My first foray into camping as an adult was camping at festivals. I never had to ask how much camping gas do I need as I would just throw some cash at the nearest burger van. That was half a life ago now (I am 36 and it is almost half a life to the day) and I’ve grown to appreciate that not all campsites have readily available catering facilities to make life “easier”.
With a family of 5 and a cost-saving mentality, I am much more inclined to bring my own cooking equipment. But, cooking for a family of 5, how much camping gas do I need?
The amount of gas you will need will depend on the types of meals you will cook. If you stick to water-based meals, a general consensus is to allow 1 litre per person per meal. Based on this amount of water, you can use the 1 litre boil time for your stove and multiply this time by the amount of water you need. Now you know how long you need to burn, divide the gas per hour time from your stove by 60 and multiple by the amount of time you need to boil.
Sound complicated? Read on to find out some considerations you will need to make when working out how much gas you will need and a more simplistic way of working this out.
Where will you be cooking
This might sound like a fairly basic question, but where you will be cooking has an impact on how much gas you will need.
I’ll avoid the more complicated factors about air pressure and temperature now, but there will be more on that later.
Type of camping stove
Where you are cooking will impact how easy it will be to transport all your kit to your camping spot.
If you on a campsite with your car nearby, you have a lot more flexibility in terms of the stove you can use. However, if you are going camping where you won’t be located as near to your vehicle, to might need a much smaller camping stove.
How much gas can you carry?
Similar to what type of stove you are going to use, you should consider how much gas you can carry as well.
If you are planning on travelling light, you might struggle to lug a 15kg Gas Bottle with you, but screw-on gas cartridges will be fine.
If you are camping near your car, this is less likely to be a worry for you as you can simply get the gas bottle out as and when needed.
Planning your meals
Now you have worked out what camp cooking equipment you can take with you, it’s time to plan your meals.
As a parent, working out what you and the family are going to eat is par for the course. We plan meals each week to make sure we have the right ingredients to make them.
When going away camping, the routine is similar, only you need to think about the amount of gas as well. The amount of gas you will need of course depends on the types of meal you are planning on cooking.
Are you a massive fan of freshly made risotto and want to make your favourite meal at your campsite? You might need to reset your expectations if you don’t want to bring a small tanker with you.
Typically water based meals tend to work better when camping, where you simply add boiling water to whatever you are having. Think instant noodles and freeze-dried food. This leads to other considerations you will need to make.
How much water will you need to boil?
There are a couple of factors here that you will need to consider.
How many people?
How many people you are cooking for will have an impact on the amount of water you need to boil.
A general consensus is that you will need around 1 litre of water, per person, per meal. This will obviously differ depending on the meal you are preparing, but this should be enough to provide a basic meal and a hot drink.
How long do you need to boil for?
Now you know how much water you need, it is now a matter of understanding how long you need to boil it for.
If you are cooking something like instant noodles, your water is pretty much ready as soon as it has reached the boiling point.
If you are cooking something like pasta, which needs to boil for a certain period of time, you will need to add this on top of the time it takes to get the water to boiling point.
Will you be cooking any other meals?
The examples above involve simple “just add water” recipes, but what if you are wanting to cook something a little more adventurous?
Frying using the burners
Nothing beats the smell of freshly cooked bacon in the morning (in my opinion anyway). Just because you are camping it doesn’t mean you have to compromise on your morning meat fix.
Gas stoves are great for cooking things like bacon and other meals that don’t require too much time over a flame. Just remember that it will take a little longer on a camping stove than on your gas range at home.
Grilling food as well
If you have bought a cooker that has a grilling option, like this double burner and grill, you also have the option of grilling food. Again this will all use up gas when cooking and these types of stoves are better suited to an arrangement with a larger gas bottle.
How to calculate your fuel needs
Now we know the considerations you should make when deciding how much camping gas do I need, it is time to look into how to work out the amount you will need.
To keep the calculations easier in this example, I’m going to do the calculations based on making two cups of tea (how very British!).
Boiling water
How much water will you be boiling
To make two cups of tea, I am going to work on the basis that I need 500ml of water.
Most stoves measure in minutes per litre of water, so we will convert this to 0.5l of water.
Stove boil time – time it takes to get to the boil
For the stove boil time, I am going to use this Vango Folding Gas Stove for the workings.
This product promises to boil 1 litre of water in 5 minutes.
Based on my need to boil 0.5 litres of water. This means that to get the water to the boiling point it will take: 0.5 x 5 minutes = 2.5 minutes
How long do you need to boil for
Now I know how long it takes to get the water up to the boiling point, I need to add the amount of time it takes to cook whatever I am making.
Fortunately here, I don’t need to add any additional time here as the water just need to reach boiling point for it to be ready.
If you were making something that needed 5 minutes to cook, you would simply add this time to the boiling point time. This would make 7.5 minutes in total for this stove.
Gas usage
Now we are at the point of knowing how long we need to run the burner, it is time to work out how much gas this will use.
How much gas use per minute
To work out the gas usage per minute, you will need to know the gas that the stove uses per hour.
This particular stove uses around 186g of gas per hour. If we divide this amount by 60, we can work out how much gas it is using per minute.
