Now that the hot weather is over and our thoughts are turning toward winter, we're embarking on a frenzy of outdoor projects. One of the things we needed to do was get a propane tank installed.
Unlike our old house, which had a propane range, dryer, wall heater, and on-demand hot water heater, our new home only has one propane-run appliance: the kitchen range. In the future we hope to install an on-demand water heater (love those things!), but it's not happening this year.
Oddly, the only source of propane for our range was a seven-gallon tank situated outside the kitchen wall.
We've gone through about two and a half of these tanks in the eight months since moving in, so obviously our usage rate for propane has dropped drastically compared to our old place. We keep two spare tanks on hand at all time.
Our eventual goal is to get a 500-gallon tank, but that requires some infrastructure we're not in position to install at the moment: a level pad on our sloped property to park it, and trenching and installing an underground pipe (including under a concrete sidewalk) to connect the tank to the house. So for the time being, we contacted the propane company and requested the largest-size tank that can be legally installed against the side of the house. It turned out to be a 120-gallon tank (which holds about 96 gallons, since they only fill tanks to 80% capacity).
The installation truck came last week with our small tank and someone's larger tank on board.
The truck had a self-loader. Don decided he wants one of those too.
Using the control box, the workman swung the tank off the truck...
...and positioned it near the house.
He spent a few minutes swapping out the fittings for new ones and getting the hoses ready to hook into the new tank.
He placed cinderblocks under first one end...
...and then the other, hoisting up one end of the tank at a time while he made adjustments and leveled the tank.
Darcy, meanwhile, watched the proceedings with great interest.
The workman said the "empty" tank has about 20 gallons of propane in it to get us through until the delivery truck made it out to fill the tank. Considering that's about the amount of propane we've used in the last year, clearly it was plenty for our needs.
The installation fellow was very pleasant, and we chatted with him while he worked. We asked if he'd been very busy, and he sort of let out a groan. First, he said, they're dealing with a shortage of tanks. Why? "Everyone is panicking," he answered. "If they have a 250-gallon tank, they want a 500-gallon tank installed. If they have a 500-gallon tank, they want a 1000-gallon tank."
We told him we, too, eventually wanted to upgrade to a 500-gallon tank – not out of panic, but common sense. We'll see if a tank is available in that size when the time comes.
A few days later, the propane delivery truck came out and topped off the new tank.
Meanwhile, until we get our on-demand water heater installed, this tank of propane should last us a good long time.