Converting from ELECTRICITY to GAS

[Dissident]

Hey all

We have a gas line in our street but it isn't connected to our house. We have everything electric, since we bought the house two years ago. I don't like cooking with electricity, nor electric hot water services - but changing over seems daunting.

Has anyone done this? I rang Origin ages ago and they implied that they would connect the house to gas for free (Assuming I went with them maybe?), and I would need the licence number of the fitter/plumber who would install any appliances. I left it at that, not sure what to do since we didn't really have the money to convert anything.

Just wondering if anyone has changed over and how easy or hard it was.

This has come about because our hot water service looks, ummm, dodgy. I saw it the other day and there's a bulge in the side of it, water on the top and rust down the side. It looks like it's about to blow up!

Cheers,

D

[Dissident]

The missus just sent me a photo from her phone, or the hot water service.

Not pretty.

hotwaterservice.jpg

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[Dirko]

That is one UGLY looking service.....

If you have gas in your street, and Origin can put a meter in then shouldn't be a worry.

The big cost will be digging in the gas connection from the meter to the house, and then getting the gas into the house.

Keep in mind the future, as it'd be cheaper to get all connections/piping done now then in the future, i.e you get your kitchen/hot
water hooked up, but also run a gas pipe down to your family room for a future heater, or run one into your backyard so you can
put a BBQ on mains....

We had a solid brick house, so our plumber channelled out the brick to lay the pipes for our new stove etc. This was patched up and
there is no way you can tell. Not sure how they do Gyprock etc...

The hot water would be easy, but the kitchen stuff would take a bit of work to get everything in place....

Recommend a ELECTRIC oven / GAS hot plate combo too (we have SMEG, very good).

[Psyber]

I read an article suggesting that in the UK electricity is now cheaper than gas. You may want to check whether that trend is going to happen here too.

Mind you that is because a good percentage of their electricity is produced from nuclear sources and gas supplies in the North Sea are running down. Obviously so long as we use gas power to generate electricity electricity here will remain more expensive, and we don't know yet what carbon trading will do the "clean coal" electricity generation.

[Hondo]

One thing I learned when I did it was to ..

Get the gas connected installed by the same person who installs the appliance - ie, order your hot water service and get the plumber to quote on connecting the gas at the same time. It's just another box they install beside your electricity box.

Sounds like a Capt Obvious but I didn't realise that was how it worked so I sourced a plumber solely to connect the gas - but not any appliances. This was after getting the same story from Origin that I needed to find a licensed plumber.

So it cost me $1800. Later on we got a quote to install a gas heater and GasWorks allowed only about $800 to connect the gas to the house, when it was done with the install of the heater.

Unfortunately even if its only $800 to connect to the house, it will be around $1800 for the water heater + more for any more pipework inside the house. Altho if you are going to spend the $1800 anyway so I'd recommend going with the gas when you can Diss.

[heater31]

Get the service and several appliances connected at once it will work out cheaper in the long run.

for the piping inside the house you have two options a very messy and a not so messy. the very messy is to chase out your walls a la Jabber and then get that fixed later or run the pipes on the outside of your house only punching through the walls where a connection is needed. therefore restricting you to where you can put your connections inside.

[Dissident]

The missus just spoke to Origin.. they recommended getting a new Electric Hot Water service. To save money.

[Wedgie]

You'd be mad to Diss, you'd never make your money back (if any).
If you like cooking with gas stoke up the BBQ mate.

[Dissident]

Sorry Wedgie! All done.
Just got back from the Origin shop on Pirie Street.

It's all organised. Gas system, and gas line being installed.
I want a gas stove (BBQ isn't always practical!) etc.

And gas heating later. Our entire house (4 bedroom, etc) is heated by a single Combustion fire heater. It does well, but requires a lot more work. I beleive gas will be cheaper than electricity to supplement this.

(On a side note - anyone got any wood?? I can pick it up!)

[Psyber]

Sorry Wedgie! All done.
Just got back from the Origin shop on Pirie Street.

It's all organised. Gas system, and gas line being installed.
I want a gas stove (BBQ isn't always practical!) etc.

And gas heating later. Our entire house (4 bedroom, etc) is heated by a single Combustion fire heater. It does well, but requires a lot more work. I beleive gas will be cheaper than electricity to supplement this.

(On a side note - anyone got any wood?? I can pick it up!)

Wood? Yeah.. I've got some I want to give away... unfortunately it's located on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne.
It's a former wooden stable in planks out the front of a block of land I own, and labelled "Free Wood", but I think the sign is putting people off.
Perhaps if I labelled it "Private property, don't touch!" it would go...

Good luck with the changeover anyway!

[Dog_ger]

Used to have a gravity fed gas hot water service in the ceiling.

When it stuffed up I went Gas instant.

Beautiful.

Small unit on the outside of the house on the off side.

[Psyber]

Used to have a gravity fed gas hot water service in the ceiling.

When it stuffed up I went Gas instant.

Beautiful.

Small unit on the outside of the house on the off side.

Yes, we have one of those little Rinnai instant jobs too. Very effective, and you don't run out.

[Sojourner]

The other advantage with Gas is that you can always brick in the BBQ and have it put on the gas line, puts an end to constantly refilling bottles anyway!

[rod_rooster]

Any ideas on a ballpark figure to have a gas line exteded outside to put the BBQ on mains? Gas is already running stove and hot water service.

[Psyber]

The other advantage with Gas is that you can always brick in the BBQ and have it put on the gas line, puts an end to constantly refilling bottles anyway!

We've got one of those set up in this house we bought in 2004, but we get so few days here in the mountains dry enough and warm enough to use it and then the wasps are out in force.

Our local weather forecast is for snow down to 600 metres on Sunday, and we are at 570 metres so we may get some - we are in one of those odd little pockets of microclimate that gets colder and wetter than the general area.

[Dirko]

Any ideas on a ballpark figure to have a gas line exteded outside to put the BBQ on mains? Gas is already running stove and hot water service.

Wouldn't think it'd be that expensive. Once done just go the BBQ Galore or Bunnings and get the Natural Gas burners for your BBQ etc.

We've got the gas pipe, just haven't been arsed in connecting the BBQ

[Rik E Boy]

Eat more Baked Beans.....

regards,

REB

[Psyber]

It's snowing here this morning, and I'm glad of our gas-fired hydronic heating system.
EDIT: Local sources confirm the local maximum on Sunday 10th was 4.2 degrees C.