Say hello to my little friend.

[epicure3]

......first you get the warmth, then you get the power.

I'm not giving in without a fight.

Imported from the sidelines at Lambeau Field, Green Bay.

250 000 BTUs of power baby.

[John Case]

What a handsome little devil......and so active!

[JBa3Fan]

this makes my decision not to move to Cali  so much eaiser

[John Case]

(JBa3Fan @ Jan. 13 2007,21:08)

QUOTE

this makes my decision not to move to Cali  so much eaiser

there are so many reasons better than the weather......we'll talk....

[spockvr6]

I bought a bunch of those as an insurance policy myself.   Like most insurance policies, I hope to never use them...but suspect the time may come.

[BS Man about Palms]

John, do you have an enclosure you are putting it in? or just firing into the night air...?

[epicure3]

(BS, Man about Palms @ Jan. 13 2007,22:11)

QUOTE

John, do you have an enclosure you are putting it in? or just firing into the night air...?

I have 3. One is firing down the side of the house where my mangos, spindle, seagrape and others are planted.

One is firing up onto a royal, a ptychosperma elegans, and a foxtail. The last is firng on the slope just hoping to hit a veitchia.

Patio heater heating up clusia rosea, dypsis lutescens and key lime tree.

[spockvr6]

Epi-

How did the heaters work last night/this AM?  If the winds were light, I suspect they were effective?

[epicure3]

(spockvr6 @ Jan. 14 2007,09:02)

QUOTE

Epi-

How did the heaters work last night/this AM?  If the winds were light, I suspect they were effective?

It's a little too early to tell. The propane fueled heater is still cranking, the kerosene heaters flamed out about 630AM. The patio heater is still going ever so slightly. I really don't know what good it did, but I had to at least try.

Things still look good out there, but it is really too early to tell. In an area with no heat blasting I had a low of 28.8.  In an area with heater influence (not right next to it obviuosly) I had a low of 33.8.

[SubTropicRay]

Larry and John,

How much for one of those puppies?

[spockvr6]

Ray-

I bought all of mine during the summer months on Ebay.  The market for these is low then (especially used ones)....so prices are cheap.    I paid between $20 and $70 for them and they range in output from 36,000 to 150,000 Btu/hr.

[gsn]

Ray,

What he is not telling you is how much the PROPANE to run those 150,000 BTU unit will cost! ::

Plus forget those 20 gallon barbecue tanks,they might last  45 minutes on high!

Yes I have some too,but not as many! My disease is not terminal ,YET! ::

[epicure3]

(Ray @ Tampa,Jan. 15 2007,15:55)

QUOTE

Larry and John,

How much for one of those puppies?

Ray,

You don't want to know and I don't want to tell you. When it shows up on the AMEX bill at the end of month, I may have to come live with you or my wife might end up in jail on homicide charges.

Seriously, they were bucks. The small one was $199 (150000 btu). The medium one was $299 (200 btu) and the large on was $449 (275000 but).

I thought long and hard about it before I pulled the trigger. I'm sure the folks at The Home Depot could have arrested me for loitering as I stood in front of these things for an eternity. My rationale was that I could save the money but potentially lose 20X that in plants and palms. The trees and plants they were protecting were of significant size. In addition, just for my own mental health, I thought they were a good idea.

I used kerosene instead of propane on 2 out of the 3. Yes, add anouther $250 in kerosene to the bill. Those heaters suck it up like it was Schwarzenegger's Humvee. Even sleeping in the house it sounded like I had put my bed on runway 25R at LAX.

Did they work? I will say that they did their job and I was not disappointed. It didn't save all the palms and tropicals from damage, but it could have been a lot worse than what it was. I don't think (knock on wood) that anything will croak. At this point, That's all I care about.

[spockvr6]

(gsn @ Jan. 15 2007,17:42)

QUOTE

What he is not telling you is how much the PROPANE to run those 150,000 BTU unit will cost! ::

Roughly $5/hr  

Doesnt sound like much.....but add it up for the whole night (if the freeze is bad enough), and then multiply it out for all the other heaters....and its easily a $200 night

As such, these things are for doomsday use only.

But, my yard has enough "value" in it now ($ and otherwise) that I would not hesitate to run these heaters if I thought they might be of help.

[spockvr6]

(gsn @ Jan. 15 2007,17:42)

QUOTE

Plus forget those 20 gallon barbecue tanks,they might last  45 minutes on high!

If its cold enough....they wont last 15 minutes....they will freeze up

As such, I have ensured I have hoses long enough so that the tanks can be placed about 6-8 ft downwind of the heater discharge so that the bottles stay warm.  trying to draw 150,000 Btu/hr out of a standard BBQ tank isnt going to happen at 20-25F ambient temp.  

I also plant to be able manifold 2 or 3 tanks together as well to help with icing up and run time.

The ideal situation is probably using a very large (underground) tank, or converting the heaters over to natural gas (as I have gas at my house) but Im not that ill with the disease yet

[gsn]

Larry,

They do have 100 gallon propane tanks! ::

[spockvr6]

(gsn @ Jan. 15 2007,23:04)

QUOTE

Larry,

They do have 100 gallon propane tanks! ::

Where the heck am I going to be able to store those things!?!??

I have a dozen 20 pound tanks......so I can have about 240 lb on site at a moments notice as the Ace Hardware 2 minutes away can fill them at 15 bucks a pop.......

And...I can also easily carry these 20 lb'er around the yard, and fit them in my car  

[SubTropicRay]

I guess in a doomsday freeze, this is an option.  Thanks for the info guys.

Ray

[gsn]

Larry,

When  EPICURE3 recovers from the onslaught of  the artic weather out there.

I would like to talk to him and find out if he felt they REALLY made a difference ,where he used them! Whether there were noticeable postive effects on palms where the heaters were, and where he they weren't?

Looks like unfortunately he got hammered again last night!

[epicure3]

(gsn @ Jan. 16 2007,12:59)

QUOTE

Larry,

When  EPICURE3 recovers from the onslaught of  the artic weather out there.

I would like to talk to him and find out if he felt they REALLY made a difference ,where he used them! Whether there were noticeable postive effects on palms where the heaters were, and where he they weren't?

Looks like unfortunately he got hammered again last night!

Before I put them away................in August...........I will take some pics of where I had them. I didn't put thermometers in their sphere of influence as I only have 2 and thought that would be a waste of use.