PPP (Propane Piping Plan, Day 181 of 273)

Interspersed with the plumbing chores last week, I worked with Levi Ross on the propane supply lines. There is no natural gas on the Olympic Peninsula, so your only choices for heating are propane (a derivative of natural gas) or electric. Propane is less efficient but priced better than electric, and it has its detractors. Mainly it’s storage and refilling, but also the fact that burning propane generates water (vapor). At full tilt, our propane boiler makes a quart of water every hour, so during the winter I suspect that we’ll make a couple gallons of water per day. Since the boiler is in the basement, we’ll dump the water into the sump pump basin (20 gals in the floor), then pump it up and out of the house, along with any water that has collected from the perimeter drain line.

We’re planning on a 500 gallon propane tank. 250 gal is more typical, but the rates are better on 500 gals and you only fill it half as often. Tanks (fuel bottles) are either above ground (leased or you own) or buried (you own), which is what we plan to use. The 500-gal tank is about 10 ft by 3 ft in diameter (think small submarine), so you have to dig a big hole, something like 12’ long by 4’ wide and 5’ deep. All that you see is a rounded top (the snorkel) where you fill the tank.

The hole for the tank and trench over to the house will be dug later this year along with the septic tanks, but for now we needed to place the propane pipe within the house. The basic strategy for placing parts in the house is least flexible to most flexible. You start with concrete and wood, then do to ABS and steel pipe, then finish up with electrical (extremely flexible). If you do a whole house vacuum, like us, that goes in after the steel pipe.

For all gas lines within the house you use 3/4” steel pipe for the main supply line, then T off it with 1/2” for the gas appliances. Levi brought over his pipe cutter and threader, and had 50 ft of pipe delivered. In addition he had a large supply of short threaded pipe (2”-12” pieces) and fittings (elbows, Ts, and plugs) plus shutoff valves.

We laid out the pipe, figured drops and risers around immovable objects (like beams and posts) then started cutting pipe to size. It took us about 8 hours to hang and connect the black steel pipe in, then another couple of hours to hook up the flexible gas pipe. You use the flexpipe to connect the appliances to the steel pipe, with a shutoff valve at the downstream end. The photo on the left shows the stub in for the Wolf rangetop.

We have a gas rangetop in the kitchen, two gas fireplaces, and a 60 gal boiler (hot water heater). The main fireplace is a see-through model (first introduced to us by home builder Steve Titus in Denver). The photo on the right shows the flex pipe which will connect to the base of the fireplace.

In addition, I’ll have Levi put a T on the outside line for a gas BBQ if we decide to add on in the backyard. Next thing to do at my end is to install the fireplaces in their framed boxes and either put the vent pipes in or hire it out. Will probably pay for this since we are running behind schedule and time is worth more than money right now.