Propane fill question
OK I am officially confused. I took one of my 40lb. propane cylinders out of my new RV to have it filled. A note on the door of the propane compartment said do not fill over 80%, could cause fire,e...
Forum Discussion
RinconVTR wrote:SaltiDawg wrote:
It is my experience that a full 20# propane bottle will produce the same amount of work as 4-5 gallons of gasoline.
And this is impossible FYI. You're talking 1:1 the same energy content LP to Gasoline? Not possible...
Actually you are demonstrating a lack of understanding of Thermal Efficiency considering different fuels and how it relates to fuel efficiency in a small four-cycle engine. You cited a home heating fuel comparison page and compared the available work or heat energy taken from that page for the two fuels on a per gallon basis.
In the case of home heating, the thermal efficiency of an older oil (diesel) is about 80%. On a new condensing furnace using Natural Gas or Liquid Propane thermal efficiencies approaching 95% can be attained.
In a small four-stoke engine you have assumed that the efficiency of that engine using gasoline is the same as using LP. Than telling me that my assertion about in my experience that a 20# bottle is about the same as 4-5 gallons of gasoline is impossible. Let me absolutely assure you that in my experience and that of many, many other posters over in the US Carb forums that approximation is right on.
Propane has an Octane of somewhere around 105 IIRC. Also, no energy is required to atomize propane as compared to gasoline's energy requirement. And, in the case of gasoline, the gasoline is really not fully atomized, but rather is transformed to an aerosol mist comprised of small droplets.
So, while gasoline does have a higher amount of available energy when compared to LP, the increased engine efficiency tends to mitigate that difference.
In reaction to your aggressive response to a post intended simply to help, I'll not be viewing your posts.
