We have a 2500L LPG tank which runs our boiler which I would like to start to monitor so I can keep an eye on the consumption of LPG over time.
I am looking to monitor the tank level. It already has a device on it which sends readings back to the supplier, but I am curious if anybody has any ideas of hardware I can attach to the tank somehow to also get a reading?
We have no gas meter to get readings from since we buy the LPG and store it in our own tank. I did some google searching but came up with no viable options.
Does anybody have any ideas or recommendations I can research further?
100%, not looking to DIY something silly, appreciate the share of the caveat as I hadn’t mentioned it in my original post.
I was trying to find if there is a magnetic sensor or something I can stick on the tank. I keep seeing that you can get guages that stick to the outside of a tank which got me thinking.
I’m not sure the pressure meter would work as it’s LPG and tbh, I don’t want to add a sensor on the inside of the tank (I’m being picky arn’t I)… as if something goes wrong with it then it could get a little dangerous.
I use TankUtility (Propane Tank Monitoring for Homeowners - Tank Utility). There is a native HA integration (Tank Utility - Home Assistant). Your main challenge is that TankUtility likely uses the same “tank interface” (a magnetic sensor on the fill dial) as your propane provider, so I’m not sure you could use both in parallell.
Thank you both for your feedback. The Tank Utility solution appears to be what I am after, although it would appear they dont’have any purchase options in the UK. Clicking their store to check out pricing tells me the page is not found. This at least gives me a direction to research further, so again thank you!
I was originally looking at Tank Utility but it looks like things went downhill after Generac bought them. In addition to that you don’t have any purchase options in the UK.
Here is what I am thinking about getting.
Its a little more expensive than Tank Utility was but they do have an option for Europe (868 MHz).
I and a local buddy have been VERY happy with our Mopeka propane tank level sensors, available from Amazon (or direct from Mopeka). We’ve both got Mopeka Pro Plus (M1015) units, on our large main tanks (horizontal, 500 gal and 320 gal). I’ve also got a Mopeka Pro Check (M1017) on my gas grill tank (vertical, 20 lb).
The units work really well: magnetic mount to bottom of tank, ultrasonic level sensing, and “enhanced” Bluetooth to send readings (advertised as up to 1000 feet). It really surprised us with the range we achieved.
Full integration with Home Assistant, as long as your HA has Bluetooth capability (thru BT capability on R-Pi, BT dongle via USB, or my highly recommended favorite: ESPHome Bluetooth Proxy).
I just ordered a Mopeka PRO+ LR (M1015) and Bluetooth adapter to try it out. I was thinking that I would require the Mopeka Bridge for it to work. I love that this is 100% local.
I’m not doing HA Energy Dashboard now nor in foreseeable future. Too many other HA projects ahead of that. Maybe if/when I get motivated to do solar &/or generator. (Almost certainly propane-powered generator if we do.)
So no, no connection between Mopeka sensor and Energy Dashboard in my system now. But does seem desirable at some point.
What’s your experience been with the accuracy of these sensors? Looking to implement something similar, but I’m interested in measuring usage on a day-by-day (or week-by-week) basis rather than just using it to figure out when the tank is low. Also, did you happen to test the Pro Check with the bigger tanks? Their site says the Pro Check works for “all steel LPG tanks up to 1000 gallons, horizontal or vertical cylinders.” But I wasn’t entirely sure if that was true. If it is true, I’d probably go with that one since I don’t need the extra range that the Pro Plus provides.
@KSti56
Re accuracy- I haven’t checked real frequently, but the few times I have, it has agreed very well with the gauge on the tank.
One caveat if using for fine-grained stats (e.g., hourly or shorter), is that I would highly advise applying some averaging to the sensor results, because the graph does bounce a bit. Of course, some variance thru the day is due to expansion / contraction with temperature, but there is some jitter. If you just take a daily reading at same time every night or whatever, you should be fine.
Re using Pro Check instead of Pro Plus on a big tank-- I did not check that, but certainly would trust it to work there. The equipment and software are very well done. I see that the Pro Check “Tank Size” setting in the IoS app, has options for a LOT of different tank sizes, including 500 gal Horizontal. So they certainly do support it.
I still haven’t implemented HA sensor template to convert my observed values from inches to %-full. But it looks like the HA community has got that very well covered.
