The gas company located the existing 2" line connecting our well and the neighbors' wells, and they left me a 2" tap for our house line.
We hand dug 8', 20 " deep near the buried line, and used a mini excavator for the rest.
The ground here is mostly sandstone, and it took 9 hours with the machine to dig 277'.
I unrolled 1" plastic, and a tracer wire. That was by far the easiest part, 1/2 hr by myself.
Here are our preliminary inspectors.
The well is currently producing at 70 psig. The well tender's records showed the highest recorded pressure was 295, after a swabbing. I don't know what swabbing is, but if it makes production increase, I like it. We sized the primary regulator for a max of 500 psig inlet and 2-10 psig outlet.
A gas meter and a second regulator are at the house, reducing pressure to somewhere around 15 inches of water. That regulator has a pop off feature, to open in case of extreme high pressure, and a low pressure cutoff, to avoid sustained underfiring of appliances. The meter is to make sure we pay for any gas we use over our 150,000 cubic feet our lease allows.
Inside, I ran corrugated stainless from a manifold to the stove and furnace, with room for a future water heater and space heater. I had a gas stove waiting, and I'll convert the furnace from propane to gas. I installed the furnace 10 years ago, and carefully kept the natural gas orifices and gas control spring in a safe place. For at least 9 years, they were in the way. Now, I can't find them! Another $50, and new parts are on the way.
I have about $1000 into this project, and I still need sand to backfill. Next weekend I'll make final connections at either end, and pressure test. Then set the regulators, convert the furnace, set up the furnace with the combustion analyzer, install the stove, and set the thermostat! I'm planning on a new thermostat with wireless connections to the internet, and an optional web cam. This is a weekend home for now. I can then monitor or change the temperature from home, and check on the horses with the web cam.
We also dug into the former pile of coal next to the house. There was a 1" layer of fines, under about 2" of topsoil. We haven't had a coal delivery in 30 years.
