I spoke with a guy at Southern Burner today and due to variables such as the amount of sun in any given day, night time lows, greenhouse insulation and ... you get the idea. He did tell me the C series would be sufficient and their run time on a 20lb. tank (the grill size) is about thirty hours. That would equate to 150 hours on a the 100 lb. size. I figure around an average burn of around 8-10 hrs/day so thats about 2 tanks a month. Again the amount of sun and the duration the unit burns to maintain 50 degrees in my case will impact the total usage. I'm guessing a 2- 100lb. setup would be ok, I only plan to heat from March til May, but who knows if things decide to grow that could change LOL! By the way their number is 1-800-375-5001 and the guy I spoke with was Glenn, very informative and seemed anxious to help me out.

I always love Menace's posts because he/she/it takes misspelling, bad grammar, incorrect punctuation and general stupidity to a new level of art form. After all, it is quite a bit of effort to "bread" bacteria. I never realized you could actually "bread" bacteria. And what's classic about that particular screw up, is that he/she/it not only stated it once (making it a possible simple typo), but twice, very emphatically, showing that he/she/it is TRULY STUPID. Post away, Menace, so we can continue to laugh at you.

Cooking over real wood is great. It works well when I'm at a campsite. Propane is about $3 per gallon. I suppose you'd have to figure out how many BTUs you were using on the gas grill and go from there. Then again, I also buy chunks of wood for the smoker box. For steaks, I use an infrared grill. It produces extremely high heat. You just sear each side for a couple of minutes. The char marks on the steak taste like it was grilled over an open fire. I don't think this uses much propane because it's on for such a short period of time. There's some warm up time and some burn off time. That's probably the cheapest way to go. I think I paid about $800 with the stand for that grill.

I hope responding on Sunday is not too late! I was cooking in the woods all weekend on cast iron and dutches. I have a Napolean 450RBI and absolutely love it. It has the infrared burner that is great for steaks and hamburgers. My is stainless steel with the cover. But the 450RBI is over $1200.00 dollars. So I'm not sure it fits your budget. You only mention your price restrictions but not your requirements for a grill. Do you want electronic ignition for lighting? Do you want stainless steel or regular metal finish? Do you want cast iron grates? How many are you cooking for? Enjoy the journey. eal51 in western CT