City of Albany, MO Gas Appliances and Piping

[Ord. No. 650 Ch. 15 Art. 6 §28, 11-15-1960; Ord. No. 10-03 §1, 10-19-2010]

Approved Material For Gas Piping.

All pipes used for the installation, extension, alteration or repair of any gas piping shall be standard weight wrought iron, steel or corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) as hereinafter provided for outside fuel line to appliances.

All pipes shall either be new, or shall previously have been used for no other purpose than conveying gas, and shall be free from internal obstructions and the ends thereof properly reamed.

Used piping shall be cleaned and inspected and ascertained to be equivalent to new material.

All fittings used in conjunction with the above piping shall be of malleable iron or steel.

All joints in the piping system, unless welded, shall be screwed joints having American Standard or S.A.E. Standard threads. Such screwed joints shall be made up with a thread compound applied to the male threads only.

Outside Fuel Lines. An outside fuel line is a pipe which conveys gas from the customer's house piping to an appliance located outside the building, beginning at a point where the line takes off from the house piping system. Outside fuel lines must meet the following conditions:

Only new type K copper water tube, free of defects, and only copper, brass or bronze fittings of the flare or compression type shall be used underground. Steel or wrought iron pipe, installed in accordance with the applicable rules of the City, may be used for those portions of outside fuel lines which are above ground or underground if the pipe is properly protected as required by the Gas Inspector. High density poly-ethylene (HDPE) gas pipe and appropriate fittings are also acceptable for underground use.

Underground lines shall not be laid in the same trench as other piping. Backfill material shall be free of rocks, cinders and other foreign material. Where the line enters the building below ground, the point or entrance shall be carefully sealed with a mortar composed of Portland cement and fine sand. No piping shall be run under an unexcavated portion of a building unless it is free of joints and is encased in steel pipe or rigid electrical conduit.

An outside fuel line shall be run whenever possible, and in a straight line from the point where it leaves the building to the appliance.

A cock or valve shall be placed in the outside fuel line near the point where it takes off from the other house piping.

All gas piping shall be supported, at intervals of not more than six (6) feet, by straps or hooks capable of withstanding four (4) times the weight of the pipe being supported.

Unions shall not be concealed in any walls or floors.

Bushings, right and left couplings or long screws shall not be used. Piping may be joined by threaded fittings, valves, couplings, ground joint unions or by welding.

Pipes shall not be bent except for minor offsets. Fittings shall be installed to prevent any air or oxygen from entering the gas piping.

A stop cock shall be installed adjacent to every gas appliance.

Piping laid under concrete, tile or composition floors, when such are in direct contact with the earth or any kind of fill, shall be protected against corrosion in an approved manner. Piping laid in concrete, cement, masonry, etc., shall, if possible, be laid in a conduit or tunnel left in the solid work. Gas piping shall not run through hot air furnace pipes or cold air ducts or elevator shafts.

Required Gas Supply. Piping shall be of a size and so installed as to provide a supply of gas sufficient to meet the maximum demand without undue loss of pressure between the meter and the appliance or appliances as designated by the standards of gas utility.

The hourly volume of gas required at each piping outlet shall be taken as not less than the maximum hourly rating, as specified by the manufacturer of the appliance or appliances to be connected to each such outlet.

Where the manufacturer's rating of an appliance is given in BTU per hour, this rating shall be divided by one thousand (1,000) to obtain the corresponding gas demand in cubic feet per hour.

In no case shall a supply pipe to any gas appliance be installed having a diameter smaller than the inlet connection of that appliance.

Closure Of Piping Outlets. It shall be unlawful to remove or disconnect any gas appliance without capping or plugging, with a screwed joint fitting, the outlet from which, said gas appliance was connected.

Inspection Of Piping. Before any system of gas piping is finally put in service, it shall be carefully tested and inspected to assure that it is gas-tight. Where any part of the system is to be enclosed or concealed, this test shall precede the work of closing it in. To test for tightness the piping may be filled with air or inert gas, but not with any other gas or liquid. In no case shall oxygen ever be used. The piping must stand a pressure of at least ten (10) psi for a period of not less than thirty (30) minutes without showing any drop in pressure.

Devices For Reducing Gas Consumption, Bypassing Of Meters. No person shall install or use any device intended as an adjunct or addition to a gas appliance or to be suspended above or wholly or partially to enclose any burner of a gas appliance in such a manner as to reduce the effectiveness of the ignition of the gas issuing from the burner or impair the combustion of said burner. No person shall cause gas supplied by the gas utility to bypass the meter by which the amount of gas supplied by the gas utility is measured.

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Editor's Note — Ord. no. 10-03 §2, adopted October 19, 2010, repealed section 500.320 "rigid metal gas connections" in its entirety. Former section 500.320 derived from ord. no. 650 ch. 15 art. 6 §30, 11-15-1960.