Agreed re propane better tahan Butane in the cold
Actually I tend to buy by what's written on the label rather than the colour of the bottles... but it seems my propane is always in blue or sometimes green.
I think in the UK that GREEN is PATIO Gas ( a marketing scam I was told) Orange is Prop for lower temps, Blue is Butane for GP use, but dont hold me to it ( cos I'll burn)
My backup 20Kw genset runs off propane, stored in an above ground 1000 gallon tank of propane, and burns 1.85 gallon/hour at 50% duty cycle, which is adequate to flip the whole house, barn and workshop and bugger on with no adjustments in lifestyle for a fortnight. If I reduced consumption to absolute minimums, running only emergency essential circuits, I could not quite double that endurance.
For backup cookstove room heat and lighting I like pressurized kerosene Petromax lanterns and a single burner kerosene stove from India, which run on K1, JetA, JP8, etc.
Blue is Butane. Red is Propane and Green Bottles are labelled Patio Gas which from what I can find out is Propane with add ons so you can see how much gas is left.
Timelord's OP states:
'' I realise now that this [relying on gas canisters at cold winter temperatures] could have a bearing on preppers who pack gas stoves''
I have current experience with this as does Charles H I guess. At our house, which in a highland region that is regularly exposed to severely cold temperatures, we use bottled Propane that is housed in a free vented locker set into the outside wall of the house. A normal gas-line connects from the locker into the kitchen where we have a normal gas hob, with propane-specific jets. This last January outdoor air temperatures dropped to -16C for a period of several weeks. The propane did not freeze, and we cooked with it daily at this time.
In the past, however, when temperatures have fallen below zero we have experienced difficulties using Butane.
So from point of view of gasification of bottled gas, propane will meet the demands of normal British winters without problems. There may be an issue with super chilled burners units, but so far we have not encountered difficulties.
Its been a long while since I used back packing gas stoves but when i did back in the 90s we did experience problems with the disposable 250 and 500 disposable canisters being to cold to ignite, I can only hope and assume that by now they have changed the gas mix so it works in much lower temps.
(21 March 2016, 12:00)NorthernRaider Wrote: [ -> ]Its been a long while since I used back packing gas stoves but when i did back in the 90s we did experience problems with the disposable 250 and 500 disposable canisters being to cold to ignite, I can only hope and assume that by now they have changed the gas mix so it works in much lower temps.
They were probably butane, which has higher energy per cc than propane.... just the small problem of the lowest temperature at which liquid turns to gas. Its fine for summer camping trips, but less favourable in the winter months.
I'll stick with Hexamine for now, takes up less space and always works
Butane is not really useable at +5c or lower, propane you can use in the Arctic/Antarctic. For cold weather camping you really want a liquid fuel stove that can run it all, petrol/coleman/paraffin and gas canisters. The Primus Omnifuel does all that and is my stove of choice after using one in the Army at -40c.