Gas bottle advice?

Can any of you lovely people recommend who we can speak to about swapping our butane bottles (used for central heating) to propane bottles, as recommended by our gas engineer (Pedro from the big plumbing place at Los Montesinos). There was a Dutch guy who worked there who spoke perfect English but he's now left and Pedro the owner speaks very little English so needless to say we've got difficulty discussing our options! We're somewhat concerned about how To swap and if we'll have to sign up to a new contract, and how expensive it is to do so?

Sunny B wrote:Can any of you lovely people recommend who we can speak to about swapping our butane bottles (used for central heating) to propane bottles, as recommended by our gas engineer (Pedro from the big plumbing place at Los Montesinos). There was a Dutch guy who worked there who spoke perfect English but he's now left and Pedro the owner speaks very little English so needless to say we've got difficulty discussing our options! We're somewhat concerned about how To swap and if we'll have to sign up to a new contract, and how expensive it is to do so?

sell your Butane bottles on buy and sell sites 10e each, but a couple of propane bottles from buy and sell sites, go and swop them for full, problem solved.

You need to decide if you're going for CEPSA or Repsol Propane bottles, probably based on the proximity of local suppliers.
I think the deposit fee for a CEPSA Propane bottle is around €40, so you're better-off picking up second hand bottles but they tend to be a bit harder to find than Butane bottles. I've bought them from car boot sales in the past as well as from adverts on the forums and Facebook groups.
If you have somewhere to store them then having a couple of extra spares is always handy.

If you have a gas BBQ then you can use Propane with a suitable regulator, or you could hang on to your existing Butane bottles rather than selling them.

Pete.

Hi Pete
That's really useful thank you. We've eight bottles to change so I don't really want to part with 320 euros for just the deposit! Am I right in thinking the regulators are different on propane, as that would mean a further expense?!
Thanks Priscilla

Oh and thanks Dr Doolittle, I agree selling and buying used ones is a much better option!

Hi,we have been with repsol with small bottles .last time they came round when we left bottles out they asked if we wanted to change to butane bottles for free.there was a big notice on van saying about swopping . Now we have mains gas so did not take offer but am sure they are still doing it .so worth putting bottle out on Wednesday I believe and see if they call round .

Sunny B wrote:Hi Pete
That's really useful thank you. We've eight bottles to change so I don't really want to part with 320 euros for just the deposit! Am I right in thinking the regulators are different on propane, as that would mean a further expense?!

Thanks Priscilla

we have both butane and propane, use same regulator for both.

The cheaper regulators tend to say Butane only, but the better ones can handle both.

I actually use an auto changeover system on my bottles. These only work with Propane, which is why I swapped from Butane. This means that the fittings that go on the bottles don't have a regulator and instead the regulator is built in to the automatic changeover switch.
My coal-effect gas fire previously needed two Butane bottles connected in tandem to give enough pressure to work properly. Since I changed to Propane I just need one bottle at a time, so although I still have two bottles connected via the changeover switch, only one is being used at any one time. This makes managing bottles much easier and it also means you don't need to go outside to change bottles at inconvenient times.
You do have to check if the changeover switch has swapped from one bottle to the other and replace the empty one, but you can do this when it's convenient for you.

I've since changed to gas water heating as well, and have a second set of bottles and automatic changeover system for this. (I went for a second set of bottles because of the physical layout of the property). The changeover switches work seamlessly and means that you don't have to worry about the gas running out halfway through having a shower!

The 8th post in thread has more info on the equipment I've used in my system:
http://www.talkquesada.com/items-for-sale-and-wanted-in-and-around-quesada-f36/another-cespa-butane-request-t15766.html.

Pete.

This is going to sound really stupid but how would you know if the bottles have switched over? Is it just a matter of checking yourself to see if one is empty?

There's an indicator on the changeover valve which changes from green to red when the bottle you were using is empty. You then turn the knob to point to the bottle that's now in use, at which point the indicator will turn green again, remove the empty bottle and take it away to get a refil.

Pete.