Won't find that 'code' requirement for pipes to be in sleeves under streets or throroughfares in my state either. --------------- That said, whether the owner pays for the upgrades and piping necessary to serve the gas requirements of the dwelling, or whether the gas company pays, will often be determined by the calculated gas demand and whether or not the gas company can sufficiently recover its investment in a resonably short period of time. If when building an all gas home, for example, the gas utility will likely determine that despite the cost to them for the initial hookup, the payback in gas purchases over the life of the structure is more than enough to not charge any installation fee for the gas service. If, however, one has an existing all electric home, but wants to convert to gas just to run a back-up gas generator in the event of a power failure, the utility will likely want to charge the customer the full costs associated with installing the new gas service because there is little chance the company will ever recover their that investment. So it really depends on how much demand one will have that ultimately determines whether or not the utility charges for the service hook-up. ------------ It can also depend upon where the meter is located. Typically, the utility is responsible only for the gas lines up to the meter. Where metering is done at the street in a curb box, the cost to the utility to connect gas service can be negligible. But where metering is done at the dwelling (as it is in my state), the costs to the company for initial installation can be considerable...especially if the dwelling is many hundreds of feet from the street or they encounter things like bedrock. ----------- Bottom line: It is not unusual for the gas utility to charge for installations...especially when gas demand will be low or distances to connect are long or difficult to achieve.

I'm coming full circle. When we moved to Portland 8 years ago, I got Comcast triple play (voice, TV, internet) for $115, it was such a good deal! Well, over time it went up and up and last year, when it was $230 or so, I dropped voice and replaced it with a $12 extra line with our cellular carrier. That took the Comcast bill from $230/mo to $130/mo This weekend I dropped TV, something my kids have been telling me to do, since we hardly ever watch cable TV. That takes my Comcast bill to $95/mo for just 50 MB/s internet. I will also drop my TiVo service at $15/mo. I can reduce it to $85/mo by downgrading to 25 MB/s internet, or I can drop Comcast entirely and get internet from our local telco. They charge $80/mo for 40 MB/s, but there is a 1 year introductory $30/mo price, and I'm told they extend that for another year if you call and state your intention to drop. We are paying for $16/mo for Netflix and Hulu Plus. I might subscribe to an online sports streaming service for another $10/mo. In the summer, I might pay $30 to watch the Tour de France online. TL:DR version - "I was paying $245/mo for Comcast + TiVo, I am now $123/mo for Comcast + Netflix + Hulu + a cellular home phone, and I can get it to $58/mo for telco internet 1-or-2-year deal + Netflix + Hulu + cellular home phone." I will spend about $200 one-time for a used modem, Roku, cables to connect Mac to TV, maybe an OTA antenna. We are still figuring out the limitations of Netflix and Hulu. For example, my son asked how he could watch the current season of Doctor Who. Turns out that BBC UK streams it but only to the UK, and by going through a free proxy server in the UK, you can watch it in the US.

Another thing to consider is a wireless internet provider (WISP). After suffering with dial up for years waiting on cable or DSL to reach me, a WISP finally started service in my area. Although I've only had my wireless service for a few days, so far I am very impressed. I appear to get faster service than the LAN at my employer. WISPs use a radio signal to send the data to a small antenna at your house. The WISP will provide a modem and from there is very similar to cable or DSL. WISPs are generally cheaper and more reliable than satellite internet (no rain fade)and can be much faster. For TV, satellite might be your only option, but both DirecTV and DishNetwork offer competitive plans that should work as long as you have an unobstructed view to the satellite. There are usually plenty of good first time subscriber offers available from both companies in which you can get receivers for up to 4 rooms for free or with one DVR for around $50. The link below has a lot of good info on WISPs and a link to a list of WISPs. Here is a link that might be useful: Wireless ISP Users Chat

I ran 120 outlet and next to it a good size conduit for everything else. And that is what I recommend if you are keeping entertainment devices in an alcove near the TV or within 15'. We had composite, component and one HDMI going through the conduit, but when our new TV came with three hdmi we switched cables in the conduit. If you place connector plates for HDMI, you may as well place three, and that is expensive, can introduce problems signal degradation (yes even digital signals can have problems from too many connections, and HDMI is famously hinky sometimes) We have cat5e from our home server and network distro going to our alcove next to our fireplace where a switch then distributes to WDTV Live, wii, and xbox. they variously feed audio to our receiver and a/v to the TV. we also have wires coming though the conduit to the TV for wii bar, center speaker, and RG6. there is also optical from the TV to the receiver to move 5.1 for live TV. For example if i was installing plates, a couple of years ago I would have needed composite to feed video camera and now I do that DNLA from my phone to my home network to the WDTV to watch videos I shot from my phone on the TV. Without a conduit we would be saddled with regularly changing needs and permanent obsolete hookups. Conduit for non 120 applications is code, and gives you flexibility. Just make sure it is wicked wide (ours is 3" diameter) so you have no trouble fishing cable heads through. It will be behind the TV and no one will ever see it, if you or future owner want to remove the end and cover it with a drywall patch a 3" hole is pretty manageable. I echo the thoughts against expensive cables, they are mostly overpriced and almost never better. I use monoprice.com