Propane vs buthane

If you need a gas fuel for your home appliances (like gas stove or absorption refrigerator) or home heating but are far away from gas distribution network, you should consider using one of popular liquid gases — propane or LPG. The latter — Liquefied Petroleum Gas — is a mixture of both propane and buthane.

The only important difference between propane and buthane is the boiling temperature for the storage pressure (around 6 atmospheres). Propane boils in lower temperatures (like -25°C = -13°F), so you may store it outside your house in cold climates and use it all-year-round. Buthane needs higher temperatures to become gaseous. So you can’t use LPG in cold climates as all the appliances need the fuel to be gaseous again when fed to the burners. There are only two ways to use buthane (and LPG) in cold climates:

• take liquid fuel from the tank and boil it using heat taken from some external source (like in vehicles powered with autogas),
• store the tank underground or in a room where the temperature is always above the freezing point and thus the buthane may vaporise by itself.

If you want to install one large gas tank near your home and want to use the cheaper LPG, think about burying it below your lawn or carrot beds. If you want to use changeable gas canisters and the cheap LPG, you will need to store them inside. If you live in warm climate, you have nothing to worry about.

Both LPG and propane are heavier than air so it may be dangerous to store canisters with LPG / propane indoors in rooms where ventillation is insufficient and will not allow this heavier gas to leave the room.