PGE Service Area Gas Meter Clearances

[brycenesbitt]

My local utility's clearance rules don't always work very easily on older building:


Has anyone had luck with getting PGE to extend the gas regulator's "vent" in durable pipe, thus changing
the points that must be 36" away?

The gas regulator has a pressure vent so can leak small amounts of gas in normal operation: this
is often why you might smell gas in an enclosed meter closet even if there's no "leak". Presumably this
gas leakage is the reason for the 36" rule, is just not how 100% of the original home stock in my area was built.

 

[Ponchik]

May you have life time of patience in dealing with PG&E.

 

[Birken Vogt]

That does not look like I remember the PG&E Green Book. Is that Portland General Electric?

 

[Fred B]

That does not look like I remember the PG&E Green Book. Is that Portland General Electric?

Pacific Gas & Electric

 

[wwhitney]

That does not look like I remember the PG&E Green Book. Is that Portland General Electric?

That's a relatively new allowance (a year or two?) just for existing buildings.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Birken Vogt]

That's a relatively new allowance (a year or two?) just for existing buildings.

Cheers, Wayne

Would you call it allowance or restriction? How does it differ from previously?

 

[wwhitney]

Would you call it allowance or restriction? How does it differ from previously?

Contrast with Figure 2-19 which applies for new construction. Previously there was no Figure 2-22 or additional allowance for existing construction.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[brycenesbitt]

I asked the same question in meatspace, and got some interesting answers. One was that nobody bothered enforcing this until about the year 2020 (Covid effect, who knows). The other is PG&E crews themselves has been seen installing vent regulator snorkels proactively on existing buildings, and as part of their own projects.

 

[jaggedben]

I believe only seen PG&E extend the manifold vent where the meter is inside. They will extend it to put the vent outside.

To be honest, I've directed people to extend vents a short distance a couple times to meet the 3ft mechanical code rule when PG&E wasn't involved. I'm sure I'm not to supposed to touch their stuff, but who cares.

I have certainly seen PG&E enforce these separations for more than 10 years. The slightly looser restrictions for a like-for-like replacement in an existing location are also something I've seen. The doc posted above seems like a formalization of what some PG&E offices or project managers were doing on their own to just be reasonable and let projects go forward in some cases where they just wouldn't have otherwise. I mean, if you're PG&E, how can you justify not allowing the replacement of an old underground-fed FPE in the same location when if you insist on a relocation there's a 0% chance it will get replaced at all.