LPG hob installation - cost?

[Anonymous]

It's another ballpark figure query I'm afraid.

The place we are buying isn't on mains Gas, but I don't think I can face cooking on an Electric hob. Does anyone have a rough figure as to what it costs to get a gas fitter in to run pipes and hook up LPG to a hob?

I've never had one of those flash ceramic electric hobs mind, so feedback on them may be useful too.

Thanks,

Pete

 

[Anonymous]

We have a gas cooker connected to a 47kg gas tank. The tank is outside. You need to drill a hole through the wall and poke the gas pipe through and connect it to the cooker. We have a flexible hose with a regulator gismo on it. I think it cost about 20 quid a long time ago. It screws on to the top of the gas cylinder with a nut that is threaded the 'wrong' way. The other end is fixed to the cooker with the help of a jubillee clip.
To do it like that is now totally illegal of course. The pipe through the wall has to be rigid (in case of eathquakes?) and the fexible hose has to be armoured (in case of squirrels?) and you need to hire a man with a Corgi and another with a clipboard. And I am completely unqualified to say anything to do with something as dangerous as a gas cooker.

 

[Anonymous]

If you have room in the cupboard below the hob you can use the butane cylinders used in the mobile gas heaters just connected by a flexible hose from a regulator on top of the bottle - you change the bottles in exactly the same way. I believe they are the same regulators and hose, so it should be cheap - but you still need a CORGI fitter to do it, though the cost should just be any callout charge plus around a tenner for the hose, clip and regulator. I had this arrangement 10-15 years ago and it worked fine. A single gas heater type bottle lasted 9-12 months depending on use - hob cooking actually uses very little gas. The burner nozzles on the hob are usually the same for butane and propane (but different for natural gas).
If the bottle is outside or exposed to low temperatures, you MUST use propane cylinders as butane will freeze. It's difficult to estimate cost as it depends on the length of pipe run etc. but copper pipe and a special regulator will be needed. By the way, if you only use it for the hob, you won't really need the big 47Kg cylinders (about 5 ft high) and you don't really need a switch over regulator (i.e. one for two bottles which automatically switches to a second cylinder when the first runs out) as even the smaller bottles last for ages. The switchover regulator is also expensive - £100-£150!. If you can change the bottles yourself (small ones only!) you will save a lot of money on the installation costs.
If you can find room in the hob cupboard, I'd recommend you use the butane option - its simple, cheap and easy and you just use the standard gas heater bottles available just about everywhere.

Either way, have a spare bottle around as things like that always run out at the most inconvenient time....

 

[Anonymous]

We've got a fitter and his corgi coming round tomorow to do exactly that, so I'll let you know how much he thinks it will cost.

 

[Anonymous]

[No message]

 

[Anonymous]

Unless the rules have changed in the last five years or so, and contrary to popular belief, you do NOT have to be CORGI registered to do your own gas plumbing.

 

[Anonymous]

Internal pipework should be rigid metal, usually copper, to provide some degree of fire resistance. The only permitted exception is a cooker hose.

The pipework through the wall, if it's a cavity wall, should be routed through a continuous sleeve to prevent any gas leaks into the cavity. The pipe should be sealed to the sleeve with a flexible sealant on the inside surface, so that any leaks are dispersed to the outside. It is good practice to provide a sleeve for any pipe passing through a wall.

There are reasons for all the regulations.

You don't have to be CORGI registered to do your own gas work, but you have to be 'competent'. I don't think competent is defined in this context, but if it should fail, then you probably weren't.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, the gas man cameth...
Cost for a CORGI-approved propane set-up is nearly £300 plus VAT. It involves, as stated here, drilling a 22mm hole through the wall to accept a sleeved copper pipe, sealed on the inner side, a metal fixed coupler from which runs a 10mm flexible hose with a bayonet fitting to the cooker. Outside a switchable regulator connects to two 47-kilio cylinders.
All of which is darned expensive, so he suggested going down the butane route, as the cooker is only going to be in its current location for a year or so.
Butane can be kept indoors, so there's no drilling through walls, and the hose is connected directly to the regulator on the bottle and a spigot on the back of the stove. The only regulation to heed is that the hose has a maximum length of two metres. Total cost for parts, labour and call-out, £46 plus VAT.
That, though is for a temporary set-up - we'll have to bite the bullet and get the proper fitting done when the final cooker is in its proper place. But, as Biff says, many people are happy to use Butane as a regular fuel anyway, and the cooker won't know the difference; the only distincton being that the regulator works at a slightly lower pressure.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info Gervase,

That's a fair bit more than I'd imagined, so may have to go down the butane route too, at least initially.

Pete

 

[Anonymous]

£300?

You could get all the bits from BES. If you're competent, you could install a more permanent installation and get the gas bottles outside.


BES

 

[Anonymous]

Wrong link. Try again.


BES