Thanks for reading and I appreciate your thoughts.
I need to get propane in before winter gets to central Texas. I have a small shed that I bought in shell form and I've finished out the inside. I've been researching propane and it seems that using copper would be easiest for me. I have one exterior wall to plumb through (not going through the floor) and travel up two feet vertically in an interior wall to reach the height of my kitchen cabinet. I have decided on two appliances on the inside, a propane burner (one to three burners based on what I can afford) and a heater. The heater will probably be a Mr. Heater
What I've learned so far is that I should have a flexible hose (RV style) on the outside for connecting a single 20# tank (BBQ grill type), a two stage regulator, connecting to a copper 3/8" pipe that runs through the exterior wall, under a raised floor in the bathroom, two feet up an interior wall to reach the height of a kitchen cabinet, out the wall, through the kitchen cabinet, to a tee where one side goes up through the counter to a burner and the other side goes out the side to the heater.
If the copper doesn't bend enough and looks like it will kink I will use elbows for the corners. I count five elbows I'll need if I go the elbow route. Regardless I'll need a tee in the cabinet and would prefer to connect flexible hoses (RV style) to the other ends of the tee.
I've also thought about putting a tee outside my shed, capped off for now, if I eventually want to put a small grill or hibachi outside.
As this is not my field, nor was finishing out the inside of my shed, I still have questions including:
- is 3/8" tubing the right size for two appliances
- is Type L soft copper right
- should I run the copper inside some pipe inside the vertical two feet of wall - difficult to install black pipe because of the angles
- on the outside, how do I attach a flexible hose to the copper pipe
- can I connect flexible hose directly to the tee - if I must use copper for the flare off the tee, is there a minimum length for the copper before the flexible hose
- can I use soap and water for leak detection or must I use the more expensive commercial solution - I've seen on YouTube where soap and water could cause extra corrosion
- is it better to use CSST for this rather than copper - where can I find CSST long enough for this project (14'?)
Mike