House Gas Bottles - measuring fullness?

[Gingerbeerfear]

My house is a terraced cottage which is in a village with no mains gas. I have 3 gas bottles which I presume empty one by one and heat the central heating and water. I’m finding it really hard to gauge how much I have left.

The gas people said to ‘wiggle it’ if it’s heavy it’s full if it’s light it’s empty... now this isn’t particularly helpful.

During the summer my heating rarely comes on so use is minimal. Now it is on everyday and I’m getting gas bottle anxiety

I’m terrified of running out and bottles are delivered on a Wednesday so I need to order by a Tuesday at the latest.

We are far off the road so delivery is perfect as they install them for me and I couldn’t possibly fit one myself if I did need to go and pick one up, not that I could lift it.

Has nobody invented a gauge or something that you can read, something that gives you % full or something like that?

Not sure I trust my ‘wiggling’ skills!

Thanks in advance

We also have bottled gas for heating, but it’s installed in 2 banks of 2 cylinders, which switch over automatically and a little red thing pops up when they swap over. So I check every so often and if it’s switched I order more gas. Might it be worth getting something like that installed?

presumably that's why you have 3?

wasn't this discussed when you bought the place?

Get them put on some kind of scale, see how much they all weigh when all three are full, when one is empty you’ll be able to work out the difference, you will soon get to know how much is left in them by the decreasing weight .

What @DazzlePaintedBattlePants said is the best solution.

This sort of thing, there are a number of different ones;
www.bes.co.uk/four-pack-automatic-changeover-kit-with-opso-21000/

Your current gas supplier should be able to help

I think there's something you can do with boiling water? Pour a kettle over it and it will start evaporating at the level the gas is? I can't remember.

We have family on Guernsey where there is no gas mains so everyone is on bottles, they have a WiFi gadget on theirs which emails the gas company to come and replace the 1st bottle when it switches over to the 2nd. I looked for similar here (or even something that just tells me!) And it doesn't seem to exist.

Usually you see a “frost line” on the bottle when it’s being used.
Or guess by weight.

But would you not be cheaper to get a proper LPG tank ratted than bottles?

I used to go by the frost line or condensation line in the colder months. You can by a magnetic label which changes colour depending on how full or empty your cylinder is. You need to move it slowly down the outside of the cylinder until it starts to change colour - think it went from black to red. Red for gas! Could get them from caravan shops.

Like these.