Installing garage heater


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Old 10-27-16, 07:42 AM
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Installing garage heater

i am wanting to install a 75000 btu natural gas heater that requires 7 WC
i am gonna bury a 1 " line that will be 220'
the gas company says i have a 5psi meter.will that supply enough or did i need to up my meter? if so , what to ?
 
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Old 10-27-16, 09:07 AM
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What is the capacity of your meter? Not the PSI but the capacity/volume of gas it can discharge into your home? 250 cu/ft per hour is a common size. And, natural gas has a bit more than 1'000 btu per cubic foot for a total capacity of about 250'000 btu/hr.
 
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Old 10-27-16, 02:51 PM
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no idea, the gas company said 5 psi and that was all they can tell me
 
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Old 10-27-16, 03:04 PM
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Since the company can supply you with 5psi service..... you should not have any supply problems.

You're going to need to send higher pressure gas to your garage which means you will need at least one pressure regulator installed for the house to reduce the house pressure.

Not quite sure if a second would be required at the garage but I believe it would be.

The gas meter is sized by demand. You add the demands up. It's on each appliance.
Typically the appliances can be estimated. The home furnace needs to be checked.
Garage heater 75K
Home furnace +/-85K
Stove +/- 40K
Water heater +/- 35K
Gas dryer +/- 30K

Like Dane said.... most meters are limited to 250K btus. It's on the meter ID tag.
 
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Old 10-27-16, 03:28 PM
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meter is 250k
furnace is 100k
water heater is 40k
garage heater 75k

so my meter is good
 
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Old 10-28-16, 12:36 PM
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Installing underground fuel line, especially with a 5PSI service, is NOT a good idea for the inexperienced layman to do, in my experience as a gas utility fitter and repairman.

What kind of piping are you planning to use?

The gas utility I worked for would come out and install underground fuel line to a pool heater or garage heater at no cost, to get the business. I'd call your gas utility and see what they can do for you, and even if they don't do it for free, you would be much better off letting them do the underground piping.

Here's an example of the kind of thing you are missing:

You have a 5 PSI gas service. The gas meter is rated not in terms of BTUs, but in terms of cubic feet of gas per hour that it will pass and meter accurately.

Natural gas at the typical low pressure has a BTU input of about 1000 BTUs/cubic foot, and low pressure is about 1/4 PSI. At 5 PSI the BTU content of the gas per cubic foot is going to be a good deal higher, although I don't know how much higher off hand.

There's just a lot you don;t know about doing this job, and the hazards of underground piping are significant if the job isn't done properly.

Leave this one to the pros, is my advice, at least out to the garage where the fuel line comes above ground.
 
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Old 11-07-16, 05:44 AM
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my gas company is pretty much useless,agree about everything you said i just got the line hoping to get someone to come out and do all the connections and figure what needs to be done.i was just going to do the labor of burying the line
 
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Old 11-09-16, 01:39 PM
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What kind of pipe do you plan to use? Describe the material, size and how you would make the connections.

If you can post all the manufacturer's information on the type and model of the pipe, that would be very helpful.

Unfortunately, even a good many installers aren't competent to do underground piping.

THE MOST DANGEROUS kind of gas leak is from underground piping. And underground gas leak can saturate the ground with gas for quite a distance, allowing gas to infiltratre basements and crawl spaces. That means there is a LOT OF GAS available to blow a house off it's foundation when the gas finally gets touched off by a pilot light or spark.

You DON'T want that to happen.

The gas utility I used to work for had that happen in a commercial strip a year or so ago, and blew up SEVERAL businesses. Fortunately, this happened at night and no one was around to get killed.

Steel pipe is vulnerable to corrosion and can develop leaks WITHIN MONTHS IF NOT PROPERLY PROTECTED.
 
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Old 11-09-16, 08:42 PM
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Here are a few pictures of the explosion that SP refers to.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gree...sbT4Aw#imgrc=_
 
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Old 11-09-16, 09:59 PM
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i was just going to do the labor of burying the line
Plenty of yahoos out there who would be glad to use whatever you supply but a trustworthy competent installer would want to furnish his own materials and install the line. Materials he knew were correct for the job and an installation he knew was correct.

However he might give you a slight discount for digging the ditch even though he probably has power equipment that makes that a minor part of the job.
 
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Old 11-10-16, 12:41 PM
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Heh, heh! Dramatic, isn't it?


As a gas utility repairman for that company, I was the first responder for many hundreds of caomplaints about gas leaks and carbon monoxide hazards.

Complaints about gas leaks were quite common, but 99.9% of them weren't really dangerous. The other .1% though....!


Carbon monoxide complaints were pretty common, often when CO detectors went off. They were a lot more likely to be an actual hazard to people living in a house! I packed off quite a few people to hospitals and called in the fire department for evacuations from time to time.

The real fools were the people who would tell me "It's not THAT much of a problem!" Warehouse managers' with forklifts that were filling the warehouse with CO liked that one! However, when the Fire Department showed up, there were never any further arguments!

WATCH OUT for that CO! The hazard is easily underestimated.
 
 

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