I purchased a home a last fall and it came with a propane fireplace in the basement to heat the home. The propane tanks belonged to the local company who wanted me to take over the original contract, except I would have to pay the new propane rate. That's understandable. What wasn't was, I had to pay installation and monthly maintenance fee, minimum use fee, delivery fee, and the annual fee from previous owners since they didn't pay it. The tanks were already installed and full, so why do I need to pay for installation and propane delivery when neither of those things needed to happen for a while. Minimum use fee, which I have never heard of, consisted of if I didn't need my tanks topped off every month, they charge me a minimum use fee of 75$ for not using the propane enough. Hard pass on the whole concept. I told the company to come get their tanks off my property, I would not be signing the contract.
Fast forward to today, wife and I have had plans to install our own propane tanks that we just unhook and take to fill up when needed. I snapped pictures of the old setup, but I'm new to propane. I do not plan on installing everything myself, but the guy I talked to said I could purchase all items needed to save myself some money and as long as everything is within safety requirements he would hook it up for cost of labor. Tanks I know what I'm looking at and have calculated needed burn rate with surface area for efficiency. The regulator and how the tanks were connected is my concern. It's an old copper line coming out of the ground connected to the fireplace. Not sure if that's the best option or if an insulated rubber line would be better to replace it. What regulator setup and how to link the tanks together is another concern, as I would like to be able to unhook 1 and take it to get filled while the other is still in use. If that's possible that is, not sure if it is. Any help or parts suggestions would be appreciated. I'm in the planning stage and have just started by purchasing 2 100lb tanks from my local hardware store.
TLDR: Ditched contracted propane supplier for self reliance setup. Need help with what parts to purchase for installation.