Is compressed home natural gas a viable alternative to LPG?

Since LPG filling stations are fast closing, breaking and running dry is compressed house natural gas an alternative?

I believe on the legal side you can declare your mileage and pay the tax.

I'm not sure what the pressure is of home gas on tap, I think it varies significantly, but if you can get it into your tank, will it run? What changes to the system, if any would you need to make?
What sort of mileage could you expect from a 100L tank at typical pressures of home gas assuming the above is possible?

I believe LPG is 7 KWh per litre, so at current home gas prices of 10p per KWh that could be 70p for an equivalent litre of home gas.

I suspect the issue is it would need to be compressed to that of LPG (320 psi) which isn't practical or probably legal at home. Unless somebody knows otherwise. 2000 P38 4.0 HSE auto - RHD - just needs a little love.

Anything combustible will work to a certain extent in an ICE - the trick is to get it into the right place under the right condition to explode.

LPG is stored in a liquified form under pressure - natural gas is just that - a gas.

Bodyshop some time ago ran some of their trucks using CNG (compressed natural gas as do some other companies presently. However, in a diesel they still need to use a little diesel to ignite the gas (something like 5 or 10%).

IMHO it's entirely possible but it depends on the calorific value of CNG to LPG.

Many years ago I knew a guy who transferred the contents of propane cylinders to his LPG tank using a high pressure pump but not entirely sure of the legality/safety of what he was doing.

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IMHO it's entirely possible but it depends on the calorific value of CNG to LPG.

I don’t think compressed natural gas need be a viable alternative. I understand that, whilst LPG is being phased out in vehicle fuel stations due to low demand, LPG as a fuel source in the UK is not.

Acknowledging the issue that comes under the category of the ‘cost of installation’ of large LPG storage tanks suitable for domestic use that can be installed in a garden. Filling those would be done by a visiting truck with a larger tank on board. Therefore, assuming a tank is installed at home and one can have that refilled by a local supplier for reasonable cost (which I contend are both very reasonable assumptions) then is it possible to transfer the LPG fuel from a static tank to the vehicle safely, and without specialist equipment? Again, I assume yes as the fuel will already be under pressure.

A very quick google throws up home solutions such as this https://www.flogas.co.uk/home/lpg-solutions

Maybe food for thought? I’d also add that, despite the lessening use of LPG for vehicles (which is crazy), that I’d argue we won’t see a huge decrease in LPG for domestic use in the medium term.

If your LPG vehicle rarely undertakes long journeys then a domestic tank might well be a very sensible solution and cheaper over time. I think some companies will even install a tank for free (or a much reduced cost) if they have a contract to supply it thereafter and would remain the owner of the tank throughout. Plus, if one ventures further afield, just use petrol for that infrequent journey and fill up with LPG if you can. Seems sensible to me…thoughts? Andy

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Many years ago when I had my LPG rangies on the go, I remember there being a long discussion on one of the LR forums whether it would be feasible to have your own LPG tank to fuel vehicles, and I think the consensus was no, primarily because of not be being able to get a large storage tank from the suppliers, and the cost of the fuel being not that much of a saving over the pump price.

Home heating was simple, but vehicle fuel was a different ask of the suppliers which they were reluctant to entertain.

Admittedly that was probably at least 10 years ago now. V8 or else ...

Cng is used on some buses.

No markwt for private use yet, lpg still readily available here and lots of cars on it, including mine, still no issues after almost 10 years...

I looked into this when we had a home bulk tank installed. (Flogas) Technically yes it's easy as they just install a bottom feed or a second top feed with a tube so you can get liquid rather than the gas you take for home use.

Legally yes as long as you declare it's for road use and pay the duty.

The big but is that nobody will do this as they can't or won't legally install a dual system on one of their leased tanks.

If you own your tank you can do what you want and it's up to you to declare it, our LPG boiler chap said he could install the feeds if the tank was empty and we owned it. Sadly the cost of that vs Flogas's tank price (free) makes it not practical.

I looked into a separate car tank also but none of the suppliers would install that on a domestic premises.
Our nearest garage just stopped selling it and I asked about buying their old tank but kit was owned by Flogas again.

I have a hand pump for transferring from red bottles but haven't used it yet, we are down to our last local garage in Kent now so the time will soon come when I do have to. The price is pretty much the same at the moment for pump vs bottle.

Chap on Ebay sells small electric transfer pumps for around £400.

Hoping when the time comes I can get a better price for bulk red bottles when I have to as I don't want to have to go back to full time petrol on the P38.

Pain in the bum really as it's a great way to run an engine. '95 P38 4.6 HSE lpg
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A local farmer uses a bulk tank to refill his small quad type jeep. When I ran a food factory we had lpg trucks got yard work again filled from a bulk tank. Think they had a hand pump for transfer but it was several years ago! 2012 tdv8 Westminster arrived Jan 19 gone Dec 23

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