Originally Posted By: SHOZ
Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: SHOZ
I have an Empire Blue Flame 20k btu ventless heater and I use it to heat my whole 1000sq ft ranch house in Central Illinois. Been using it for 4 years now. Many said I would be dead by now.
My outside 500 gallon propane tank has two regulators, ~5 psi from the tank to the house and a regular ~1 psi regulator for the gas going into the house.
Never had a problem with vaporization and we were down to a -24F and a couple other -20F nights in the last two weeks.
You need constant exhaust ventilation in the house unless you have a very drafty house. I use a bath fan exhaust and it runs 24/7.
CO is not a problem as long as you have enough O2 in the house. The flames will yellow as the O2 content goes down. The O2 content will go down because of the CO2 produced. I would advise getting a CO2 meter to monitor the air and for me you need to keep it below 4k ppm.
My CO meter has never made a peep.
It has a fan on it and it runs all the time. But I also use a box fan to blow the cool air out of the space I am in at the time.
You won't have vaporization issues with a 500 gal tank. But might with a 20 lb or 100 lb. A 500 gal is not cheap to buy and a small gas heater will not use enough propane for propane company to rent it to you for free.
The 400 gallons they put in when they fill to 80% will last me a whole year using for cooking and water heating as well as heat.
But when I bought one of these heaters I had a 125 gallon tank and needed to get the bigger one. All but one company wanted to outright sell me the tank and then contractually tie me to their company for fills. I called around and found one who not only do not try to sell me the tank or even charge rent and they installed it or free, I do have to use them for the supply but they are pretty competitive and I get a discounted "summer fill" rate to fill the tank.
Obviously it varies, but typically owning the tank gets you the cheapest cost per gallon for propane. Some companies are highway robbers as to price per gallon when you rent the tank.
The house I bought in DE had a rented tank. I made a offer and bought the tank from the propane company. I will continue to use the same company but will get their cheaper rate. The previous owners had recently installed heat pumps and the only thing left using propane was water heater and two fireplaces. So minimal propane usage going forward.