A 20 lb propane tank contains around 4.73 gallons of fuel, but it would depend upon a number of varying factors to establish exactly how long this amount of propane would last for, such as:
The length of time the propane in the tank was being burned for
The intensity of the heat, i.e. Is the appliance on full power?
The frequency of use
The type of appliance being used
The number of appliances using the propane tank
The BTU rating of each appliance it is being used for.
The BTU rating is derived from the unit of measurement that is utilised in order to work out the amount of time the Propane will burn for. The method used is British Thermal Units per hour (BTU/h). This equates to the amount of thermal energy that it takes to heat a pound of water from 3.9 degrees C to 4.4 degrees C and is equivalent to just over one kilojoule in energy content.
A 20lb tank will burn at approximately 91,600 BTU per gallon of Propane, which equates to about 433,000 BTU for the entirety of the tank. In order to work out how long your tank will last you will need to take into account all the above mentioned parameters.
For the sake of argument, let's take an example of a Propane powered cooker using 4000 BTU/h. Using the equation 433,000/4000, the answer returned shows it will take over 108 hours to burn the propane content of the tank, which is exactly four and half days you could have the stove on for at full power before it ran out.
This is obviously an extreme example as it's unlikely you'd be running any appliance at full power for almost an entire working week. Using the conditions relevant to your situation you could accurately estimate how long a 20 lb tank would last."
The length of time the propane in the tank was being burned for
The intensity of the heat, i.e. Is the appliance on full power?
The frequency of use
The type of appliance being used
The number of appliances using the propane tank
The BTU rating of each appliance it is being used for.
The BTU rating is derived from the unit of measurement that is utilised in order to work out the amount of time the Propane will burn for. The method used is British Thermal Units per hour (BTU/h). This equates to the amount of thermal energy that it takes to heat a pound of water from 3.9 degrees C to 4.4 degrees C and is equivalent to just over one kilojoule in energy content.
A 20lb tank will burn at approximately 91,600 BTU per gallon of Propane, which equates to about 433,000 BTU for the entirety of the tank. In order to work out how long your tank will last you will need to take into account all the above mentioned parameters.
For the sake of argument, let's take an example of a Propane powered cooker using 4000 BTU/h. Using the equation 433,000/4000, the answer returned shows it will take over 108 hours to burn the propane content of the tank, which is exactly four and half days you could have the stove on for at full power before it ran out.
This is obviously an extreme example as it's unlikely you'd be running any appliance at full power for almost an entire working week. Using the conditions relevant to your situation you could accurately estimate how long a 20 lb tank would last."
