Hi all,
I am a new member and have an odd request, although I am sure somebody around these parts will understand and know what i need to do.
I am an Aussie living and working in China and I am having a VERY hard time trying to teach some locals to have even a remote understanding of regulators and LP Gas general use, installation etc. I thought asking the question on this
forum might give me a response from someone who knows about LP gas systems and regulator installations.
We have a workers kitchen which has been installed with a high volume LP Gas delivery system for feeding the large cooking equipment. We have two 25Kg gas bottles in parallel feeding into a solid gas pipe, about 2 inches in diameter. A meter on this line shows 26.1 psi of pressure, which I think is about right and probably means the gas bottles are about half full.
This then feeds into quite a large green coloured regulator. the rating on the regulator is up to 250psi on input side, and 8 - 12 psi on output side. A meter on the output side shows 10.1psi pressure so I assume everything is
well and good.
This then feeds into what I assume is a safety gas blowoff valve as it is coloured red, looks like the shape of a regulator, but has a mesh panel on one side so assume this would be considered a "fuse" if we were talking about an electrical circuit. I assume this is used so that in the instance of a large burst of gas coming through the line because of regulator failure that the gas will burst out of the mesh opening instead of travelling through the gas line and blowing up in the face of a user. Gas dumped out in the open air obviously being safer than being dumped into the kitchen area.
Ok so then the nice fat 2 inch steel gas pipe goes through the wall (all this gas bottles stuff outside in open air), into the inside kitchen area and runs along underneath the kitchen cooking equipment, and there are some 3 or 4 outlets with taps that then feed each of the individual burners on the kitchen equipment. I assume that due to the size of the 2 inch pipe, and the size of the flames that come out of the burners, that there is an abundance of gas deliverable by the two inch pipe into the kithcen area.
We have an addiitional two small pieces of cooking equipment at one end of the room. One is a two burner cooker sitting on a table top similar to what i would call a
camping cooker or burner, the other is a floor standing gas burner similar to what we used to take
camping as kids and boiled a billy on, or put a frying pan on when we didnt want to
cook on flames from a wood fire.
By my eyeball the table top twin cooker doesnt produce flames any larger than what you would find on your everyday bog standard gas cooktop in an australian household kitchen.
The burner placed on the floor boils a large 50 llitre stainless can which is used for boiling rice, soup etc. I would say this burner on the floor would use about the same amount of gas as what the table top cooker uses when both elements are on full.
These two smaller appliances are fed from a separate gas bottle in the kitchen area. They are not connected to the large two inch pipe gas system I described above. In my mind and for OH+S reasons I feel that feeding these two smaller separate appliances from a separate bottle within the kitchen area is a safety
hazard.
I want to get rid of the smaller bottle, and feed these two smaller appliances from the large two inch pipe gas system which has been installed for the larger pieces of equipment.
Now, I have absolutely no luck getting someone here locally to understand what I am trying to do, let alone get them to believe that this should be at least somewhat possible. In my mind, it should be absolutely and completely possible, so long as the right regulator is chosen to go between the large two inch pipe sitting in the kitchen and then off to these two smaller appliances.
Remember the large two inch gas pipe has 10.1 Psi of pressure (and an abundance of gas available). I will obviously need to get this down to around 0.04psi so that the smaller appliances can handle it. Also, I am investigating the brand and model of the cooking equipment so I can get the hard specifications on what gas flow it will use when knobs are turned to full. In the meantime I will assume they surely shouldnt use anything more than about 2.5 Litres per hour each.
So, basic question is, surely this should be a very simple exercise of finding a regulator that can handle 8 - 12 Psi on the bottle side, provide approx 0.04 Psi on the equipment side, handle a flow rate of around 5 litres per hour total, and then connecting it to the large two inch gas system.
I really do honestly feel this is a super simple basic use of a regulator, but everyone I talk to says "Sorry not possible". This perhaps is just a fact that sometimes here in China unless they have done something 100 times before only then do they beleive something is possible and that they dont want to try something new because if it is wrong they think they might be blamed or lose face. However I do think that surely this is a very very basic and simple application of the right regulator, made for the right pressure handling and gas flow, applied in the correct situation.
Again to repeat, 8 - 12 psi in, approx 0.04 psi out, and about 5 Litres per hour flow rate ( I will find the exact spec soon, so maybe the 5 will become a 2 or a 9, but I think you get my drift).
SURELY a regulator that can do this is available somewhere? technically it will mean a regulator is attached to the large two inch gas pipe which in my mind would be the same as connecting that same regulator to a gas bottle that has about 8 - 12 psi left in it. This seems to me like a very simple case of "Get the pressure right, and make sure there is enough gas flow available".
Of course, failing finding a suitable reg locally I am totally happy to find somewhere in Australia and get them to FedEx a few them over to me here in China to install. (By the way all the fittings for gas bottles, sizes, threads etc are all the same in china as Australia) So, if anyone knows of an Australian based supplier or product that they can recommend for me to buy or call to discuss then that is absolutely 100% desired and encouraged by me and what I need to do.
I am becoming quite frustrated that something which seems simple seems so hard to do. Oh
well, thats China !
So, please reply or offer advice and guidance, and I will buy you a beer next time im back in oz.
Cheers
Matt.