Natural Gas Range

A neighbor is just getting natural gas piped to their home and I am being kind enough to assist Intermountain Gas in allowing them to tap into our line and essentially branch off. This is the second time this has come up so far.

It turns out that the system’s pressure runs at 55LBS and each one is just given 7 water column inches (WCI) barely any; in fact it can be stopped with finger pressure. I was told that the 55# line could handle another 26 homes.

It is possible that the environmental damage done outweighs the benefits of extracting more energy from the earth.

Distribution Berkeley Ca

Natural gas is invisible and odorless. We add a scent called Ethyl Mercaptan, or Mercaptan for short in 1937 to help us detect leaks after a school explosion in New London Texas. The same thing goes for propane.

Natural Gas is piped all over the country through an intricate network of underground pipes This network, like everything, requires lots of observation and maintenance or the darn stuff gets out and can blow up a neighborhood. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen very often.

I recall hitting a line while attempting to dig a post hole. Talk about embarrassing, We now have a great system of line locating called Dig Line, a free service that can be contacted by dialing 811.

What's Under There?

I switched to Natural Gas many years ago from Oil to heat my home. I did it because the heating oil was expensive and the machinery was antique, and the heat was dirty as well as primitive when it comes to energy efficiency. I found a site where lots of energy sources are compared.

Although we have some of the cheapest electricity cost in the nation here in Boise Idaho, natural gas still beats it for doing all of the things we heat in the home.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that residential  natural gas stoves became competitive with electricity in ability to hold high temperatures and pricing.

Fracking

Lately things are changing around in the energy world. It used to be that electricity was generated by coal and by hydroelectric plants exclusively, Now wind and solar energy are becoming players. What I don’t get is that they are using natural gas to create electricity. It must make sense to the bean counters.

I am more inclined to use less electricity rather than use our natural gas to create electricity.

Incandescent bulbs are being phased out as of the beginning of this year to incentivize  more energy efficient means of illuminating the darkness, like compact florescent and LED. Now there is something to crow about.

Natural gas has been in the spotlight lately because it is becoming more plentiful as a result of a controversial new technique of extracting it called fracking. This is where a mixture of chemicals, or in some cases waste water is pushed into the ground and the gas is liberated. In Ohio recently, there has been an unusually large number of earthquakes possibly linked to the practice.

Compressed Natural Gas

CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) is being touted as clean energy and many municipalities and garbage trucks are being converted in our area. The infrastructure is not in place for the general public yet. However, you can count on growth in that sector, especially if the numbers work out to be less expensive than other fossil fuels.

Regardless of the method of extraction, this country has seen Natural Gas production and utilization on the rise. I sincerely hope a better/safer extraction method is invented soon. From my perspective Natural Gas is a viable BTU (British Thermal Unit) producing, fairly clean, (if you don’t count Fracking right now) fossil fuel energy source that has not met its potential yet. In our nations energy hungry state, I see lots of room for increased dependency on Natural Gas in the future.

Disclaimer: Some of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim them and I will gladly remove them at once.

OSHA approved ramp

Levco Builders has a firm foundation in the safety world Joe is a Flight Paramedic and Diane is a former EMT. We as a company are always looking at our processes and procedures as well as our tools to ensure safety. Although all accidents cant be prevented we pride ourselves in our safety record. From job site audits of extension cords to removing ladders from the site that are unsafe to constructing OSHA approved ramps, we always are looking out for our selves our homeowners and our selves. We recently were invited to the Nampa Civic Center for a Dig Line safety program presented by an emergency responder and former police officer from Kansas. Levco has been using Dig Line for years and despite the line locating services they provide we have nicked an underground line from time to time.

Nicked cable line

Fortunately there has been no serious incidents and our hats go off to them for all that they do.

For this excavation project we used a mini excavator, wheel barrels, and some man power to remove 55 yards of dirt.

Read all about it at our Laumann project blog

Britt Digging It

This project calls for 2 additions to the home and a 2 car garage addition.

Each one requires footings, stem walls, and the garage has flat work. We were also allowed to rebuild the front steps because they did not meet current code. Our excavator is an old pro and with his quiet machine he was able to save us a tremendous amount of work. Harold Foote was also kind enough to dig for our new

Harold checking depth

sewer and water lines as well as assist with demolition. Harold brought his son Britt who he is teaching the trade, just Brian is teaching his son Jason the tricks of the trade when it comes to framing.

The excavation went fairly well except for the 8″ frozen ground. We had a near miss when a chunk of frozen ground broke loose under the pressure of the Bob Cat and struck one of the guys in the back. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. Once the trenches were just right, the forming crew showed up.