You might think that this would be a reference to the natural by-product of having breakfast with our ham radio friends in South Lyon this morning at the Senate Coney Island, but that is not the case. We had a 10:30 AM appointment at the house this morning with Darryll Mech of DCM Heating and Cooling to finalize the work that needs to be done to get the house ready for conversion to natural gas. The natural gas contractor for Consumer’s Energy (Roese Construction) started installing the main lines in our area a couple of weeks ago and they expect to have the project completed by September 26 (of this year). That means we will have natural gas to the house sometime between now and then and we need to have everything as ready as we can before they hang the meter so the final conversion will be minimal and quick once the natural gas is turned on.
The work at our house breaks down into three pieces. The first piece is running black pipe on the outside of the house from the southeast corner down the east side, across the back, under the upper and lower decks, along the back of the garage, and up the west side of the garage. The gas meter will be installed at the southeast corner of the house where the propane currently enters the house. The existing house piping will be used to supply natural gas to the house furnace, kitchen range, and outside grill connector. The whole house generator is by the southwest corner of the garage and is currently on its own propane tank. After the natural gas is hooked up everything needs to be on a single natural gas service/meter.
As the gas pipe runs along the back side of the garage there will be a T to supply gas into the garage. That has to do with the second piece of the work. We are having a ceiling mounted garage heater installed and a small furnace/air-conditioner for the library. The HVAC unit will allow us to heat the library in the winter without cycling the main hot-water baseboard heating system, which is at the end of a long run through unheated attic space and is not particularly efficient or effective. More importantly, it will allow us to control the humidity on humid summer days (it’s a library, after all, so it contains a lot of books and other humidity sensitive paper materials). As part of that work we need to remove a propane space heater that is mounted in the wall abutting the garage and cap the line. We also need to remove a window mount air-conditioner in that same wall. Yes, that’s right, the current A-C for that room exhausts into the garage.
The third piece of the puzzle will be disconnecting the propane and converting the appliances that currently run on propane; the kitchen range, the main furnace, and the generator. We will have Darryll take care of disconnecting the propane from the house and connecting the natural gas to the existing house piping and start up the two new furnaces once the gas is available. We will then have TOMTEK convert the main furnace since they already service it for us. Depending on timing we may be without our main furnace and domestic hot water until TOMTEK can complete their work. I may convert the range, have Darryll do it, or have TOMTEK do it. Regardless of who does the conversion I will need to get the conversion kit. Bratcher Electric will connect the gas line and convert the whole house generator and do the annual service at the same time.
While Bratcher Electric is here we are going to have them run a 100 Amp, 4-wire cable from the outlet of the transfer switch in the southwest corner of the garage to the panel in the northeast corner of the garage. The existing setup has the 200 A main panel in the basement of the house with a 60 A / 240 V breaker supplying the cable that feeds the sub-panel in the garage. That means the power to the sub-panel goes from the garage all the way to the house and then all the back to the garage. That’s a lot of unnecessary forth and back. In part because of that, and in part because of the electrical needs of the new garage furnace and library HVAC unit, I am going to replace the sub-panel in the garage with a 100 Amp main breaker panel in advance of all of this work.
The current sub-panel is a General Electric but the main house panel is a Square D Homeline. Lowe’s and Home Depot carry both the Homeline and QO product lines from Square D, and Home Depot also carries GE and Siemens. If I installed a GE main panel in the garage I could potentially reuse the existing breakers and save a little money. On the other hand, they have been in an unconditioned space for who knows how long, and they are not physically compatible with the Homeline breakers. Indeed, the four different products are not generally interchangeable. But the main consideration is selection and availability, and the Square D products win on those criteria.
Once the new furnaces are installed we will still have some work to do. We will have to repair the walls in the library, insulate the hot air duct in the garage (although Darryll may take care of that), and enclose the library HVAC unit. Because the library HVAC unit will be installed in the northeast corner of the garage it has to be in its own little sealed room to prevent automotive engine exhaust or other noxious fumes in the garage from being drawn in to the conditioned air or explosive fumes, such as gasoline vapor, from being drawn into the combustion chamber. The furnace will have its own air intake and exhaust tubes. The garage heater uses a sealed combustion chamber with a special concentric intake and exhaust tube, so it does not have to be enclosed.
Darryll indicated he could start the last week of July and would need about a week to do all of his initial work. We have company coming the 20th through the 23rd, so we have the upcoming week to prep (clean out) the garage and library for Darryll. This is the kind of situation that could give us gas if we weren’t used to it and enjoy it. There’s nothing like a construction project to get you up and moving first thing in the morning and keep you up late at night.