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Does Cold Really Affect a Propane Tank Level Gauge?
Propane is like most other kinds of materials in that it is affected by cold temperatures. The propane gas contracts when the temperature does down. That reduced level of gas in the tank is reflected by the gauge which reflects the level on the propane tank. Usually, this comes into play whenever a homeowner checks the gauge in cold weather conditions and sees the amount of the tank level before and after delivery. Depending upon the weather conditions, the level on the tank might not rise as much as expected.

Propane Tank Level Gauge
The propane tank's gauge shows you what percentage of the tank is full. Usually, tanks are not filled over 80% in order to enable the gas to expand on warm days. Like for instance, a 500 gallon tank, at a reading of 80% at normal temperatures reflects approximately 400 gallons of propane inside the tank. This is around how much could be stored.

Normal Temperatures
The propane industry manages the popular website Propane 101, that considers the propane baseline point to be an exterior temperature of 60 degrees. For instance, if the gauge reads 50% of capacity on a day when the temperature is close to 60 degrees, then a 500 gallon tank will contain about 250 gallons of propane. If the temperature that same day is a lot lower than 60 degrees, the gauge would read lower. Similarly, if the temperature is a lot higher than 60 degrees, the gauge would actually read higher since the gas expanded.

Effect of Contraction and Expansion
Based on the information given by the propane industry website, the amount of energy contained in the tank does not really change when the gas expands or contracts. The amount of propane itself has not changed, but just the density of the gas has changed.

Cold-Weather Delivery
If a homeowner orders 100 gallons of propane to be delivered, they would receive 424 pounds of propane. If the homeowner has a 1000 gallon propane tank, they can expect the gauge to go up by 10% with the delivery of 100 gallons. These numbers would be accurate if the temperatures were close to 60 degrees at the time of delivery. If the delivery happened during colder weather conditions, these chillier temperatures would result in a smaller increase reading on the propane gauge.

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