Gas Consumtion French Road Trip (1 Viewer)

[JohnnyRoyal]

Good Evening
We are off on our French roadtrip in May for 15 days. Not been abroad in the MH! This will be a mix of Aires,Off grid and sites. We are fitted with Calor gas bottles, 11Kg and 6Kg. I intend to have these full when we leave.
Do you think this will be enough for our trip? I know it is hard to calculate, As I have heard you cannot exchange bottles in France.

Thanks
John

 

[Neil S]

Yes - easily assuming your cylinders are full on your departure
being May time the weather will be probably quite warmish so your gas consumption won’t be excessive

 

[David and Sally]

No Calor in France. We have brought a 13kg Spanish bottle to Spain and so far used about half of it in 5 weeks but we have used sites mainly. Our use has not been for heating as it is not needed every night but has been used for bbq, oven for bread and chips etc and the grill for toast.
I reckon you will be ok.

 

[LithiumConvert]

In May, you should not need to use gas for heating, so you should have no trouble with all that gas.

In the longer term, you might consider swapping one of the Calor cylinders for a LPG re-fillable one.

 

[Riverbankannie]

We used to go with 2 x 3.6 kg calor for 6 weeks and was fine using gas for cooking and fridge. Only moved to second bottle just before coming home. You shouldn’t need heating at that time of year. I predict you won’t use all the 6kg bottle in 3 weeks.

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[AJM2]

We don’t even get through 11kg in 4 weeks in July. May probably not as warm but I think it should be more than sufficient

 

[suavecarve]

LPG user here. We would survive over a month with that amount of gas in May.
Ours would cover the big fridge freezer, heating (if any is used) hot water and cooking for 2.
In fact thinking about it a bit more, that would just be the big tank as we fill up when that empties

 

[K R B]

When off grid tall fridge freezer cooking boiling water for washing up and a wash. Water heater only put on for a shower every other day.
11 kg lasts 21 days

 

[GAVLAD]

Yes, you should have plenty.
I have 2 x 11kg and in four weeks, I've used just over a third in one and not used any from the other.
That's from cooking and heating water/shower.

 

[JohnnyRoyal]

Thanks so much to you all, great help as always. Will think about the change to LPG especially if we get the European Bug for travelling!

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[David and Sally]

Thanks so much to you all, great help as always. Will think about the change to LPG especially if we get the European Bug for travelling!

That would make sense. One bottle that you can refill at an LPG pump even if it is not a fully plumbed in system.

 

[scotjimland]

more than plenty..

 

[Just smiffy]

Good Evening
We are off on our French roadtrip in May for 15 days. Not been abroad in the MH! This will be a mix of Aires,Off grid and sites. We are fitted with Calor gas bottles, 11Kg and 6Kg. I intend to have these full when we leave.
Do you think this will be enough for our trip? I know it is hard to calculate, As I have heard you cannot exchange bottles in France.

Thanks
John

Download search for sites on your phone/tablet and you’ll always have a place to stay for the night, it’s a different life altogether in a motorhome over the water, they welcome you and give you places to stay with services and sometimes free electricity but if there is a charge it will be small… hope you have a great trip and many more…

 

[royandsharont]

JohnnyRoyal I keep a check on ours all the time. Over the past 12 years we’ve done 8 week trips starting in beginning of March, end of April and end of August. During that time we’ve almost exclusively stayed on campsites so had access to electric but used the gas oven a lot and extra heating in cold times to bolster the electric. We’ve never used more that 2kg of gas on any of those trips .

 

[Lenny HB]

Thanks so much to you all, great help as always. Will think about the change to LPG especially if we get the European Bug for travelling!

Sounds like it's your first trip abroad, you will never want to use your van in the UK again.

You will be fine for gas, we are fairly heavy gas users we don't use EHU.
Spring/autum a 14kg cylinder lasts us 15 days in May it would be at least 20.

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[Reallyretired]

When I was working many years ago I could only have a maximum of 3 weeks. I used calor and never even needed to start the second bottle. Now i can go for months refillable is needed.

 

[Dave and Jan]

We carry an 11kg Gaslow and a 6kg Calor. Did a 6 week trip France and Spain April/May last year. Didn’t use the Calor but refilled the Gaslow 3 times. Going and coming back through France the weather was not that good. Spent most nights in Aires or off grid so that might give you some idea. You might not want to go to the cost but a refillable system will make life much easier if travelling in Europe.

 

[David BW]

Good Evening
We are off on our French roadtrip in May for 15 days. Not been abroad in the MH! This will be a mix of Aires,Off grid and sites. We are fitted with Calor gas bottles, 11Kg and 6Kg. I intend to have these full when we leave.
Do you think this will be enough for our trip? I know it is hard to calculate, As I have heard you cannot exchange bottles in France.

Thanks
John

I'm sure you'll be fine - we did a 21 day trip to France last April/May and didn't need to change bottles (we have 2 X 6kg). We do have a compressor fridge though, so gas was only to cook, heat water and take morning chill off occasionally.

 

[kev54]

That would make sense. One bottle that you can refill at an LPG pump even if it is not a fully plumbed in system.

Probably a very good idea to have one of each. Just note that many places will not allow an LPG refill if you have to open the locker, they will only accept a fixed external filler point.

