Heating with propane

[Cowgirlpatty]

I live in substandard housing. The heat and air unit is worthless and trips the breakers if it’s on and something else is being used. My friend suggested a small propane heater since everything seems to interfere with the electricity. I do have COPD under control with several medicines. I don’t want to make my health worse by trying to stay warm. What do all of you think?

[CDPO16]

Welcome to the forum but I'm afraid I can't answer your query. Maybe someone will come along who can or do you have a respiratory nurse you could get advice from? Hope you find a suitable way of keeping warm.

[knitter]

I see that you are in the US , so I don’t know what agencies you may have …..similar say to Age Concern or CitizensAdvice Bureau in the UK.If it’s a rented property contact your landlord about your heating problems , if it’s your own , here in the UK there is a charity that helps with boilers for people in need. Or social services.

My parents had a propane heater in their conservatory , a window had to be left open for ventilation. My asthmatic daughter was kept away from it, so I don’t know if it affected her.

Can you Google propane heaters to see ?

Best wishes.

[Damon1864 Volunteer]

Hello and welcome I agree with knitter, contact an agency and your landlord, and I would certainly check about the use of propane heaters. Please let us know how you get on and please try to stay safe and warm . Have a good night and take care 😊 Bernadette and Jack 🐕 xxxxxx

[Patk1]

Is your system well maintained,serviced etc? I hope u are able to sort yr heating problem out x

[HungryHufflepuff]

I have a butane heater and I haven’t noticed that my breathing is any worse when I’m using the heater. I too don’t have adequate heating and also have poor electricity that trips easily. I also have a butane stove for that reason, and a stove top kettle. Gas bottles are heavy. In the past I used to get the 15kg bottles but now find them too heavy to carry, so I’ve gone on to 7kg bottles which cost slightly more per kg and obviously need changing more frequently, but at least I can manage to lift them. Gas bottles weigh much more than the weight of the gas. I don’t know what size bottles gas is sold in where you live but hopefully you can find a small size. Here propane comes in 47, 19 and 6 kg.

[HungryHufflepuff in reply to HungryHufflepuff]

I just googled it and the bottle from a 15kg butane gas also weighs around 15kg, so that’s 30kg when full. That would be why I was struggling with it ☺️

[Ergendl]

I do struggle with breathing in rooms heated by butane: the room needs to be well ventilated or I get a lasting headache.

[Hidden in reply to Ergendl]

It produces Carbon monoxide!

[Dizzart]

Just incase it helps I wear men’s thermal long johns and long sleeved vest in bed and put a sweater on to go to make tea and go out to get fuel in etc and I have sheepskin boots . It cold here in Norfolk uk in the winter and we have a lot of fuel poverty here so I’m determined to beat it 👍🏻👍🏻😊

[peege]

Is propane the same as what we in uk call calor gas? I dont know.,I do know that in the past my parents had a calor gas heater (a big thing on small wheels and you put the gas cylinder in the back of it). It caused a lot of condensation I recall & we had to keep wiping the single glazed windows.

[Hidden in reply to peege]

Yep they produce moisture.

[Cowgirlpatty in reply to Hidden]

I don’t know if it is the same stuff.

[O2Trees]

Butane/propane/calor gas all produce moisture as has been said. One of them is used to heat houseboats - cant remember which but I used the cylinders for heating when living on boats on the Thames in my 20s. So you need ventilation.

What is not so widely known is that this kind of gas is heavier than air so in boats it sinks to the bottom, which is why you need to turn the cylinder off at the bottle, not on the appliance, then what is left in the pipe is burned off rather than sinking into the bottom of the boat.

It used to be said in the boating community that two boats would be lost on the Thames each year due to explosions of gas that had built up. There are stories of people bailing out what looked like empty buckets from the bottom of their boat's hulls though I never saw this!

A house or flat is obviously much bigger than a boat so there would be less concentration of any leaked gas. But still probably best if you have flooring with any gaps in it, e.g. between floorboards, to be careful not to let any unburnt gas mount up. Apart from all this I would just go by how your lungs/breathing feel.

[Cowgirlpatty in reply to O2Trees]

Well I do have ventilation, too much in fact

[Hidden in reply to O2Trees]

Know someone from OZ that had that there mate had a decent sized cabin cruiser/party boat thing had gone down to prep for a trip/show/Beano? Bilge/Hull/boat had filled with Gas they heard the blast many miles away and found bits all other the place.

Should always have a Gas alert when using Gas bottles anywhere.

[gocat]

Just been reading about heated jackets/dressing gowns. Wonder if they would help you. Then you could just have the heating turned down to keep the chill at bay and hopefully wouldnt trip the fuses then