I searched and couldn't find any info on this...anyways, it's been cold and natural gas is expensive so the guy we rent our garage from shut our gas off. We have one of those cannon-lookin heaters (salamander?) and I was wondering if I could just plug it into a propane tank instead of the natural gas line? I already tried to offer to pay extra for the gas but the dude's kinda set in his ways, I guess. Also, I googled this topic and it came back with a bunch of info about converting a LP grill to NG, but I was hoping that since heating's not as exact as cooking I could get away without having a conversion. Any thoughts?
I've been wanting to build a waste oil stove. But you would have to install a flue. http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me4.html try here. Gary
I'd do this if I owned the garage, but since I already have the heater I figured this would be easier...as long as I don't blow up the garage
I'll let one of our more knowledgable gas/fuel people handle the specifics-there are fuel density,vaporization and BTU issues involved. However, I was able to run a standby generator set-up for natural gas on a propane without any modifications. Ther only problem I ran into was that 20# propane tanks couldn't deliver enough fuel fast enough to keep from icing up. I could've gone to a 100# tank,but I converted the carb to gasoline instead.
Things I like to consider with heat: Electric heat just dumps heat into the room, "fire" heat takes oxygen up, replaces it with waste g***es. A salamander heater can warm under the car outside...... Unless it's a burn barrel I like my fuel burners nicely engineered, unless you have the ***istance of a nice engineer don't cobble up this part.
Contact a heating/cooling contractor and they can convert it to be used with propane. It only takes changing of an orface to the burner. Bob
it may take a different regulator. when i converted my reznor unit heater from propane to natural gas , i had to put in different jets and install a different regulator if i recall , the jets for propane are smaller than natural gas , because propane regulators are set at a higher pressure. kepp in mind i'm not an expert..so take it to someone who is..as 47bob said
I totally agree. Check with a heating expert. I could get my generator to run-but it was outside-didn't worry about unburnt fuel,fires,carbon monoxide,etc.One thing is propane is way more expensive than NG.
From most of the conversions - Propane will take larger orafice "jets" and runs at a higher pressure than the CNG. The regulator on the unit is probably set to 10-11" water colum and needs to be lowered to somewhere around 6-8. The orafices need to be changed out for smaller ones. Call the manufacturer of the heater and see if they have a conversion kit to run it off of CNG - if they don't why monkey around with it when a proper furnace that vents to the outside is cheap.... After years of using the kerosene "bullet" heater to heat the garage I finally decided that it's probably not good for the health to be breathing those fumes and to get a real furnace that vents to the exterior and with any luck the propane guy will finish hooking it up here in a couple hours.... Of course some call me spoiled to have a real heater going in the garage
You'll need to have the jets changed for the same reason you change the jets when you switch from gasoline to alcohol--the air/fuel mixture will be wrong. I'm not an HVAC guy but I know that switching an appliance from propane to natural gas without changing the orifices will burn it up prematurely due to hotter flame. Not sure what happens when you go the other way but based on that I'd expect lowered heat production and maybe Carbon Monoxide.
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