[Caroline and Dave]

Has anyone got or had a house With LPG gas bottles connected to their house. Why I ask this is that our new house Is going to have a heating system supplied by LPG bottles as we are in a rural area. I have been assured that it is very common in NZ and there is no need to have any fears.
The reason I am a bit weary is because of what happened to my uncle about 25 years ago. The farm that he worked on had gas bottles on the side of the farmhouse and one of them developed a faulty valve and exploded knocking a large hole in the side of the farmhouse and putting my Uncle in hospital for several weeks. He made a full recovery and the firm were found guilty of not maintaining their supply.
Since then I have been cautious of them. I would never have bottled heaters in the house nor parrafin heaters. I know that there really is nothing to worry about, it would be interesting to hear how people get on with this type of supply.On a good note I have not found anything on exploding NZ cylinders in NZ on the net.
This sort of thing does not usually bother me but because of the bad memories I am just a little bit concerned.

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline

[K&CS]

Our house also has a heating system that uses gas bottles. No problems whatsoever, and yes, it is very common. We were on LPG a few years ago in the UK and it was astronomically expensive, but it is far cheaper here. I really wouldn't worry!

Kate

[Trigirl]

the energy safety service (a govt agency) have lots of info on how to use and store LPG safely. if you follow that i'm sure you'll be just fine.

http://www.ess.govt.nz/safety/safety_lpg.asp

[Jameelka]

We also have 2 large gas bottles just outside the kitchen window, as we are rural.
Touch wood, since we have been here they have been fine (only since Dec '06), and have replaced one.
:raebanana

[katandbob]

I went to the Yunca showroom on Friday, the salesman was very informative - he has Gas water/heating but he was real good and advised us that since I have the availability of free wood, then I should stick to a wood or Multi burner for heating and get a heat transfer system to distribute it aound the house.

He says its around $90 a bottle, but that with the reserves being low soon NZ will have to import it, and the price could go up then.

I am going to stick as we are for now and do as he suggested. (Diny had a heat transfer system in her old house and the house was nice and toasty!)

I may change to Gas water - when the tank needs replacing.

Kat

[Brijan]

Hi Caroline and Dave
Yes LPG bottles are very common here and becoming more popular all the time even in the cities as the Natural gas line charges are becoming quite high. The Craftsman gas fitter that installs your gas supply has to certify it as safe and correct.
The only problems i have heard of concerning lpg have been with the small BBQ bottles that DIY people have tried to install to feed a gas hob etc.

You can also run hot water systems on lpg if you want to, obviously all appliances fitted to lpg must be produced (or converted by a manufacures service tech) for lpg NOT natural gas, this is where having a qualified tradesman is essential.
Brian

[Caroline and Dave]

Thankyou everyone for your confidence boost. Building our home from scratch means we can have everything to give us the comfort we require.As regards the hot water system this will be run off solar panels with an electrical back up if needed although they inform me that we should have more than enough hot water from the solar panels.I am also informed that we should only need to use the central heating on extremely cold days as the hebel panels that are being fitted will give us an R rating of over 3.
Something to look forward to.

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline

[jdbob]

Is it possible to move the tank(s) away from the buildings? Where I live the tanks have to be at least 10 feet (or the equivalent in real units of measurements) from a building, seems like a reasonable precaution.

[DB]

The tanks on the wall are the standard "rockgas" type things, almost always an auto-switchover pair, but you can get a tank that goes further away, and is then piped to the house, and then the delivery man charges your tank up.

[sarahw]

We don't live in a rural area, but do have gas bottles - its quite common here to have gas in bottles as everyone says - we only use gas for 1 heater in our lounge, & weren't about to pay a standing daily charge - to then only get the use of gas for 4 months a year - much cheaper for us to do it this way & pretty easy - the gas turns up pretty much the day after you phone an automated line & order bottles.

I've never heard any horror stories about gas & can totally understand why you are apprehensive but our tanks are right outside our bedroom & we've never had any probelms at all (apart from me forgetting to order more gas in the dead of winter & freezing half to death for 24 hours!!)

Just one bit of advice - I keep the gas bottle I'm using turned on & the gas bottle that is full closed (gas bottle drivers carry stickers that you can stick on the outside of your house to say keep one gas bottle at a time only on use). A plumber that came over recently told me to do this since if you have 2 tanks linked up to your appliance & both on open, once one gas bottle has emptied the gas can escape from the full bottle into the one that is empty - thus costing you more because you lose some.