How much gas do you use?

[Naughty Cal]

13 hours ago, Wrinkley said:

We use 13kg of gas every six weeks. No leaks just the cooker.  Only two of us but 13 kg ever 6 weeks!  I think that's too much.  How much do you use?

On average we use 2 2.75kg Camping Gaz bottles a year.

Glad we dont use any more as they are bloody expensive to replace at £35 each!

[mrsmelly]

8 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

We use about 13Kg every 8 weeks, full time liveaboard. As an added bonus we've just got a repalcement bottle at Castleford for £18, cheapest we have found anywhere (even beats that place at Stoke on Trent!)

CASTLEFORD!!  its a wonder you didnt get the gas fittings stripped!!

[chubby]

1 hour ago, Rickent said:

We have an alde comfort boiler which we use daily to heat our water and 13kg lasts about 3 weeks.

Thanks for this answer . That seems expensive to me compared to an eberspacher that i have at the moment for hot water . 

I ask cos theres a boat im thinking of buying that has no eber and only an alde . The running costs seem like theyll be much higher so i ll have to think it thru a bit more maybe

Thanks again 

[Rickent]

If the alde was used sparingly we could probably make the gas last longer, but we just put it on as and when needed and sometimes it's on longer than it needs to be.

[blackrose]

Single liveaboard, cooking everyday - hob/oven. I go though a 13kg bottle roughly every 6 months.

[Mikexx]

10 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Single liveaboard, cooking everyday - hob/oven. I go though a 13kg bottle roughly every 6 months.

Given a bottle is 180KWhr, that implies 1kWhr per day, so a ring on max for just 20 minutes.

I would use more to boil a kettle each day.

[Momac]

10 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

On average we use 2 2.75kg Camping Gaz bottles a year.

Glad we dont use any more as they are bloody expensive to replace at £35 each!

The price for campingaz refills is a rip off . The price has always been high  and has risen considerably over the last decade by amounts way above inflation.

We try not to let the cost deter our use of the cooking facilities on the boat . We do use more gas since we have a bigger boat with an oven. However , despite the cost of the gas , eating in is  still cheaper than eating out !

 

 

 

[Mikexx]

What is criminal is the markup on bottled propane.

I find it is close to £2 / litre for a 13kg cylinder.

If I bought it in bulk from Calor for heating using an above ground vessel it could cost nearer 42p / litre.

[rusty69]

4 hours ago, Mikexx said:

What is criminal is the markup on bottled propane.

I find it is close to £2 / litre for a 13kg cylinder.

If I bought it in bulk from Calor for heating using an above ground vessel it could cost nearer 42p / litre.

I buy 19kg bottles which are cheaper than 13kg.

[MtB]

4 hours ago, Mikexx said:

What is criminal is the markup on bottled propane.

I find it is close to £2 / litre for a 13kg cylinder.

If I bought it in bulk from Calor for heating using an above ground vessel it could cost nearer 42p / litre.

 

Easily sorted. Get yourself a 500 litre Calor vessel installed on your boat then you can buy it in bulk for 42p/litre for the boat too. 

Or have you now spotted the reason for the price difference?

[Guest]

49 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Easily sorted. Get yourself a 500 litre Calor vessel installed on your boat then you can buy it in bulk for 42p/litre for the boat too. 

Or have you now spotted the reason for the price difference?

Save on installation costs by using any available space in the fresh water tank for the bulk Calor delivery. 

Don't forget to give it good stir to make sure you can light it to get hot water without the need for one of those silly expensive water heater thingies.

[Naughty Cal]

12 hours ago, MartynG said:

The price for campingaz refills is a rip off . The price has always been high  and has risen considerably over the last decade by amounts way above inflation.

We try not to let the cost deter our use of the cooking facilities on the boat . We do use more gas since we have a bigger boat with an oven. However , despite the cost of the gas , eating in is  still cheaper than eating out !

 

 

 

We still eat in a lot and have cut down our gas consumption a lot by using the electric kettle and slow cooker.

Still doesn't make it any easier shelling out £ £12.72 per litre for gas though 

[Tony Brooks]

19 kg from last May to last Sunday with the boat in use all the time with only maybe two weeks out of use. The last 10 days had the Alde running  with the thermostat turned well down so it only came on before dawn.

[Mikexx]

4 hours ago, rusty69 said:

I buy 19kg bottles which are cheaper than 13kg.

