I have a gas lamp post in my front yard. I'd love to use the gas lamp, but since it's not connected to my meter (?!), the gas co will charge us around $18/month to have it on, which is ridiculous.

So we're talking about replacing it with an electric lamp. I'm not going to do it myself, but I wanted to check with y'all about what kind of professional I should get to do the work. I have no idea what I'm looking for; ultimately an electrician, I know, but what about capping the gas line?

Do you have access to the shutoff valve for the gas line?

I have access to the house's shutoff valve, but I'm almost certain it's not hooked up to that (if it was, they could meter it and then wouldn't charge me $18/mo for it!). I have no idea where the shutoff for the lamp post might be.

Have you asked the gas company what they would charge to cap the line?

Nope. Just thought about it this morning, since we were talking about building a planter around the thing.

It occurred to me that i didn't want to build then demo a little brick wall in a few months when we decide to actually get the post done.

Dumb question: For 18 dollars is the lamp always burning?

I would also get an estimate for the electric lamp installation and divide by 18. JUst to see how many years it will take for the electric lamp to pay for itself.

Apparently, yes. The stuff from the gas co says "be sure to call us when you turn it on or off so we can bill you correctly!"

To clarify, if you tell them (or they find out) it's on, they just bill you $18/month, flat rate, since they "estimate" that a gas lamp uses x amount of therms per year.

Also, it seems to be full of wasp nests. Hunh.

What are the regulations in your area about getting a qualified gas fitter doing the capping? The gas company may not allow someone else tampering with their line. A permit may also be required.

I'll call the gas co. That seems to be the obvious first step. That and figuring out how to remove the nests before it gets warm enough for the wasps to emerge/come back/whatever they do.

Have you explored a solar powered option for your lamp?

Havne't gotten anywhere near there, but that's a good idea. We want to get an electrician in for other stuff in any case, but...

I'd suggest taking this approach with the gas company:
In these tough economic times, I'd prefer not to have an $18/month gas bill. Please disconnect your gas line so I can replace it with an electric light.
One of 2 things could happen...either they will offer to lower your bill or you might get them to disconnect it for free.

That's a good idea. How about this one......

"My neighbors keep complaining that they smell gas when they walk their dogs past my house."

Heh.. no, I'm not paying them anything, since it's not on. These things are all over my neighborhood. Probably 1/4 of them have been replaced by electric, and maybe 1 out of 20 of the remaining gas ones is actually turned on.

Ken, different areas have different reg's. re: depth of ouside power cables. I know none of the guys I use carries a pick-axe and shovel. Others might. I don't know. You may need to hire someone to do the digging. Be sure to ask.

Here, they have to be more than 40." No telling the depth of that old gas line, unless ths gas co. has records or the neighbors can recall.

Ken, why not ask the Gas co how much it would cost to tie the lamp into the house supply? that seems like the easiest solution to this entire problem....


Also, i am in the middle of a patio project... Our house gas supply goes right under the patio, i dug with a spade shovel to find the gas line.. Our gas co (Atmos) wouldn't do crap to help me find the line.... a private line locator to locate JUST the gas line, wanted 500$.... So i dug, and dug, and dug... my gas line was 3' below grade, and is a orange, aluminium/plastic line.. The line locator guy was nice enough to give me some pointers on how to find the line on my own without doing any damage (he said he worked for Atmos for 12 yr)....when i did get to the line, the line was hard/slick enough that my shovel glanced off of it.. I was digging about 1-2" pieces at a time, and not using a whole lot of foce....


I hope this helps you some, if you decide to do part of the project yourself.

Also, get wasp spray
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?i...ved=0CF8Q8wIwAg

it has about a 7' or so reach, so you dont have to get to close... it is VERY effective at killing them as well... i have a couple bottles around the house....

Just don't get a flammable wasp spray.

"Say Bill, did you notice that new guy down the block was testing out a flamethrower on his front lawn yesterday? Seems like that kind of thing would be a frowned upon by the homeowner's association, dontcha think?"

Ah, that's the benefit of living in an older neighborhood. No HOA! I can set things on fire if I want.

I was going to say, just light the lamp for a month, that should take care of the wasps.

And park on your lawn?

$18 per month really isn't that bad. Most gas lights use about $0.05 per hour when on. If you run it 4 hours every day, and take into account the pilot light running 24/7, you should be right around $15.00 per month in actual usage.

And park on my lawn!

Shawn, that sounds like a real good reason to me to switch it to electric. Or not to have it on at all. I'm glad to hear that the gas co is being realistic, but that's $18/month I could spend on something else (like my Netflix subscription, or the Speed channel).

Gas Lamp posts????

I say turn it off before Jack the Ripper starts skulking about.

I wanted to replace my fence in 2005, the contractor wouldn't touch it 'til I had the gas company come out and map the gas line (which goes south from the outside meter, the fence ends 2 feet north of it)... Gas Company Guy (GCG) comes out, and hooks up either voltage or tone to it, and walks along with his magic signal pick up stick, and dots along the ground where it runs.

I said "can you tell me how deep the pipe is? I want to take these hollyhocks out with a pick..." / "No, sir, I can't tell you that, we would be responsible if it were off by an inch or two... but this tool, if I push this button, reads it out in inches on the screen" - and points to the 12 on the screen... I ask "would that work up at the front of the house so you could get a slope?" / "If I held it over here, it would show me a number on the screen (22") for this point, too!"

Really liked that guy. :P

Bren R.

ben, the line locator guy that marked the electrical and cable did pretty much the same thing for me... he pointed to the Depth on the read out, and let me read the read out with him.. He never "told" me the depth... and it was VERY helpful knowing an approximate depth when i was leveling the ground above the cable and electric line...

Man, I lost both Rs in my name there! :P

Bren R.