Possible to use propane tank for fireplace and standby generator ?

I might be wrong here, I'm no professional but I have had propane powered generators at my last 3 houses. I believe the manufacturers recommend at least 2 x 420lb tanks to run them.

We had one installed a year and a half ago, and had to add a second tank (we had one already for a garage heater).

Just my experience...

We have a 1000 gallon that powers 2 fireplaces, water heater, furnace and generac at the cottage.

Jerico wrote: ↑ We have a 1000 gallon that powers 2 fireplaces, water heater, furnace and generac at the cottage.

I presume you can use a split valve for that?

deadtorights wrote: ↑ I presume you can use a split valve for that?

I actually dont remember… I think there is a manifold inside the cottage to be honest. Forgot, we actually have a BBQ line as well.

I looked at a house 5 mins outside of town and they were on propane with 2x450s and had the furnace, oven, BBQ, garage heater, 1 fireplace, water heater all hooked up. The stupid part was that gas ran by on the road 185 feet from the house. We had made an offer and I called union gas and they told me they would run a gas line based on existing for $1000 (first 100 feet were free at the time). I cant believe anyone in their right mind wouldnt do this. Conversion of existing appliance was going to be around $600. That was in 2009ish. We didnt buy it as there were a lot of issues with the house, but the people who did put a steel roof on it, fenced 2 acres, and STILL USE PROPANE. I cant even fathom how much money they could have saved switching to NG.

Whoever you hire to professionally hook it up can easily T off the line.

The better option is a manifold. I have a single 400 pound tank up at the cottage fueling the gas stove, water heater and grill. I added a propane fired Jotul 305 'woodstove' to the cottage this past year and had the gas fitters completely redo all the propane lines in the cottage.

They installed a single line from the tank to the crawlspace under the cottage where I have a manifold now. From that each run goes to each appliance.

Thank you all!

It's very common practice to supply multiple propane appliances from a single tank. Any installer can do this for you.

Where you may run into problems, however, is in that a 420 lbs tank might not be big enough to supply a generator. Propane tanks store liquid propane and can only produce gaseous propane--which is what propane-powered appliances burn--at a rate proportional to the capacity of the tank and the ambient temperature. A 420lbs tank might not be able to evaporate enough propane to keep a generator running.

Get in touch with Generac and ask what size of propane tank you need for the generator you want.