Underground gas line and 2lb conversion

[ForceFed70]

I want to run a 200' of 1" gas line from the house to the shop, Ting off at the deck for a BBQ. Because of the demands on the gas system, I have to step up to a 2lb gas system. Not a big deal, my utility company will swap in a meter and 2lb regulator combo for free.

Plan is to use a 2lb to 1/2lb whole house regulator and another whole shop regulator in order to keep things simple. 2lb pressure will only be at the meter and through the line feeding the shop. Gas line is only for future need so just want to get it to the shop and capped off for now.

Looks like I will be doing this one myself, I priced out the cost of materials, permit, etc and I can do the job for under $1000 easily. I contacted 3 different companies and have received quotes ranging between $2400 and $3000.

Connecting the line at the meter and installing the 2lb to 1/2lb regulator looks straight-forward. I plan to buy the appropriate riser kits then just install a valve and a cap.

I'm looking for any hints/suggestions. I have only a little gas-fitting experience and have never worked with the underground plastic pipe.

I know that I must do the following:
- Tracer wire
- Pipe dope
- Sand bed
- Painted/Taped? Hose to riser connection.
- Burried min depth of 18" and min of 12" away from my AC lines.


Any other suggestions/warnings?

Here's a picture of the piping/meter that I will be working with. Thanks!

 

[Hlidskjalf]

lol 2psi?

That's way more gas than you're even gonna need. Anytime you go over 1/2psi code gets seriously strict.

I seriously didn't even know this was available to residential applications.

2psi? Natural gas? Pressure test your line, for sure.

 

[Improved700]

What type of material are you going to be using for the underground piping? I purchased from my gas company 106' of their yellow plastic gas piping with andodless risers and shut off at both ends, for something like $250.00 us or so. It looks just like the one at the left side of your meter. At the 90 degree elbow going TOWARDS your house, is where my tee is, with one side going to house, and the other going to my shop. I dug the trench, laid in the pipe, and hooked it all up. The pipe from the gas company was great, since it had already been pressure tested, and comes with the tracer wire already attached. Code around here is that the black pipe going into the building must be taped with electrical tape where it goes through the wall. Seem's odd to me, but it's easy to do.

If your doing it your self, take your time. When using black pipe, make sure you use the proper pipe dope rated for natural gas, make sure your connections are nice and tight. Use a shutoff valve at the appliance which you will do later. Soap all your connections and SLOWLY turn on the gas and watch for bubbles, to make sure you dont have any leaks.

My advice would be to make sure you have a shutoff for your shop at the meter, and one before it goes into the shop. Then you can have them both shut off (locked out) until you need it at the shop.

Hope this helps...
Kev

 

[HoosierBuddy]

lol 2psi?

That's way more gas than you're even gonna need. Anytime you go over 1/2psi code gets seriously strict.

I seriously didn't even know this was available to residential applications.

2psi? Natural gas? Pressure test your line, for sure.

2 PSI became somewhat commonplace for new installations after CSST pipe became the "new standard" material for indoor natural gas piping. I'm not a big fan.

If it were me, I'd run larger pipe and stay on 7-inches, but obvously it's not me. The 2 psi will give you better flow through your pipes but will not give you much additional metering capacity. That appears to be a Rockwell 275 fed by a sensus 043 regulator. To upgrade you to 2psi they'll need to install a new regulator and replace the meter's index with a correcting index (it'll be off by about 13% if they don't).

Just for reference:

1" PE 200 feet long at 7 inches w/c in and 6 inches w/c out = 216,000 BTU/Hr
1" PE 200 feet long at 2 PSI in and 1.5 PSI out = 939,000 BTU/Hr

1 1/4" PE 200 feet long 7 inches w/c in and 6 inches w/c out = 360,000 BTU/Hr

That being said...the meter is only good for 275,000 BTU's unless they are going to upgrade that too.

When faced with the same issue...I ran 1 1/4" pipe using 1 1/4" X 1" Concentric Reducers at each end to neck down for the riser.

Put in a shutoff where you tee off your meter so you can shut the line down if you need to. See if the gas company will sell you one of their 1" lockwings. They are a lot beefier than a ballvalve like you'll find at the hardware store.

Phil

p.s. Just notice the meter reads in Cubic Meters. Guess I should have given you those numbers in cm water column, kPa, and what? Kilowatt Hours? LOL Do they even sell 1-inch pipe in Canada? Seems like that would be called 25.4 mm pipe.

 

[redsky49]

2 PSI became somewhat commonplace for new installations after CSST pipe became the "new standard" material for indoor natural gas piping. I'm not a big fan.

