I have an existing natural gas line that feeds my furnace, water heater, and an indoor fireplace. That's all working fine. I'm considering adding a second line that would feed a new gas range (my current range is electric), an outdoor grill, and an outdoor fireplace. There is a guy coming next week to make a quote for the work, but I wanted to get a jump on understanding the situation.
I understand that the new line has to be sized large enough to support all the load I will place on it, and also the gas line into the house (and up to where the two lines split) has to be large enough to support everything I'm planning.
I can find the numbers for the existing indoor fireplace, water heater, and furnace, but I have not yet purchased the items on the second line (new gas range, outdoor grill, outdoor fireplace) so I'm looking at descriptions online to estimate BTU usages.
The grill seems straightforward, at least this one says 48,000 BTU.
But when I look at gas ranges, it gets complicated. All of the ranges on homedepot.com (like this one) tell me the BTUs for each burner, but not the BTUs for the ovens. And even if I find the BTU for the oven, do I size the gas line so I can run every burner at full power AND both ovens at full power, all at the same time? I guess that's not a totally ridiculous scenario on Thanksgiving …
What value do I use for BTUs for a gas range when sizing the gas line?
Best Answer
The size for the range goes back to your cooking style if you use 2 burners all the time or are like my wife uses 2 burners the griddle and one of the ovens at the same time you add all that up but remember you probably won’t be grilling at the same time or the furnace may not need to turn on as often while using the range. It won’t hurt to size everything for maximum flow but the pain may be in the check book when you find you need 1-1/2 lines to do this but only really need 1” for actual use. So if you use all the burners and oven at the same time add them in but then think will you be grilling outside? Or will the heater need to come on? And go from there.