Natural gas connection for multiple appliances

[screedle]

Hi,

We built our home a couple of years ago and had a natural gas connection installed at the rear patio door. We're looking to build our patio this year and will likely have our BBQ, a fire table, and hot tub back there. I'm trying to determine what the NG supply / flow requirement would be to supply all of those 'appliances'. Of course it will typically be just the hot tub drawing flow but on those occasions where we also have the BBQ and / or fire table going I want to make sure we're setup to handle that requirement.

I'm not certain on the existing connection size but as a general rule, what size of line / connection would be necessary to accommodate the above?

Thanks so much for any info.

Jeff

[guzzy]

You don't to increase size. You have more than enough capacity. You can turn on the gas stove, fireplace plus the patio equipment and not draw heavy on flow. The size coming into your house is probably the same going outside to your patio. You will likely need to hard pipe everything. You can buy the fittings at a local hardware store or have a plumber do it.

[Rjcsjc62]

The line serving the gas appliances should be sized to meet the capacity of all of them together.

What is size of the gas line serving the back yard?

What is the total gas load (BTU/h) of the appliances?

What is total furthest distance (in lineal feet) from the appliance furthest away from gas service entering your house?

[screedle]

Lots of factors to consider here! The gas inlet to our house is on the opposite side of the house and I assume is run across the ceiling in the basement to reach the rear patio (not home right now to verify).

We haven't finalized on a fire table or hot tub at this point so I can't provide definitive specs on those but the BBQ is 44,000 BTU. Maybe assume between 50,000-80,000 BTU for the fire table and it looks like around 250,000-400,000 BTUs is pretty typical for hot tubs.

Let's assume around 60-80' lineal distance from where gas enters our house to the farthest appliance (fire table).

[meritmat]

You may need a larger regulator put in. We had to upsize when we got a grain drying system put in at the farm. Phone your utility company and tell them the btu and what you all plan on running. They may have to come out and put a larger one in. It’s not a whole lot of money

[meritmat]

Also I’m guessing your lines are 1 inch but even if not don’t think it matters much. Also double check if you need a permit and make sure the lines are up to spec. I can get away with a little more being out in the country

[rain_e]

You can buy a hot tub that runs off natural gas? I must be living under a rock.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by rain_e

You can buy a hot tub that runs off natural gas? I must be living under a rock.

My dad rigged his to run off a standard gas water heater in the house, saved a load of money on electricity.

[Rjcsjc62]

If your total Gas load is 524 MBH and the Total Furthest Distance is 80 feet, you need a 1-1/4" gas line stubbing out to your back yard.

This doesn't represent whether or not it would work, this is just from the pipe sizing table in the gas code.

[BigNumbers]

I want to hear more about Natural gas heated hot tubs! Links?

[EldrickOnIce]

[screedle]

Turns out natural gas hot tubs are not as prevalent as some preliminary Googling had me believe, particularly in our climate, so we'll be going with standard electric. I suspect this means there will be no need for sizing up our existing gas line / connection since it will only be supplying a BBQ & fire table.

Thanks everyone who has contributed to the thread, all of the info and additional considerations are very much appreciated!