So close to finishing! Question about upgrading Gas Meter-Centerpoint Energy Texas

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mullinszone

mullinszone

0
Oct 3, 2014
14
Conroe, TX
I'm so excited!! We got our decking poured today and they are doing clean up Saturday and hopefully pebble plaster next week. I was firmly stuck in the dumps and frustrated with clueless subs doing poor work. My husband had to stay home every day they were scheduled to come out to make sure they didn't keep screwing up. And the dirt tracking in the house was about to do me in. But now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Woo Woo!

I'm in Conroe and have Centerpoint. I wasted 5 minutes talking to Entergy first before they told me they don't do gas in Texas. Then I spent a few seconds trying to Google the number for Centergy. :confused: Oops, I'm scatterbrained today! Anyway, I was instructed by the PB to upgrade to a 2 lb. meter for our 399K heater. The girl at Centerpoint didn't know the cost. I have to wait for a technician to call me. She also didn't know if my monthly bill would go up just for having an upgraded heater. Obviously I know the more gas I use, the more I will pay. I was just wondering if my base rate would go up. Does anyone know?
 
We had the same thing here, the gas company would only talk to the home owner, there wasn't any way the builder could do it for us. It was really quite stupid because they instantly asked some technical questions that a home owner would never know the answers to.
 
Also, remember that they will need to install regulators at every one of you gas appliances, because they cannot take the pressure of a 2 psi system. That means your stove, central heater, water heater, etc, will need a small regulator installed at each unit. I'm kinda surprised you need a 2 PSI system. They installed a huge regulator for my 400K heater when my pool was built last year. They did not need to bump me up to 2 psi, and I already had a 200K Tankless for my in home water heating.
 
My pb left that responsibility to me as well. He broken the news to me for the first time around plaster day. Gas co wouldn't even come out until they got release from permit dept for final inspection which of course the pb hadn't gotten.
Finally got it straightened out though. Turned out to be a good thing. Not having gas stops you from turning on your heater too soon after plaster.
 
Killer95Stang said:
Also, remember that they will need to install regulators at every one of you gas appliances,..... That means your stove, central heater, water heater, etc, will need a small regulator installed at each unit. .
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Thats not necessarily true. If it's done right, the pipe from the meter that feeds the indoor appliances would need only one regulator to step down the pressure for all of the above metioned items. You dont need to take the high pressure line into the house that way. We did that all the time when I plumbed for a living.
 
A typical NG pool heater can be up to 400,000 BTU/hr. This takes a lot of gas. PBs were finding that for installations where the heater was quite some distance from the meter, they were installing larger and larger diameter pipes to the heater. Eventually, this became impractical. So the building code was changed to allow higher pressure residential service. A house without a pool heater typically has 1 pressure regulator. Homes with pools now have 3 pressure regulators.

Today, they install larger gas meters (with 2lb. pressure instead of 7oz. pressure) and provide for 3 pressure regulators. The 2lb. regulator steps down from delivery pressure to 2lb. and provides 2lb. of gas to the regulator on the heater, which steps it back down to 7oz. There will also be another regulator on the main gas meter that steps the pressure down to 7oz. for your home utilities. Nothing needs to change on the inside of your home.

This is just my long-winded way of saying current practices allow 2lb. service up to your pool heater, so they can use small diamater pipes for the long plumbing runs.
 
Sorry I'm so late in replying. Our PB did tell us up front what it would probably cost and that we'd have to call the gas company and request it ourselves. It was also in our paperwork. So we weren't completely surprised. The PB did do a regulator. I have no idea what that is but PB told us that the Gas company would ask if we had one and sure enough they did.

As to my original question of whether there is an additional monthly charge. The Gas company technician did not know but didn't think so and said to ask the Gas company billing department that I originally talked to. The billing department had already told me to ask the technician but they did not think so either. I'm getting the feeling the answer is no. I guess I'll see for sure when the first bill comes.

Centerpoint is charging $350 for the new meter. They won't schedule the install until there is water in the pool. The plaster guys showed up when I left for work this morning so I'm about to contact them to come out and upgrade the meter. The technician said it can be anywhere from the next day up to a week before it is done.

I found out when PB came out to inspect that because our equipment pad is only a few feet from our spa that means we will have a really hot spa. Unlike when you have the heater pretty far away. I was glad to hear that. The plumbing running to the gas meter isn't that far away either. We just got lucky in our set up I guess.
 

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mullinszone said:
Centerpoint is charging $350 for the new meter. They won't schedule the install until there is water in the pool. The plaster guys showed up when I left for work this morning so I'm about to contact them to come out and upgrade the meter. The technician said it can be anywhere from the next day up to a week before it is done.
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My plaster went in Friday of last week, at which point I called Centerpoint to start the upgrade process (water didn't start until next day, but I "forgot" to mention that part to gas company:oops:). Centerpoint returned my call on Monday, at which point I paid the $350 extortion upgrade fee and scheduled my meter upgrade for Friday. For Houston, it looks like they can complete the whole process in about a week.

It turns out they charge $350 for any kind of meter change....whether you're upgrading to 2lb residential service or 10,000,000BTU industrial service. This is the set charge that Centerpoint pays the 3rd party for installation. As such, we're really not paying for the meter itself....they presume it will pay for itself in terms of greater NG usage.
 
Howdy Neighbor,

Same here $350 to upgrade the gas meter. Took about 2 weeks to get it done after my final inspection with city of Pearland. They are not really changing out meter but the regulator that allows for more gas flow to your heater.

We only noticed a $25 difference in our normal bill. We would fire the hot tub up at least once or twice a week during the summer.

2 things to remember that I wish someone told me.

1. There will be a MILD smelly burning oder comming from your heater during the "break in" period. It basicllally smells like something is burning. This will eventually go away with the more you use it.

2. Be careful not to leave the heater on. We have the I aqualing system so we control pool through our phone and its really easy for kids that play with the phone to turn stuff on.

Congratualtions!!!
 
mullinszone said:
I found out when PB came out to inspect that because our equipment pad is only a few feet from our spa that means we will have a really hot spa. Unlike when you have the heater pretty far away. I was glad to hear that.
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That isn't really true. Distance from the equipment pad does not have a significant impact on the water temperature, at least for any plausible distance. Water temperature is a function of where you set the thermostat.

Because your spa is very close to the equipment pad the power of your spa jets will be higher than it would be otherwise.
 
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