Engraved on the side of the tank should be the letters TW then a number. This number is the empty tank weight. For example, the typical 5 gallon (18.9 L) propane tank might say TW 17.2. The weight of the empty tank in the example is 17.2 lbs.
Weigh the tank on a bathroom scale to find the total current weight. Let's say that the current weight of the tank is 24.2 lbs.
Subtract the tank weight from the total weight to find the weight of the propane. 24.2 lbs - 17.2 lbs = 7 lbs.
Each pound of propane contains 21,600 BTUs. Multiply the number of pounds by the number of BTUs contained in each to get the total number of BTUs remaining in the tank. 7 × 21,600 ≈ 151,000 BTUs.
Find the BTU output of the appliance in question. These can often be found on manufacturers web sites. For example a propane grill may burn 12,000 BTUs an hour. To find the remaining running time for the grill divide 151,000 by 12,000. 151,000 ÷ 12,000 ≈ 12.6 hours of run time.
For easy future reference. divide 12.6 hours by the aforementioned 7 lbs to get 1.8 hours of grill run time per pound of bathroom scale measured propane.
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