Natural gas meter inside of home

3 years ago

I have a 1950s home in DC. It has the natural gas meter located in the basement. I see that the local gas company has options where you can pay to get it relocated outside. Is it dangerous to keep it inside? I am planning to remodel my basement and not sure if this is something people recommmend doing.

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Comments (9)

kudzu9
3 years ago
It's not dangerous, but in many areas the utilities still use meter readers and that involves letting people into your home. Many people, like me, prefer a meter outside and then I never have to deal with the meter readers or have to be around if they need to do maintenance.
Elmer J Fudd
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Becoming increasingly common are smart meters that have done away with the need for physical meter readings. They use low power radio communications to communicate daily (and hourly, in the case of electricity) usage data. When you have a smart meter, your own data is available to you (with a delay of a day or two, depending) online.

Check with your utility, see if a smart meter is available. Ours were installed a long time ago, maybe not quite 10 years ago, and it was free.
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Bruce in Northern Virginia
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I have a 1940 home in Alexandria, VA and my gas meter is inside the house. Its relatively new, and apparently they can read it remotely. The meter was kind of an eyesore to work around when we finished off the basement room, but we framed it in and used a large metal utility door for the cabinet (about an 18" x18" door).

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mtvhike
3 years ago
How much would it cost to move it outside? If that's not prohibitive, I would do so (for the eyesore reason, not safety). Some years our gas company decided to replace all the meters and underground piping. They came by unannounced on a Saturday and, when I asked them if they could move the meter outside, they said "yes, if you had asked earlier", otherwise it would have been extra cost. That was 20 years ago. Since then, the inside meter has been replaced with one which can be read remotely, but it is still an eyesore.
mike_home
3 years ago
That is a question you need to ask the gas company.
fnmroberts
3 years ago
Years ago the gas meters needed to be protected from freezing temperatures. Modern ones function properly in cold conditions.

Speak with your gas company. It’s a one-time charge to relocate and that additional basement space might prove useful.
A R
last year
Mine was installed inside in 2016. I asked the technician to put it outside where the original was and he said BGE (Baltimore utilitys company) would not let him.
photo1257
29 days ago
There must be a clearance of at least 3' around the meter
Jake The Wonderdog
23 days ago
It's interesting that some utilities are still putting these inside. In central Indiana they have been outside since at least the 1970's. The weather here is at least as bad as anything in DC/Baltimore area.

This is simply inertia on the part of the utility.

Natural gas meter inside of home

Comments (9)

kudzu9

Elmer J Fudd

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Bruce in Northern Virginia

mtvhike

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A R

photo1257

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