The Utility Company screwball tech stories are part of the reason why all the HVAC service companies fought so hard to keep the utility companies out of the service industry back when they announced they wanted to get (force their way) in.
That's a fact. You can watch how they go about doing something they supposedly know how to do, like running a gas line for example, and know immediately you wouldn't want them working on anything more complicated than a table lamp.
I was doing the HVAC on a new 90,000 sq ft building owned by the state university system here back in the late 80's. Hot and chilled water system with a 200 ton centrifugal and 2 boilers with combination burners.
Gas utility was to run about 75 ft of underground from nearest point of the main, over to the building, set the meter and reducing station, and we took care of the piping from the leaving side of the meter.
The campus had a 60 psi main, so the line feeding the building was small. One inch, or maybe inch and a quarter, plastic line. They trenched it, hot tapped the main, ran the pipe, and set a pre-fabbed meter and reducer.
All this would sound totally normal to anyone in the contracting business, except for one minor detail. They had 18 men on the job, and it took them all day to get it done.
One of my pipefitters remarked "That sure does look like dangerous work". I said "Huh????" He said "Yeah, there's so many of 'em wandering around over there if one of them was to fall he'd get trampled to death and they wouldn't even miss him"
One hand never seems to know what the other hand is doing. Mid 90's I had a job on an addition to an existing building that involved adding a new boiler. Gas in the area was a low pressure main.
During the design phase, the engineers had checked with the gas company as to the chances of upgrading to a higher pressure main. No, not a chance in the foreseeable future. So we ran 800 ft of 6" welded steel pipe across the roof of the existing building to the new boiler penthouse. Roof had to be cut away to expose the bar joists in about 50 different places so steel supports for the pipe could be welded to the joists, and of course the roof had to be repaired in all those places.
That gas line and its installation was by far the single most expensive part of the entire HVAC job. 6 months later, the gas co raises the pressure on the main to the point where that gas line could've been run with 2" pipe on wood sleepers rather than steel supports. Savings to the owner would've been in excess of $30,000. Smaller line could have been run as a part of the job, and a temporary propane tank set fairly close to the penthouse to fire the boiler on propane until the higher pressure gas was available. Raising the pressure on the main had been in the works at the time the engineers inquired but the talking heads at the gas co were clueless as to what was going on in their own company.
Its almost comical how the utilities are so able to convince homeowners of their skill and professionalism and sign them up for various service contracts. Having seen them in action over a number of years, I wouldn't want the local ones servicing a garden hose.
I get mail solicitations regularly to sign up with the gas company for a service contract on my water line coming from the meter and within the house. All kinds of potential cost figures designed to scare people into signing up and paying their monthly toll. I can imagine that bunch of bozos doing a plumbing repair and turning my dishwasher into a gas bomb in the process. Think I'll pass on all the help they're offering.
. I cleared everyone out and waited a while. Went and tightened it up, soaped for leaks and all was good.
I wonder if the guy before loosed it to get a call back???
