Gnfantic
Well-known member
hey guys, planning to run 125' gas line (1.25) to my exterior garage. Qhat I am not sure about is can I run it through my foundation into my basement and connect it to the main line or does it have to go the meter?
gas line burial connection
- Thread starter Gnfantic
- Start date
Climatecreator
Well-known member
Main line IS to the meter. But when you connect to main the diameter of the main MAY need to be increased all the way back to the meter. Sizing is based on btu vs distance.
CC
CC
rlitman
Well-known member
Through your basement, yes. However, the general advice is to bring it up above ground before you enter the basement. Penetrating the foundation is asking for water leaks.
ok, the line in my basement is 1in. If I go to the metere I think I need to get the service provider involved and they might possibly want to increase meter size which will cost me alot of coin. I do not know if my meter is the right size or not. I dont want to spend $3k for a gas line to my garage.
rlitman
Well-known member
Increasing the meter size is FREE! Yep, really. The gas company (probably National Grid in your case) just wants to sell you more gas. Although at the moment, they've put a hold on all new gas uses for BS political reasons.
When I got a bigger boiler to switch my basement from electric to gas heat, and added a gas range, dryer and outdoor grill, I called the gas company to find out the BTU capacity of my meter, and they told me that while it would be ok for the short term, but they'd upgrade me the next size up meter because my total demand was above what the old meter was really meant to handle.
So a few weeks later, the stopped by, shut off my boiler pilot and gas service, swapped out the meter in 5 minutes (it's got two special unions to make this job easy), re-lit my pilot, and that was that.
Of course, that was all possible because my service from the street was more than adequate. If you're on a low pressure from the street without a regulator (this is a REALLY OLD setup that my parents have still, with an indoor meter too), then you may be temporarily out of luck, but they're working hard at changing all of these customers over to high pressure from the street with an outdoor regulator and meter. That project I believe is slated to be finished in the next two years.
Anyway, 1" through the meter should be fine. I'm assuming you're planning to step up to 1-1/4" because of the length of the run. Remember that fittings add significant length to your flow calculations. But if you've run the calcs on your projected usage, then that much seems fine to me.
Hey, thanks for the info. Much appreciated. I really did not want to get national grid involved but looks like I have no choice. I also need to find a licensed plumber out here that would allow me to do the grunt work and have the town do leak test. I did not do any calculations yet but the garage is 900 sq ft with a 19' ceiling. And the line will be running roughly 135'. Looking at the Modine Hotdog unit. I was going to sprayfoam garage but way to much money. I will be installing roxul soon.
penright
ALLIANCE MEMBER
That is basically how I did mine. I had the trench all done. For me, he just charged me $100 for his time, which travel was more than on-site. He had to make two trips. One trip to lay the line and the other to connect it after the inspection. Onsite both times wasn't more than 15 minutes. The most expensive part was the risers, seem like they were $75 apiece. The pipe was cheap.
This year I hope to finally get the heater.
That is basically how I did mine. I had the trench all done. For me, he just charged me $100 for his time, which travel was more than on-site. He had to make two trips. One trip to lay the line and the other to connect it after the inspection. Onsite both times wasn't more than 15 minutes. The most expensive part was the risers, seem like they were $75 apiece. The pipe was cheap.
This year I hope to finally get the heater.
I wish, they don't offer those quotes around here. The risers are expensive and I also need at least 1 coupler which is $95
earlybirds
Well-known member
I ran 1-1/4 inch yellow hdpe gas line 125ft. to my shop to power my 100,000BTU Modine Hot Dawg unit heater. The gasline, 2 risers, and fittings was about $600. I just connected to my gas meter at the house. LOVE it!
earlybirds
Well-known member
I just put a "T" connector on the "output" pipe of the meter and piped my 1-1/4" riser into this "T". Simple job.
you want to check, here any underground service has to rise above ground before entering the building. it's not water leaks that's the worry, it's a gas leak that follows the pipe and enters into the building.
rlitman
Well-known member
They're painless to deal with. A quick call should be able to determine what size meter you have, and work from there.
That's exactly what I was told. Each company fields different sized meters. I was told my old meter was made for 175 kBTU/h, and I installed a 210 kBTU/h input boiler, plus the other appliances listed above, and it all worked just fine, plus the gas co rep was absolutely confident that it would. Still, they were happy to swap in the next size meter for me, which may have been a 425 or thereabouts, with no change in billing, and no service charge.
Interesting point I hadn't considered. Thanks.
b-boy
Well-known member
I hired a plumber to do this. This is exactly how he did it.