Bulk LPG - Cheapest suppliers / supply route?

If you're looking for the best price then ring around all the suppliers, get their best price in writing (email). Make sure you include the tank rental cost in your figures. I did this on an excel sheet.
When did this last year Calor was offering a credit which made it the best deal.
Then go back to incumbent supplier and ask if they'll beat the deal.

I arranged to switch to Calor and then Flogas came back to me again and offered an even better deal, so I stayed with them. Good job I had an email with the deal on, they didn't want to honor it come bill time.

philtrick123 wrote: »

Slightly off topic- I'm trying to get a price from Flogas to change my (unsightly) above ground bulk tank to an Underground tank. I know I've got to get the (very big) hole dug and the pipe trench dug to the house.
Any ideas on what I'll be charged. Pipe to the house is ~25 meters.
Calor has a £1500 offer for a UG tank installation.

Hi,
we did this a year or two ago.

First of all you need to check what is/isn't included in the price. We got a new tank and connection for free but had to do the earthworks ourselves but we negotiated this at renewal time. As our neighbour has a digger that wasn't a problem so it IIRC only cost us about £5-600, this was for the gravel, ducting and the digger driver.

It's easiest if your underground tank will be close to the existing but not in the same place, purely for logistics purposes as you can dig the hole etc without having to disconnect your existing tank. Otherwise you will need a temporary supply which the LPG company will provide, it's just one of the portable red tanks. Note that it is quite a big hole and is messy work so is best done when it's dry and you may need to make an allowance for making good afterwards.

This is a quick list of work and estimated costs, but it depends on whether you can find someone to do half a day with a digger and the prices are based upon local costs here in Somerset, if someone has a minimum charge of a day it will obviously increase costs. Note that we ran ducting through the trench to provide flexibility for the future, the LPG pipe runs through the ducting so can easily be changed in future without having to dig another trench.

Dig hole and new trench to stopcock - est full day ca £450 inc digger hire with driver
LPG ducting ca £50
new tank supplied and dropped into place - no charge from supplier
New tank connected to stopcock - no charge from supplier (pipework included)
LPG pumped from old tank to new - no charge from supplier
Remove old tank - no charge from supplier
ca 5 tonnes pebbles to cover tank - ca £2-300
fill hole with soil and pebbles - ca half day with a digger ca £250
removal of excess soil from original hole - TBC depends if you can just spread it around

so it would have cost us a minimum of £1k if we had to hire a digger.

Note that you will need to add soil to the top of the tank and level off after ca 12 months as everything settles.

It was worth it for us as the old tank was not compliant with regs so we could not change supplier whereas the new underground tank is obviously fully compliant so we could negotiate a better deal.
R

richbeth wrote: »

Hi,
we did this a year or two ago.

First of all you need to check what is/isn't included in the price. We got a new tank and connection for free but had to do the earthworks ourselves but we negotiated this at renewal time. As our neighbour has a digger that wasn't a problem so it IIRC only cost us about £5-600, this was for the gravel, ducting and the digger driver.

It's easiest if your underground tank will be close to the existing but not in the same place, purely for logistics purposes as you can dig the hole etc without having to disconnect your existing tank. Otherwise you will need a temporary supply which the LPG company will provide, it's just one of the portable red tanks. Note that it is quite a big hole and is messy work so is best done when it's dry and you may need to make an allowance for making good afterwards.

This is a quick list of work and estimated costs, but it depends on whether you can find someone to do half a day with a digger and the prices are based upon local costs here in Somerset, if someone has a minimum charge of a day it will obviously increase costs. Note that we ran ducting through the trench to provide flexibility for the future, the LPG pipe runs through the ducting so can easily be changed in future without having to dig another trench.

Dig hole and new trench to stopcock - est full day ca £450 inc digger hire with driver
LPG ducting ca £50
new tank supplied and dropped into place - no charge from supplier
New tank connected to stopcock - no charge from supplier (pipework included)
LPG pumped from old tank to new - no charge from supplier
Remove old tank - no charge from supplier
ca 5 tonnes pebbles to cover tank - ca £2-300
fill hole with soil and pebbles - ca half day with a digger ca £250
removal of excess soil from original hole - TBC depends if you can just spread it around

so it would have cost us a minimum of £1k if we had to hire a digger.

Note that you will need to add soil to the top of the tank and level off after ca 12 months as everything settles.

It was worth it for us as the old tank was not compliant with regs so we could not change supplier whereas the new underground tank is obviously fully compliant so we could negotiate a better deal.
R

Really really helpful. The new ug tank is 7 metres past the existing tank. I could reconnect the new tank to the existing pipe to the house, but I need to also move the pipe as it enters the house because I've new foundations going in.
Do you have a spec for the duct you put the lpg pipe into? I understand it needs to be buried to 600mm depth. I'm thinking it's going to be easier to put a completely new line into the house.

philtrick123 wrote: »

Really really helpful. The new ug tank is 7 metres past the existing tank. I could reconnect the new tank to the existing pipe to the house, but I need to also move the pipe as it enters the house because I've new foundations going in.
Do you have a spec for the duct you put the lpg pipe into? I understand it needs to be buried to 600mm depth. I'm thinking it's going to be easier to put a completely new line into the house.

Hi,
It's like this
https://www.draindepot.co.uk/60mm-x-50m-yellow-perforated-gas-pipe-duct.html

we just went to the local builders merchant and they have a variety of ducting, one was specifically for gas. As you can see it's bright yellow and wider than the one we used for cables (which is black). Note that a 25 M roll will take a lot of space so unless you have a trailer you will probably need to have it delivered. We couldn't fit in the back of a Landrover.

FYI We were with CountryWide and they did provide a spec sheet for the hole, trench etc I'm sure you know they have very strict regulations on LPG pipes and how they go through walls/foundations, we actually re-routed a pipe so that it was obvious it didn't go under the wall as one supplier said it might not be compliant so they wouldn't take us on.

As AdrianC says you could potentially do the digging yourself but the hole is pretty deep and needs to be dug quite precisely, including with a ledge for safety purposes and a level bottom. I guess the depth is probably the biggest challenge as the digger is reaching a long way whilst being near the edge of the hole. We also knew there were various pipes between the tank and the house, including the mains water, so decided it was better to pay for a driver. If you know a friendly farmer or builder with a digger they will do it for a few quid and you can save a lot of money. Our biggest cost was the ballast.
R