If it were me, I'd run larger pipe and stay on 7-inches, but obvously it's not me. The 2 psi will give you better flow through your pipes but will not give you much additional metering capacity. That appears to be a Rockwell 275 fed by a sensus 043 regulator. To upgrade you to 2psi they'll need to install a new regulator and replace the meter's index with a correcting index (it'll be off by about 13% if they don't).

Just for reference:

1" PE 200 feet long at 7 inches w/c in and 6 inches w/c out = 216,000 BTU/Hr
1" PE 200 feet long at 2 PSI in and 1.5 PSI out = 939,000 BTU/Hr

1 1/4" PE 200 feet long 7 inches w/c in and 6 inches w/c out = 360,000 BTU/Hr

That being said...the meter is only good for 275,000 BTU's unless they are going to upgrade that too.

When faced with the same issue...I ran 1 1/4" pipe using 1 1/4" X 1" Concentric Reducers at each end to neck down for the riser.

Put in a shutoff where you tee off your meter so you can shut the line down if you need to. See if the gas company will sell you one of their 1" lockwings. They are a lot beefier than a ballvalve like you'll find at the hardware store.

Phil

p.s. Just notice the meter reads in Cubic Meters. Guess I should have given you those numbers in cm water column, kPa, and what? Kilowatt Hours? LOL Do they even sell 1-inch pipe in Canada? Seems like that would be called 25.4 mm pipe.

25 mm is a common metric pipe size, but what is a "lockwing"? Some thing other than a standard gas ****?

 

[s_ontario]

2psi is nothen 10psi is something had to get a meter to bring my pressure down think to 3psi

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Lockwing:

http://www.jomarvalve.com/products/lockwings.html

Phil

 

[ForceFed70]

Thanks guys.

The utility company will supply a new gas meter and regulator free of charge. The new meter and regulator are apparently rated up to 1,200,000 BTU. Way more than I'll ever need. They did a calculation and the problem isn't the 1 1/4 line going to the shop, but the 1" line comming out of the meter. At 1/2lb that 1" line isn't enough to feed both the house and the garage, even tho it will be only a few inches before the T to the garage line.

For material it will be gas-rated underground PEX going to 1" black iron risers.

I do plan to put a valve at each riser.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Did you ask the gas company if that changes your monthly charges?

What's the load they are figuring this on? BTU to house + Potential BTU to shop?

p.s. the reason I ask on the charge is, here that new meter would bump your minimum monthly bill by $9/month.

 

[jimp]

I am confused, so I will ask a stupid question.

I run my house off a natural gas well. So my supply to my house is 50 psi. However, as I set up my house I learned that ALL of my gas appliances had a maximum inlet pressure of 10 in. wc.

You are not going to run 2psi inside your house are you?? You are going to regulate it down to 7-8 in. wc before entering your house??

 

[BBQ&Love]

I am confused, so I will ask a stupid question.

I run my house off a natural gas well. So my supply to my house is 50 psi. However, as I set up my house I learned that ALL of my gas appliances had a maximum inlet pressure of 10 in. wc.

You are not going to run 2psi inside your house are you?? You are going to regulate it down to 7-8 in. wc before entering your house??

I used to run 2psi inside houses all the time. You have to install a regulator at each appliance or do like I usually did, install a regulator at remote manifolds then short runs from there to each appliance.

 

[jimp]

I used to run 2psi inside houses all the time. You have to install a regulator at each appliance or do like I usually did, install a regulator at remote manifolds then short runs from there to each appliance.

Are you in US? All my past houses only had the gas company regulator regulating it to in. wc. Which I thought was normal. Is it just regional?

 

[BBQ&Love]

Are you in US? All my past houses only had the gas company regulator regulating it to in. wc. Which I thought was normal. Is it just regional?

I did most of this in CO but also some in NC. I think my dad does it in NM.

 

[ForceFed70]

I am confused, so I will ask a stupid question.

I run my house off a natural gas well. So my supply to my house is 50 psi. However, as I set up my house I learned that ALL of my gas appliances had a maximum inlet pressure of 10 in. wc.

You are not going to run 2psi inside your house are you?? You are going to regulate it down to 7-8 in. wc before entering your house??

Yes, you are correct. I could run 2psi inside the house and then put a regulator at each appliance like 22Rifle said, but I don't need this. So what I will do is put in a regulator after the T in the line for the garage. That way the house stays at 1/2lb and the 2psi pressure is contained to only the line going to the shop and a few inches of pipe on the meter outlet.

There will be 2 regulators. The 1st regulator goes before the meter and drops the pressure to 2lb from whatever the pressure at the street is, the 2nd "whole house regulator" goes after the meter and the T to the garage feed line and drops the pressure in the line entering the house from 2lb to 1/2lb.