Gas service freezing

William Smith100@aol.com

My gas service keeps freezing, every night the service freezes and the local gas company comes out and pours methanol down the pipe,wraps the meter with "electric" pipe warming tape, wraps it in insulations and says it will be ok. Well next nite it is frozen again,,no heat/ hot water. How safe is wrapping a high pressure gas line with an electric heating coil tape?? is this something new in New England?? P.s. this is nat gas.,,,,,not propane. they claim there is water in the gas????

Any input would be appreciated,,,,,,gotta go relight my wtr htr for a shower,,,,,,,,,thanks

Mark A. Custis

I'm not sure why I am

up at this time of the day but I am.

You have water in the line. The methane is designed to mix with the water and let it blow through the system. If you are on a commercial system **** until they pump out the water.

Most of the time in the oil feilds of Ohio we put a "drip tank" before the point of use. Just a tank to retain the water. Most of the time the bottom of the tank is below frost line. The tanks are to be purged as needed.

Good luck

Mark

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MIKE6

I ask for gas not ice

Wrapping the pipe is safe.Your problem or the gas company's problem is how do I correct this.One is by re-installing the gas service and meter to inside the house.I'm surprised to hear the high pressure gas is freezing.Most problems are low pressure gas freezing.Water does get into the gas and the demand of gas causes it to be mixed and pulled into the service.If the service is very cold it freezes.If it ever warms up the problem will go away.Demand a corrective action these band aids are not acceptable.I would go to the utility authority and place a formal complaint.

[Deleted User]

We see

that occasionally at the high to low pressure regulator. Most gas folks pipe a drip before the regulator. But when the flow stops, any moisture on the leaving side solidifies & stops the flow.

That is where I would concentrate w/ the tape and insulate over it. Sounds like the gas folks need to do some PM Work at their regulator stations.

Mark J Strawcutter

I grew up

with a private well. 60psi at the well head, regulator right by the well dropping it to 20psi for 3/4mi up thru the woods to the house and a low pressure regulator.

It was always the high pressure regulator that froze up, and always at 4am. At least that's the way it seemed at the time :-)

That regulator was a real antique - about a 14in disk with a long arm and sliding weight to adjust the pressure.

Lots of rural folks around here have an "alcohol bottle" made from 6-8in well casing and filled with alcohol. Gas enters at the bottom and exits from the top. Need to change the alcohol weekly (or more) during peak winter use.

Mark

Glen

While it is freezing &

we may assume that it is water - it is MHO that this is a very natural phenomena with all regulators. For every 15 psid pressure differential one can expect a 1 deg F drop in gas temp due to natural refrigeration effects. So if supply from the street is 60 psig and you are dropping it to less than half psig - this alone accounts for a 4 - 5 deg drop in gas pressure - add to this the sub sonic velocities associated with low flow or incorrectly sized regs - and the gas supercools and freezes in the reg. The outside of the reg then condenses and freezes all available water vapout in the atmosphere. As an example - have you ever blown down a large compressor receiver through a 1/4 inch ball valve - takes about 3-5 min and that valve is frozen shut - same effect - high pressure to an abrupt low pressure. The refrig folks use it to their advantage. Additives slow it down and may inhibit most of this - but it's good old physics that's causing you grief. Most often this occurs between 30 and 45 deg F.

Glen

error -

should read drop in gas temp - sorry for the confusion

[Deleted User]

Here is an addendum.

Good friend, who knows gas better than the gas co. down here, had no heat last night. Found a frozen screen ell on the regulator vent. Hair dryer, to thaw the ice & a brush to clean off the screen, took care of it.

Just another trick to add to our arsenals.

Glen

great tool -

or a heat gun. Was called to a heli ski lodge last year - kitchen and heat down - service regs were buried under 9 feet of snow (6 for sure!) used the heat gun to thaw the vents.

Aidan (UK)

weird

I've never heard of that happening.

Something similar can happen with carburettors, the fuel evaporates and the latent heat of vaporisation causes a cooling effect. It can cause the carburettor to ice up and stop the engine. Then, when you get out to look for the problem, the heat from the engine melts the ice. Many carburetors are heated with the engine cooling system to prevent this.

How about an insulated enclosure with trace heating tape and a thermostat? I suppose the gas company wouldn't like someone else's electric devices on their equipment?

Glen

It is indeed -

the very same phenomena - my old VW bug was notorious for icing up at the wrong time. In gas applications - oversized regs are notorious culprits.