 

[white elephant]

Good Evening
We are off on our French roadtrip in May for 15 days. Not been abroad in the MH! This will be a mix of Aires,Off grid and sites. We are fitted with Calor gas bottles, 11Kg and 6Kg. I intend to have these full when we leave.
Do you think this will be enough for our trip? I know it is hard to calculate, As I have heard you cannot exchange bottles in France.

Thanks
John

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[white elephant]

May should not need heating, so possible but each van passenger uses different ammounts. NO Calor in France. Use the trip to learn YOUR consumption rate. If really worried, can you take a spare 6kg Calor. Aires tend to fill up earlier in the day now,, not sure what you mean by off-grid? sounds like trouble. Sites almost always near popular areas/ coastal. Enjoy , explore, drive carefully dont be in a hurry.

 

[Lenny HB]

I'm sure you'll be fine - we did a 21 day trip to France last April/May and didn't need to change bottles (we have 2 X 6kg). We do have a compressor fridge though, so gas was only to cook, heat water and take morning chill off occasionally.

Fridge makes a big difference we have a 160 Lt fridge freezer it use a litre (½kg) a day.

 

[Buddy1012]

Good Evening
We are off on our French roadtrip in May for 15 days. Not been abroad in the MH! This will be a mix of Aires,Off grid and sites. We are fitted with Calor gas bottles, 11Kg and 6Kg. I intend to have these full when we leave.
Do you think this will be enough for our trip? I know it is hard to calculate, As I have heard you cannot exchange bottles in France.

Thanks
John

I wouldn't think you will have a problem. I do a six week trip each May/June and always leave with 2 x 22Kg (refillable) - I've never had to refill yet. Only really needed for cooking plus a bit of water heating when not on a site.

 

[Lenny HB]

I wouldn't think you will have a problem. I do a six week trip each May/June and always leave with 2 x 22Kg (refillable) - I've never had to refill yet. Only really needed for cooking plus a bit of water heating when not on a site.

I think you mean 22 Lt (11 kg)

 

[two]

Sounds like it's your first trip abroad, you will never want to use your van in the UK again.

You will be fine for gas, we are fairly heavy gas users we don't use EHU.
Spring/autum a 14kg cylinder lasts us 15 days in May it would be at least 20.

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[two]

How long is your piece of string ?-)

The amount of gas you use will depend on many variables but you should soon get an idea of how long one bottle will last under different circumstances. You’ll use a lot of gas in Winter if you like to to stay warm but should be surprised how long it will last during the Summer. Try to only use the small bottle only as a reserve, as refills of that size cost more per litre of gas than in the larger one. Get the big one replaced asap once it’s empty and check that the little one still has something left when you swap back to the large one. If caught-out abroad, you’d need to buy a foreign bottle for the duration but that’s unlikely (and not a disaster).

Try not to worry, it could easily get to spoil your fun. Ignorance can be bliss…

 

[Lenny HB]

two
Sorry I don't understand the highlighted 14kg cylinder we have 2 x 14kg cylinders.

 

[jennywren]

Good Evening
We are off on our French roadtrip in May for 15 days. Not been abroad in the MH! This will be a mix of Aires,Off grid and sites. We are fitted with Calor gas bottles, 11Kg and 6Kg. I intend to have these full when we leave.
Do you think this will be enough for our trip? I know it is hard to calculate, As I have heard you cannot exchange bottles in France.

Thanks
John

Hi John
As others have said, every user is a bit different, the biggest difference, probably whether or not you are regularly on EHU. If, it's any use, we average out at about 0.4kg per day (3 yr average) based upon about 120 days per year, mainly off grid (EHU about one day per 1-2 wks), using gas for the fridge (switch to battery when driving), normal cooking and using the heater only about 10% of the time. 'Our' season tends to run May to November (early).

If, we do just a 'winter' trip (say wholly within November), our consumption tends to increase to about 0.5kg/day, more heating/showers but less fridge. As Lenny suggested, the fridge is the probably the biggest user for most (in Spring/Summer at least) assuming not too great a reliance on heating/showers. Previously, we used solely bagged supermarket ice for the fridge (would last 2-3 days before it melted) and this would lower our overall gas consumption to as low as 0.2kg per day. We only have a small fridge with small freezer slot but based on this difference, we reckon the fridge uses about 0.2kg to 0.25kg per day on average for spring/summer/early autumn.

We now use 1x11kg 'self' refillable and 1x 6kg Calor which works great for us. Since our 'conversion' (we used to have 2x 6kg Calor), we are yet to use the 6kg Calor.

As others have said, Calor is not used on the continent but we have had them refilled for us (legally and at gas suppliers, not garage forecourts), both in Sweden and in Holland. Can be a bit of a faff though so I would definitely recommend the self refillable bottles with an outside filler nozzle, easy, convenient and so much lower cost than Calor.

Without checking current prices, Calor refill/swap (based on £30 for 6kg bottle the last time I bought) works out about £2.50 per litre (£5 per kg), whereas self-fill is about £0.90/l (in UK). And we did pay as little as £0.47/l last summer (Czech Rep).

Hope this helps, have a great trip.

 

[Lenny HB]

Without checking current prices, Calor refill/swap (based on £30 for 6kg bottle the last time I bought)

About £40 now.

 

[seasideBill]

Just had great service from Gaslow…. sprung a gas leak on Sunday, on Monday contacted Gaslow at 9am, response from them same day at 9pm with some helpful suggestions. Couldn’t resolve myself so they subsequently provided me with details of approved gas engineers in my local area, contacted him yesterday PM, arrived promptly this morning and fixed it for £50.

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