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Does Cold Temperature Truly Affect the Level Gauge on a Propane Tank?
Similar to most other kinds of materials, propane is affected by cold temperatures. As the temperature goes down, the propane gas contracts. That reduced level of gas inside the tank is reflected by the gauge that reflects the level on the propane tank. Often, this happens whenever a homeowner checks the gauge in cold climate and sees the amount of the tank level before and after delivery. Depending on the climate, the level on the tank may not go up 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 during hot temperatures. Like for example, a 500 gallon tank, at a reading of 80% at normal temperatures reflects about 400 gallons of propane in the tank. This is about the amount which can be stored.

Normal Temperatures
The website Propane 101, that is operated by the propane industry, considers an exterior temperature of 60 degrees to be the reference or baseline point. For instance, if the gauge reads 50 percent of capacity on a day when the temperature is close to 60 degrees, then a 500 gallon tank would contain about 250 gallons of propane. If the temperature that day is a lot lower than 60 degrees, the gauge would read lower. In the same way, if the temperature is a lot higher than 60 degrees, the gauge would actually read higher due to the expansion of the gas.

Effect of Expansion and Contraction
Based on the information given by the propane industry web site, the amount of energy contained within the tank does not really change as the gas contracts or expands. 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 will be given 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 will be accurate if the temperatures were close to 60 degrees at the time of delivery. If the delivery happened during colder weather, these chillier temperatures would result in a smaller increase reading on the propane gauge.

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