Running an LPG gas supply to a garden shed

[Chris Hogg]

I want to install a gas-fired (LPG) pottery kiln in a shed in the garden (see also thread of late last year). We have an LPG bulk tank supplying the house, and rather than having separate small cylinders to supply the kiln it would seem sensible to have it connected to the supply from the bulk tank. This would mean teeing into the supply pipe immediately after the main stop-tap and running a pipe for some 10m underground, to the shed.

Although I will get a CORGI fitter to do the installation, I'd like to know a couple of things in advance so that I'm prepared and can plan accordingly.

1. Is special pipe required, or is standard copper pipe acceptable, and does it have to be protected in any way? (The supply from the bulk tank appears to be iron, running in a protective plastic sleeve of some sort).

1. What are the requirements for the trench in terms of depth, infill and covering (does the pipe have to be bedded in sand, for example, and does it require covering with tiles or marker tape to protect and/or identify it)?

2. Are there any special requirements that apply to underground LPG pipes? Are there any details on the web for this sort of thing (Ed Sirett's FAQ doesn't include pipes buried outside AFAICS).

Kiln is 17.5 kW when going full blast, using by my estimate about 0.68 m3/hr LPG, if it's important.

[Nigel Molesworth]

Are you sure? The price of the gas is similar, so the only difference is convenience. How often is the kiln used?

[CampinGazz]

Depends on who's bottles of gas you use, if you use calor then your prices will be double at least, if not more,

when i fitted a gas tank to my first motorhome i was amazed at the price differance.. even filling up with autogas which has road duty paid on it, i was paying half the price than i was for the same ammount of gas in calor bottles.

[Chris Hogg]

Good point. I just assumed it would be very much more expensive in small (say 19kg) cylinders. I currently pay 38.9 pence per litre for bulk (FloGas, which includes all their recent 'surcharges'), equivalent to about 76p per kilo (assuming a density of 0.51 g/ml). Not sure what 19kg exchange cylinders cost - only answer phones available at weekends!

[CampinGazz]

from my experiance with calor gas it's more like a pound a litre for their gas, i have the advantage that my gas tank is fitted to a motorhome, so i can drive around to find the cheapest supplier, used to be morrisons at

29.9p a litre, and that's with road tax paid on it, but all gas prices have gone up a bit now, so it's more like 34p a litre, still a hell of a saving compared to when i used bottled gas, and i can re-fill the tank when i want, rather than waiting for the cylinder to run out... which is always when it's raining in the middle of the night, so you wake up to warm beer in the fridge and a freezing van.