 

In my case the 19kg won't fit after the gas locker was raised because of BSS rules :-(

19kg, in most places, can cost more per litre than the 13kg. The weight of a full bottle (43kg) becomes over the safe handling weight of 25kg.

3 hours ago, Rumsky said:

Save on installation costs by using any available space in the fresh water tank for the bulk Calor delivery. 

Don't forget to give it good stir to make sure you can light it to get hot water without the need for one of those silly expensive water heater thingies.

 

Why not mix the two, add air and ignition and you have a tank of hot water?

[loubyscooby]

13kg every 9 -10 months. Cook everyday but only have gas for cooking. I think I get excellent vfm.

 

[canals are us?]

Out on the canal cooking for just myself I would probably use 1-2 bottles at 13kg each year.

I'm moored at the Marina and live aboard and around 18 months ago bought an electric mini oven as fed up of bending down to light the oven.

So far still using the 3rd bottle in 5 years. I bought a 4th 6 months ago but not used it yet. I now just use the gas hob for veg, gravy, soup etc and grill.

James

[DHutch]

We find just cooking it lasts forever, certainly all year of being onboard every 2-3 weekends Friday night to Sunday lunch, making tea and two evening meals.

But the water heater, if we want got water while not running the engine to cruise, uses a lot more. Certainly once you start having showers.

Heating is coal fired.

 

Daniel

[haza]

i must use a lot of gas then ...43 kg lasted from the 1st may till 12th sept ..

[rustydiver]

we have an old aide boiler, we get through about 5 gas bottles a year, winter time if we are staying on the boat and have the heating and hot water on all the time and cooking, a bottle can last 4 to 5 days. 

When its warmer no heating occasional hot water a bottle will last maybe 5 months.

We are on the boat most weekends and school holidays.

[OldPeculier]

3 x 13 kg bottles a year.  Most of that is in the summer.  In the winter the Boatman is used for cooking and water heating.

[reg]

On 30/09/2017 at 19:47, chubby said:

1  person only . Full time liveaboard . Gas used only for oven , grill and hob . 3 x 13 KG per year . 

Can i ask out of interest : If one used an alde ( older type tall & slim thing ) for just heating a water tank only - say one hour per use , how many days ( approx of course ) might you expect a 13 kg bottle to last ? 

cheers

When I installed my ALDE, since removed and central heating system 10 years ago I ran it on full to test the system out. Ran for approx 20 hours on a 13kg.

For a full time ccer not really feasible to keep replacing gas bottle every couple of days so central heating was rarely used. Was handy for the odd bit of warming up and drying out only. 

 

[chubby]

1 minute ago, reg said:

When I installed my ALDE, since removed and central heating system 10 years ago I ran it on full to test the system out. Ran for approx 20 hours on a 13kg.

For a full time ccer not really feasible to keep replacing gas bottle every couple of days so central heating was rarely used. Was handy for the odd bit of warming up and drying out only. 

 

Cheers

Can it be used solely for heating a tank of water by isolating the rads & using a timer to run for ... i dunno ... one hour to make enough for a shower & washing up / laundry ?

I currently have an eber and use it for one hour to make a tank of hot water and im looking to assess whether an Alde can be economical on a liveaboard boat but for hot water not central heating . 

A boat im considering as a replacement for my current boat has only an alde & installing an eber is not affordable . 

If an Alde is just plain uneconomical for hot water only tjen the boats a no goer so im trying to establish how much gas i t might use 

cheers

[Mikexx]

On 01/10/2017 at 04:29, LadyG said:

When using Butane[blue], in cold weather we had to shake the bottle as it seemed to solidify on the bottom, I assume this is why propane [orange] is better. 

 

Butane freezes from −140 to −134 °C. I really wouldn't expect it to freeze solid!

[Momac]

57 minutes ago, Mikexx said:

 

Butane freezes from −140 to −134 °C. I really wouldn't expect it to freeze solid!

It's the boiling point that is of interest - which for Butane is -0.5degC. While propane boiling point is  at -42degC. 

if its below its boiling point there will be no gas boiling off the liquid.

I have known campingaz  to fail to light in frosty weather.

[mrsmelly]

23 hours ago, haza said:

i must use a lot of gas then ...43 kg lasted from the 1st may till 12th sept ..

Like I have said earlier. Its an impossible question to answer. Most boaters on the forum are hobby boaters who hardly ever use their boats or at best a couple on nights a week and then only when its sunny or a few weeks in the summer. A liveaboard 24/7 365 family will use seriously more than a hobby boater and there is everything in between.