gas lighting

j a_2

Hello   Anyone in mass. know of an outdoor gas light/lantern,if you will that is a listed product for use in residential nat. gas home...Thanks   ja

Larry Weingarten

Humphrey...

... still makes gas lights.  They use a mantle rather than open flame.  The same company used to make rather nice water heaters!



Yours,  Larry

Jean-David Beyer

Humphrey...

My dad had a house with a coal burning furnace for heating. There was a "hairpin" of steel (I suppose it was) pipe that went into and out from the firebox that cold water entered. This then went to the cold water input of a gas fired hot water heater. It was just a helical coil of tubing with a gas burner at the bottom not unlike the burner of a kitchen stove. It had some kind of aquastat that turned the gas on and off. Or maybe it was not an aquastat, but a flow detector. It sort of worked. It said "Humphrey" on it; cast into the metal. There must have been a standing pilot light in there, but I do not remember it.



Which reminds me. A kid down the street had hot water heater just like it. His father was a locomotive engineer on the DL&W railroad. He had no vent pipe on his water heater, just a hunk of steel wool loosely packed where the vent pipe should go. So it exhausted into the basement. His view was that there was no point wasting the heat outside in winter. Well, I do not know the CO concentration in that basement. Perhaps it was less than what came out of the stack of the steam locomotives he drove.

icesailor

Mass. Gas Lighting:

Go to the Massachusetts Plumbing and Gas Website and look up approved products. It is search-able.

I am assuming that you are looking for an approved light? If it isn't approved, a AHJ inspector may not allow you to use it. Just because a company claims they are approved in MA, doesn't mean it is. The sight will give you the approval numbers of the listed appliance that will make it legal and make the AHJ happy.

I had an issue with unvented gas fireplace logs. The company I had used in the past didn't have any listings but had nice products, sold in the area where I live. I looked on the Website and found another company that had nicer log sets that were all listed with approval numbers for all their equipment.

Check it out.

moneypitfeeder

I've used this site before

Hi, I've used http://www.gas-lights.com/ to find the correct mantles for the gas lights up at our cabin. They made a heck of a difference btw, I had been using smaller ones that I could find at camping stores, and they just didn't put out the bright light like the appropriately sized ones do. They do have a bunch of lights to choose from as well. Good luck in your search!

Gordy

Reasoning for wanting gas outdoor lamps?

I had gas outdoor lamp posts switched to electric. They do not throw much light, and burn 24-7. Electric will give more lumens than NG. A typical double mantel gas light uses 2500 btus an hour. Use cfl bulbs and the ability to have an electric eye will be cheaper in the long run

Gordy

j a_2

thanks and reasons

Thanks for the lead to the gas lite suppliers I have sent them an email requesting info...

  As for why, my customer is very concerned about black outs I guess they remember all the elect. outages years past, once the whole east coast went out...They don't seem to remember any gas outages.. I am also interested because as a Master plumber. think of the business of replacing electric lites with n/g.....Safe, clean ,no nuc plants, no stupid windmills...in our oceans and fields...less of a monopoly by elect companies...the list goes on...Also they are my customers and want them...Cant think of a better reason than that

    Of course ice-sailor, I will only use listed products or present it to the state plumbing board for approval...Would never do otherwise...ja

Mark Eatherton

Clean???

Whenever I get any where near a gas lamp, I can smell the aldehydes, which tells me it is not a clean burn. Cozy aesthetics, yes, but clean, I seriously doubt that. Many of the newer gas lamps have a requirement for a solid state ignition module, which will render them useless when the power fails...



ME

Gordy

Btus per year

21,900,000. If its a non electronic ignition 2500 btu dual mantel. Or 219 therms which is what a 2000 sf house may use in the dead of winter for a month if using gas heat.

Gordy

Gordy

Customer knowing what they want

I also have to say that sometimes when a customer knows what they want they can't see the forest because of the trees. It's up to the contractor in any trade to help inform them of the pros,and cons in their chooses . Yes gas lights are cute, novel, and I had the only one on the block or in town as far as I know. But in thinking about operating costs, environment, the use of fossil fuel for such a novel thing made me change to electric. When I removed the lamp post what do ya know it was electric before wires were still there. I'm thinking somewhere down the line from the 50's the gas company had some program for outdoor lighting conversions.



Gordy

SWEI

concerned about black-outs

Would lead me to buy a genset and transfer switch.



If I wanted to stick it to the electric utility, I'd probably invest in NG-fired cogen.



Long after those two projects were complete, I *might* think about gas lighting.  I sure do like my Coleman hanging from a tree for late-night jam sessions in the woods...

Charlie from wmass

every once in a while

we get calls for people who want to go off grid and run propane lighting in their cabins. Thats why we have the 1/4" and 3/8" dies. Dad did not like the idea of running copper tubing where carpenters and sheet rocks can reach it. As for potential business here in MA. I think the last call that got past the planning stage was in the early 1980's.

Ice has the best idea, go to the Plumbing boards site and get the list of approved lamps.

j a_2

thanks

Truly, as a plumber since 1979 the only call I ever had was to remove /disconnect the old piping..feeding the lites.....This customer just wants some lites for her new outdoor deck...looks and conversation purposes...If I do it, I will use 3/8 hard pipe and conceal it....Just a little fun job,and I get paid for it to....And yes, listed appliances are a requirement, here in Mass....Along with a permit, of course...ja