Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Part 4 of 4

[Greg Buenas]

Drawbacks

There are drawbacks to LPG conversion, but they are small when weighed against the benefits.

Empty LPG fuel tanks are constructed of heavier material and must be 20% more bulky than a petrol tank, simply because an LPG tank may never be filled to capacity. Some 20% of the tank volume must be left empty for expansion of the contents. Another factor is that LPG tanks are often fitted in addition to a vehicle's petrol tank as LPG is not as freely available as petrol (to date). Because of this most vehicles retain dual fuel capability and the vehicle's overall weight is increased and internal load space may be reduced.

Propane has a lower calorific value than petrol when vapourised. In real terms that means the driver must put his or her 'foot down' more to achieve the same speed or rate of speed increase (acceleration). As the calorific value of LPG is some 20% lower than that of petrol the resulting consumption per litre or gallon is worse than petrol by a similar amount. This slight disadvantage is far outweighed by the price advantage (less than half of the cost).

You'll cover 10 - 20% less miles per gallon or Km's per litre or gallon of liquid fuel when using LPG instead of petrol, but your overall fuel costs will still be more than halved. Range is dependent on how much LPG may be stored by the vehicle and is directly proportional to the capacity of the tank(s) fitted to it. There are choices of where a tank may be sited and how large it (or they) are.

LPG supply sites are not as plentiful as we would like, but the situation is improving as at least one new site opens every day, on a seven day week basis. In June 2000 there were 350 sites in UK. 12 months later there were over 700. At the time of writing (August 2001) there are 900.

It is wise to research LPG availability before you start a journey, preferably using this and other websites to gain the information. To do this, visit 'Is LPG readily available?' Ring the chosen supplier to check they have stock and what times they are open. With a little careful planning you can source fuel for your return journey and not have to use Petrol at all, a desire that all LPG users soon develop!

If you can get the supplier's postcode you may even get directions to the site by using or map facility on this website!

If you think that planning your fuel stops is too much trouble, then give thought to what happens during a fuel shortage or blockade (similar to that which occurred in Sept. 2000).

All Petrol users had to do precisely that, plan to get to a place where they could buy fuel (if anywhere at all!) In the future, planning where you will be able to buy more Petrol or Diesel will be a permanent part of private travel and the LPG user will be the one having the easier time!

The following posts were taken here: http://www.go-lpg.co.uk/whatislpg.html