Another thing , that most people can do. I expect most are rural and likely overhead services to buildings. The connections at the service head or mast head, are most likely aluminum to copper, in some type of connector. The copper salts will cause corrosion of the aluminum. particularly if the aluminum is on the bottom.
A bad connection will show up as melting back of the covering of conductors. Most trappers have a rifle with scope, you might be able to examine them from the ground. A bad connection will show up as part power or, flaring or dimming lights The connections will need to be cut back and replaced, likely by an electrician. Just something that you can do, to diagnose your problems before they cause a complete, burn off. I have fixed dozens of bad connections. old243

White an on demand heater is not an option? The one in the northern place idled along on all year round and didn’t seem to dent the LP supply. I’d imagine now they have electronic igniters and pilots are a thing of the past?

Osky

Everybody here ( here being not on the road system and not utility supplied electrical power ) has on demand propane water heaters. They even have ones with battery supplied electric igniters. I myself was surprised that White had an electric water heater with the price of electricity in Alaska.

However, that was not the question.

A long time ago I looked into on demand heater BUT at that time they required three phase power which is not available at my location.
LP gas is far too expensive at this location. BUT I haven't run those numbers recently so that's just a gut reaction to the idea of using propane for heating water.

Dirt; how much propane do you use in a year for hot water ?

I'm not telling you to change. I can only guess how much and I don't use hot water like they do in civilization. Maybe as much as 3 100 pounders a year, or 75 gallons. I still have a pilot light one, but these days I turn off the pilot light most of the time. Demand heaters don't come cheap. I am still using an old Paloma ( 30 years old ) that I rebuilt.

I understand you're not telling me to change. That's probably not possible at this point.

I don't use hot water like they do in civilization either and of course in the winter I always have hot water on the stove available.

I'll have to run the numbers on that consumption. My Electric costs are right at 43 cents/KWH after PCE

Kinda hard to isolate the water heater costs per year. The sticker on the heater says $573 per year operating costs but I have no idea what cost per KWH they used or how long it was operating , or the temperature of the inlet water or the temperature of the output.

If I used 3 bottles of propane that would be $705/year at today's prices. Not sure how that compares to yours

Your propane is twice what I pay if I make the 130 mile round trip by snow go to buy it on the road system. If I have it delivered it is probably about $450 for 3.

You have a short in the wire somewhere, but it's not enough to trip the breaker. You should get that fixed asap. First check to make sure connections are tight. Could be a loose screw at the breaker, could be at the wire nut, could be a partially broken wire.

As for the wood tapping sound from the op, I don't have a clue.