Anonymous No.2449418]

>>2440220
>in case the power goes out
Not sure why this is a concern, if your power goes out it doesn't stop your municipal gas supply from operating. Just run a line from your natural gas supply to a generator and you're good to go.