Mike,

I ran basically the same heater last weekend at BBB when the temp got
into the 20's at nite & there was 20-40 mph winds blowing in off the
lake.

Basically, the 3 gal. propane tank in our 84 Westy's will run a long
time.  I did not even top off my propane tank, & I haven't for 8
months.  I ran my Olympian Wave 3000 for hours at a time, although
not overnite, boiled water for coffee, washing dishes, etc. but no
fridge,  & this is the 4th or 5th camping trip this year after I
topped the tank last Spring.  On a weekend trip, I wouldn't even
think twice about whether you were going to run out of propane w/ a
full tank?

Time to top it off & see if any propane is left!

I have a 40 # tank in my shop for a heater, & I keep track of how
much fuel is left inside by looking at the frost line on the tank as
fuel is used up. In cold weather, I suppose that the westy tank would
show the same thing even tho the tank is horizontal????

FWIW,

Tom B.-1st time I have used a heater at a January BBB event.

On Jan 18, 2007, at 3:06 PM, Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott wrote:

> The lack of a gauge on the LPG tank causes me to be very, very frugal
> with my LPG. For example, though we were having record low
> temperatures
> two weeks ago when I was camping along the west coast of California, I
> didn't run the Olympia 3100a catalytic heater in the evening because I
> didn't want to find I could not easily boil water for coffee in the
> morning. As a result, I was pretty uncomfortable once the sun went
> down.*
>
> So that got me thinking: what is the rate of consumption of this
> heater?
> I could not find any real specifications for it, except that it
> puts out
> 2800 BTU on max, and 1600 BTU on min. They don't say, but I presume
> that
> BTU's per hour. A gallon of LPG (propane) has about 140,000 btu/
> gallon.
> The tank on the Westy is -- what? 2 gallons?
>
> So . . . if the heater is on max (2800BTU/hr) then 2 gallons of LPG
> (280,000 btu) should last 100 hours, assuming 100% efficiency? (And if
> it is not 100% efficiency, wouldn't it be releasing LPG into the van?)
>
> *Yeah, yeah, it dropped to about 30F, which is tinkertoys to people
> who
> don't live in our sunny clime, but we San Diegans are unprepared for
> temps that low, and let's face it: the Westfalia is not a paragon of
> insulation.
>
> --
>
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> KG6RCR