Materials/Spend
- Underslung LPG Tank Install - £766.15
TOTAL: £766.15
Unlike the electrical system and plumbing, any gas system installed in your van will need to get signed off and gas safety checked. Because of this, I figured it would just be better to pay for someone to install my gas system so they can ensure it’s installed correctly and then signed off at the same time.
Types of gas supplies
There are of course a variety of different ways that you can supply your van with gas. Whether it be disposable gas bottles or underslung, refillable LPG tanks. What you choose to install will also largely depend on what appliances you need to supply with gas.
For example, if you only have a gas hob, it might be easier just to have a gas bottle situated directly below it that you can replace when it’s empty. One major thing you have to remember though is if you do opt to have your gas tank inside of your van, you’ll need to make sure that you install a drop-out vent next to it so that there is adequate ventilation.
With the above in mind, I decided to install an underslung LPG tank. Although the initial installation is more expensive, it works out far more cost-effective to refill LPG and also having the tank mounted underneath the van means it’s already ventilated and it saves a massive amount of space inside the van.
My gas system
After shopping around for ages, the closest place I could find that did underslung LPG installations was about a three hours drive away. They quoted me almost £1,400, they only had availability almost three months away and they said they said it would be likely they wouldn’t be able to complete the installation in one day, which would mean I’d have to find somewhere to stay overnight.
I shopped around some more and to my immense pleasure I found Propex. Based in Ringwood, they’re just over an hour away from me, their quote was almost half what I had been quoted by the other company, they had availability much much sooner and they could get everything done in around six hours. Win x100.
Propex installed a 25L LPG tank underneath my van, as well as a tidy refill point snug in the side of my van. They then hooked the gas system up to my hob and also my shower unit, adding mini gas ball valves next to each appliance allowing them to be isolated if need be. The system also comes with a small electronic gas meter that allows you to turn the system On/Off as well as see how full your gas tank is.
I’m over the moon with the job that they did and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Aftercare
Once the installation was complete, they ran through how the system worked and also gave me some really good bits of advice. As I feel bad that this post doesn’t detail how to physically install the gas system, I thought I would share some of that advice below:
Filling up the tank for the first time
They advised when filling up the tank for the first time you should only fill it up halfway. This is because the inside of the LPG tank is extremely cold and so prone to a lot of frost from where it’s been empty. This means if you fill it up so it’s full, you’ll likely get an inaccurate reading on the meter. Filling it up halfway gives the tank a chance to remove this frost and give much more accurate readings moving forward.
Filling up in the UK vs abroad
The nozzles used when filling up the LPG tank in the UK are different to those that are used across most of Europe. The refill point that they installed accommodates both. They said the UK nozzles usually fit around the valve, whereas abroad they screw in place within the interior of the valve.
Traveling abroad
Apparently sometimes when traveling abroad on things like ferries, they’ll ask you to prove that your gas is switched off. They’ll usually test this by turning on your hob and holding a flame to it. If gas is present, they’ll ask you to go under the van and turn off your gas supply on the tank itself.
Before they test it, if you make sure that you’ve turned off the gas system via the electronic control panel, then leave the hob on to clear the gas from the pipe, when they test the hob they’ll see no gas is present, saving you from having to climb under the van.
If you have any questions at all, feel free to ping me an email or drop me a message on Instagram!