Our gas per minute here is: 186g / 60 = 3.1g of gas per minute
Multiple our required time by the gas per minute
For our usage, it is now just a matter of multiplying the time we need to burn the gas for by the amount of gas we will use per minute.
So to make our two cups of tea, the amount of gas we will need is 2.5 minutes x 3.1 grams of gas per minute = 7.75 grams of gas.
Add up all the cups of tea you will make
Now we know how much gas we need for two cups of tea, we can simply multiply this amount by the number of cups of tea we will have on our trip.
If we are going to have 4 cups of tea on our trip, we will need 7.75 grams of gas x 4 cups of tea each = 31 grams of gas.
Weekend meal plan
So what does this mean for our weekend? How much camping gas do I need for a family of 5 camping for a weekend?
This time I am working it out using the Campingaz Camp Bistro 2 stove. This has a boil time of 5.5 minutes per litre.
Below is a guide as to what sort of meals we might cook and how long we will need to use the burner for:
| Day of the week | Meal | Food | Required Liquid | 1 Litre Boil Time | Gas Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Dinner | Instant Noodles | 2 litres | 5.5 mins | 11 mins |
| Supper | Hot Chocolate | 1 litre | 5.5 mins | 5.5 mins | |
| Saturday | Breakfast | Porridge | 2 litres | 5.5 mins | 11 mins |
| Lunch | Sandwiches + Tea | 1 litre | 5.5 mins | 5.5 mins | |
| Dinner | Cous Cous and Stir Fry Veg | 1.5 litres | 5.5 mins | 15 mins | |
| Sunday | Breakfast | Bacon Sandwiches + Tea | 1 litre | 5.5 mins | 5.5 mins |
| Lunch | Sandwiches + Tea | 1 litre | 5.5 mins | 5.5 mins | |
| Total Time | 59 mins |
Based on the above meals and the stove we are using, we would need at least 59 minutes of fuel (let’s call it 1 hour).
The particular stove uses 160 grams of gas per hour, meaning we would need at least 160 grams of gas to prepare these meals.
Factors that affect you gas usage
The calculation above for the amount of gas we would need assumes we get maximum efficiency from our stove. The amounts that the manufacturer suggests you will get are based on the tests they run, which typically are in almost perfect conditions.
In reality, it is unlikely that we can replicate “lab” conditions when we are camping. This means there are other factors we will need to consider when using our stove.
Wind
Wind can affect your gas usage in a couple of ways.
Firstly, the wind can keep blowing your gas out. That means constant relighting of the stove your water/food cooling slightly each time you relight. Overall it will take longer to get your food up to temperature.
Secondly, the wind will simply blow the flames away from the pot you are cooking in. This will lead to you having a less efficient cooking time and less efficient gas usage.
To mitigate this you could use a windbreak wherever you are camping if you have space for one.
Air Temperature
Air temperature where you are cooking will have an effect on the performance on the stove as well.
When the temperature is low, any food or liquid you are trying to cook/boil will have a lower starting temperature than normal. To compensate for this, you will need to burn gas just to get the food up to a “normal” starting temperature and then cook it for the required time.
The lower temperature will also mean cooler cooking equipment. If you can imagine putting water in a cold steel pot, you can understand that this will mean the food might even cool down before it starts getting warmer.
Simmering vs. Just Boiling
As I have eluded to earlier, the type of cooking will have an impact on how much gas you need.
If you are cooking “just add water” foods you generally only need to add boiling water to them. However, if you need to simmer the food in water, this will require more gas to keep the temperature high enough for the food to cook.
You can mitigate this by planning easier to cook foods or food you make ahead that simply needs warming up when on site.
Altitude
The altitude you are cooking at has an interesting effect on the boiling point of water and the equipment you are cooking with.
The boiling point of water actually lowers the higher up you are. Great news right? Unfortunately not.
Just because water boils at a lower temperature does not decrease the temperature at which the food needs to be cooked. According to the US Department of Agriculture, you need to compensate for this by cooking food longer. You can’t boil water at a higher temperature, therefore longer cooking is the only way to go here.
How to improve camping stove performance
To get the most out of your camping stove there are a few things you can do to. All of these actions will reduce the amount of gas you use.
- Prepare your cooking equipment in advance – Remember, time is money when it comes to burning gas, so having everything ready ahead of turning the gas on means no wasted burning time
- Put a lid on it! – Just like cooking at home, putting a lid on your cooking pot will speed up the process of heating water. This is due to the reduced evaporation of the water and therefore limiting the cooling effect of the evaporation process.
- Use a windbreak or windscreen – Using a windbreak will reduce the impact the wind has on the camping stove. Less wind means less relighting and less wasted gas.
- Run your stove slightly below full power – It might look satisfying seeing blue flames licking the side of the pot, but these are actually not helping to heating process. Only use enough gas to directly heat the underneath of the pot and nothing else. Turning the gas down a little will help you achieve the right amount of gas for cooking.
My recommended setup
Most of my camping trips are on campsites, so I have a lot more flexibility when camp cooking.
My preferred setup is to use a BBQ for cooking bigger meals, such as burgers and meat. I reserve the gas burner for mainly water-based meals.
Conclusion
So how much camping gas do I need? It depends, unfortunately, but hopefully from all the information above you are armed and ready to work it out yourself!