Hi,
I have a house in Guatemala, as such there is no such thing as buiding codes or a professional plumber etc, only people who think they know what they are doing and work for around 3 dollars a day so calling a pro is OUT.
I have a bosch Aquastar model 38B Propane on demand hot water heater, it is rated for 20kw.
The current install on the house i bought is the unit stuck on the side of an outside wall, with no flue, about 10" from a concrete shelf built over the unit, the propane supply is a 20lb tank connected with naglane hose in poor condition host clamped to the regulator on one end and copper tubing on the other.
Clearly this is not safe and the unit runs very rich possibly do to altitude, let alone poor gas supply and no venting to suck the gasses away from the unit.
I plan to chip a hole in the concrete above the unit install a 6' flue per the manual, build a wall of sorts around it to shelter it from the wind etc.
I am at 5000 ft, and am not sure if this unit has been preped for high altitude but will deal with that problem later, the issue I have now is setting up the propane lines.
The manual specs out a run of 10' for 3/8 and 60' for 1/2 copper tubing, however I have about 100ft from where my heater is located to where I want to place in propane bottles 2 x 100lb. Its not possible to set the bottles closer. Would it be ok to use 3/8 tubing and carry the propane at bottle pressure from the tanks to the house, mount the regulator at the house and then run a short run of 1/2 tubing from the regulator to the heater. I have also heard of problems with people with a tank setup such as mine and a large load like this heater having problems with freezing at the tank, would I be more or less prone to freezing if I have the regulator located far from the tanks allowing the entire length of line to be used as a heat sink.
Thanks!