Boiler gas pipe location from meter - outside house?

martyp

keystone wrote: »

It has to be in copper but there is no reason whwy you can't paint it. Hi-Gloss paint straight onto clean (and I do means clean) copper sans primer or undercoat works fine or you can use a Multi-Surface paint like the BEDEC one. In any event if you leave it au naturel it will soon darken down. Your alternative would be to box it in - might be a suitable discouragement to the metal thieves as well.

Cheers

Cheers keystone, I was thinking it would be plastic piping for some reason (shows how much I know!). I think copper wouldn't be that bad really but might be a worry with regards to metal thieves, does that happen often that they would take pipes from sides of people's houses?

martyp

diywhynot wrote: »

What have the other RGIs recommended?

To be honest I've just stuck with this guy as his prices are really good, charging little more than £1k for all the work when I was expecting at least £2k... (boiler is about £500). He's gas safe registered and has a good reputation but can see how running the pipe outside would be a cost saving measure. Maybe I could have it relocated at a later date possibly if I come across more money.

keystone

martyp wrote: »

Cheers keystone, I was thinking it would be plastic piping for some reason (shows how much I know!). I think copper wouldn't be that bad really but might be a worry with regards to metal thieves, does that happen often that they would take pipes from sides of people's houses?

Sorry I was joking a bit. But when some of the blighters are daft enough to nick energised high voltage transmission cables they'll nick anything. I don't think its a serious problem with domestic gas stuff. Not enough of it per house. Forget I mentioned it.

BTW I think you should get at least one more quote to validate that which you already have, preferably two.

Cheers

lemontart

keystone wrote: »

Sorry I was joking a bit. But when some of the blighters are daft enough to nick energised high voltage transmission cables they'll nick anything. I don't think its a serious problem with domestic gas stuff. Not enough of it per house. Forget I mentioned it.

BTW I think you should get at least one more quote to validate that which you already have, preferably two.

Cheers

Unfortunately the theft of domestic gas pipes is far too common, I have taken enough calls over the last 5 years reporting this - people suddenly find they have no gas to cooker or boiler does not come on - when asked to go turn meter off for safety find the outlet has been stolen, - and definitely an increase in past couple years.

A simple google search throws up page of reports.

ollski

The white pipe is the condensate pipe, the copper one is gas. The copper will dull down in no time and you won't notice it.
I've called a few customers who have had gas pipe outside stolen, usually HA properties, but it is very uncommon.

brewerdave

Just to confirm -when we had a new condensing boiler fitted earlier this year, I specifically asked about pipework requirements - after measuring the pressure the plumber looked up the model of boiler proposed and said that 15mm diameter pipe would give sufficient gas flow.

diywhynot

brewerdave wrote: »

Just to confirm -when we had a new condensing boiler fitted earlier this year, I specifically asked about pipework requirements - after measuring the pressure the plumber looked up the model of boiler proposed and said that 15mm diameter pipe would give sufficient gas flow.

I hope he did more than 'measure the pressure'. He also had to consider other demands on the gas supply, the length of the gas supply from the meter and the maximum gas rate of the proposed boiler.

What did you have installed and what did it replace?

martyp

I'll be getting an Alpha 24x so unsure if that can work with the current pipe (current boiler is a Glow-worm Hot Water Express 80 combi from 1991 I think)

ollski

Although the gas pipe size can be calculated the boiler instructions can over-ride it. Most Worcesters require a minimum 22mm supply even if 15 would supply the correct volume.