I had to install a water heater of a smaller size with a lower BTU input because the previous homeowner had a larger one installed directly on the slab. Is there a way to turn down the BTUs supplied without changing the size of the lines?

Anyone ever tried to search for a picture of natural gas on Google. I have and nothing comes up other than animated and auto gen imagery. Why can't I find a picture of Natural gas in raw form online??

Are there any clear signs or clues that an old brass plug valve has recently been opened or closed after remaining static for a long time?

Without saying too much, I am in a legal dispute, and have evidence to suggest two plug valves leading to a common appliance supply line have been recently changed. If correct, the valve that was opened from a closed position is only moveable with a wrench. While the valve that was closed from an open position moves easily by hand. There are more signs that I do not want to share here, but is this enough to say that natural gas has been flowing through the valve recently closed, maintaining lubrication, while the valve recently opened had seized up with no natural gas flow, and thus dried lubrication, making it difficult to move?

If anyone has further recommendations for how I can determine this it would be appreciated. I'm happy to share more evidence over a DM.

hello renter here… ive been complaining of this gas smell for over a year between two property managers and they never found a leak. came home after work to my gas shut off and a notice i have a leak from the gas company… i wont get into the whole back and forths and what ive done what theyve done ect… just want to know if there is anything i need to worry about health wise? i have a 2 1/2 year old and ive always experienced headaches. im calling her pediatrician Monday but wanted to ask here as well. worried mom here

Helping my friend move out of her condo. She wants to take her bbq with her. She says it was hooked up to her condo natural gas line on her balcony by someone she hired many years ago.

How do i unhook this? Is it as simple as unscrewing, or is a professional needed? TYIA

First let me say I fully plan to verify a leak and have it taken care of. I just want to know if there was any significant risk since the detector picked up nothing at all even just an inch or 2 away.

The pipe in question connects to a natural gas fireplace in my basement. Sorry if this an appropriate question for this sub reddit. ** Edit ** I wanted to note that while I was on my knees stick the detector around that pipe I smelled no odorant at all.

The well is about 3000ft from the house with 970 pounds of pressure.

The gas goes through (3) regulators and is sent at 12-15PSI.

With 1.25” diameter pipe, will the pressure loss be too much for 3000’ to my house?

Thanks in advance.

I just talked to my utility company because I’d like to put in a new natural gas connector to be able to run a generator in the case of a power outage (without having to store gasoline or juggle propane tanks).

They told me that I have a 350k BTU excess shut off valve on my service and estimate my house’s demand at 260k, leaving just 90k BTU headroom for a potential generator. Looking around, I think I can get by on that (especially since the cost of getting a crew out to dig up and upgrade the EFV is substantial), but I’d like to know what the behavior is of an excess flow valve in the case that the generator I got was oversized and pulled too much from the line, causing the EFV to trip.

Is that something which would reset itself automatically once the generator was shut off? Or is tripping the EFV a really big deal that requires the utility company to come out and fix it? I haven’t been able to find many resources on this. Thanks!

Woke up this morning smelling gas; local gas company came out to check and said our outdoor valve had failed and was leaking. They checked the levels inside the home and despite it smelling like gas inside they said there wasn’t enough to mark this as an “emergency” scenario and that we’d be fine to stay in the home until the outdoor line is repaired. But they don’t anticipate that happening for over a week.

We left to stay with in laws but before we left I turned on all the fans in the house, including switching on the fans to the AC units. I came back to check on it later in the afternoon and the smell has almost completely dissipated indoors.

Are we safe to go back home?

I have a Mr Heater 25,000 BTU infrared gas heater. I just installed it and I cannot get the pilot to light. You can hear gas coming out when you hold the pilot button but when you hold a flame to it, it’s almost trying to suck into the opening. I have the pilot adjustment screw (to control pilot flame height) all the way open. Any ideas?

Model is MH25NG

I’m running 1/2” schedule 40 black iron from the outside of the house through the chimney and into the firebox to convert the fireplace to natural gas. I understand the pipe should be protected where it passes through the brick and cinder blocks.

My inspector recommended a few wraps of 10 or 20 mil pipe wrap tape, but the brand I found at the plumbing store is only rated to 140F (it’s made for above or below ground use and is water proof and protects from UV, not that I need that). I started looking at higher heat options and I see there is HVAC metal tape (aluminum?) that’s rated much higher in temp.

I tried to figure out how hot that pipe may get, the best I could understand was the fireplace gas inserts are rated by some ANSI standard that says surrounding surfaces may reach no more than ambient temp plus 117F. So theoretically I guess that pipe could exceed 140F where it passes through the chimney and needs protection.

What does a real plumber do in this scenario? This is in the PNW so it’s rainy but not overly cold or hot most of the year. Bonus question, should the pipe be sprayed with Rustoleum high heat paint before wrapping? I’ve read that galvanized stuff shouldn’t be used where stuff gets hot because it releases fumes so I figured the galvanizing spray paint shouldn’t be used on this piece.

If any of this is a bad approach feel free to roast me, I’d rather know about it than do something stupid.