Adding hookups for Propane Grill & Portable Generator

Question

I have a 400 gal. propane tank buried in the yard that serves the house furnace & hwh. According to our propane supplier, the 1st stage regulator at the tank outputs 10psi. From the tank, it runs to the side of the house where it goes through a 2nd regulator (RegO LV4403 ) then to inside the house to serve the funace and hwh. Both inside appliances say their max inlet pressure is 0.5 PSI so I suspect since the LV4403's max output is 13"WC or 0.46 PSI, that it's set to it's max.

I bought a 6580/5500 watt dual fuel generator last year and had to run it on several grill sized bottles during an extended power outage. Since I have that huge tank in the ground I thought it would make sense to run a line off the pipes that already come into the house. The closest pipe to the back of the house (below my deck and where I want to locate the generator) was originally for a cooktop but is no longer in use. So I extended that line with black pipe out the back of the house to a shutoff and quickconnect.

My grill will light, but there's barely a flame - even with just 1 burner lit!

I have a sphygmomanometer gauge from an old blood pressure cuff that reads from 20 to 300 mmHG. While I don't think its accurate, it gave me some values for comparison. I hooked it up to the pipe I ran out of the house and it read 32mmHG. I then tested the grill supply line connected to a propane bottle - which include the grill regulator - and it read 35mmHG I also tested the supply line for the generator using a propane bottle - - again with the QCC1 & Regulator in line - and it read 43mmHG. So it seems that the pressure inside the house is less that what's required for either the grill or the generator.

My thought was to just tap into the 10 PSI line after the 1st stage regulator but before the 2nd stage and run a separate line through the house and out the back to a male QCC1 connector. This way I could connect the grill or the generator to that QCC1 and use their OEM off-the-bottle set-up (QCC1 female/regulator/hose) and thereby bring the pressure down from 10 psi to the correct pressure required for each.

So my question is basically - is it a safety issue to run propane at 10 PSI through my house? If it matters I'd make the run with a coil and not have any terminations or splices actually inside the house.

Answer 1

It seems I was over complicating things and using a gauge that wasn't giving me accurate information.

Chatting with the generator manufacturer, they said that if I go directly into the generator the pressure needs to be between 11" and 13" water column or wc.

Doing more Googling - it seems that - with few exceptions - nearly ALL propane appliances are designed for that 11-13 wc range.

That said, the Char-broil help line told me that I MUST use a 20lb cylinder with their supplied hose/regulator combo, and that nothing else would work. I asked if they could pass along my question to a more technical person and she said she would.

Regardless, I bit the bullet and bought a 0-30" water column gauge - should have done this much earlier. The pressure at my quick-connect on the back deck is 12" wc. I then hooked up the generator this morning and it works just fine.

So it seems my original line off the stove feed out the back of the house is just fine.

We don't grill much so having to use the 20lb tanks is not a big deal but I'm hoping to find out why Char-broil seems to be different than other mfgs. who say you can connect to house propane. I'll edit this post again if I hear back.