Hot Dawg propane usage

[Ben Grunow]

I (embarrassingly enough) spent an hour or so troubleshooting my heater only to determine that I was out of propane. My Hot Dawg 45k BTU unit used a 100 lb tank in about 3 weeks! My shop is 400 square feet with 11' ceilings and well insulated (4300 cu ft). I run the heat at 50-55F all the time. Pipes were double checked for leaks. I was suprised after hearing what I recall as much better economy from other Creekers.

Any thoughts? What are you getting?

I realize the heater is oversized but it was a gift so I will have to deal with the problems associated with that. Plus, it is 28 outside and the shop is nice and warm so I really dont care.

[Mike Deschler]

Ben:

Not sure on the conversion of #/gal of propane but your burn rate maybe be in order with the heater running 24/7. I've also got a 45K Hot Dawg and have a 100 gal tank outside. I go all year on two refills. I turn it off overnight and the shop cools to about 40F and when I am in the shop, I usually have the temp at about 60F. My shop size is 24x32x8 and is well insulated except for the double o/h door which is not that efficient. Lately, the temps outside are in the low 20's and at night are single digit.

The Hot Dawg is great and I love it!!

Hope that helps.

[Matt Meiser]

That sounds excessive. My shop burns through about about 125 gallons in the same amount of time that our house uses 230 gallons. Obviously this varies based on outside temperature. I have the 75K BTU unit heating a well insulated shop over 2x the size of yours. I think we had a refill at 3 weeks once last winter.

Your heater is converted to propane, correct? I think, but am not sure, that a larger volume of natural gas is required than propane (larger orfice.)

My experience with an oversized furnace was that the temperature swung more than desired because by the time the furnace stopped cooling the bonnet the shop would be warmer than desired. I don't know if this really made that much difference in usage since it meant I kept the thermostat lower.

[Todd Tolhurst]

Propane weighs 4.24 pounds/gallon, so your 100# tank holds about 23.6 gallons. A gallon of propane yields 91,500 BTUs, so that 23.6 gallons contains 2,159,400 BTUs. At 45,000 BTUs/hr, that's about 48 hours of burn. Over 3 weeks, that's 2.3 hours of runtime per day. That doesn't sound excessive to me. Maybe you want to dial back the thermostat when you're not in there to reduce heat loss during unoccupied hours.

[Joe Chritz]

If I remember correctly the hot dawg 45K uses a half gallon of propane per hour of run time.

Before I had the wood stove it would run about 15-20 minutes per hour at 65, about 10 per hour over night at 50-55.

The amount used seems high but may not be depending on how much it runs overnight. 10 minutes per hour would be 3-4 gallons a day x 21 days or pretty close to the 100 gallons.

Now that I burn wood when I am there and only use the propane when I first go out and overnight I use a lot less.

Joe

[David G Baker]

I have a 75,000 BTU natural gas fired Hot Dawg heating my 30'x40'x10' well insulated pole barn. It costs me around $30 a month to keep the temp at around 50 degrees. When I work in the building I turn the heat up to 65. When using the building with out turning the heat up, the furnace comes on a couple of times each hour. When warming the building to 65, it takes about 15 minutes of constant ruining before it shuts off and after that it comes on about every 20 minutes.
David B

[Ben Grunow]

Thanks fellers. I did the same math Todd and it made sense to me but I thought others were claiming much lower usage. Time to turnit down at night. The thermostat goes down to 45 so I will start there I guess. Let you know how it goes.

[Matt Meiser]

Ben, I think you will find that keeping your shop 45-50 will work great because it will keep everything just warm enough that the shop will quickly heat up when you turn on the heat. I do keep mine warm overnight when I'm working out there several days in a row, and obviously if I've glued up or finished something.

[Dave Bureau]

a 100lb tank is only about 25 gallons. i dont think thats excessive.