I'm looking to add a rather large natural gas firepit to my backyard. Unfortunately I can't run the pipe underground from the meter out to the firepit because there's about 100' of concrete it would have to go under. So my only choice is to go from the meter up into the attic, through the attic, down the other side of the house and then run it underground the rest of the way to the firepit.
I'm looking at two different large firepits right now. One is rated at 180k BTU's and the other one is rated at 250k BTU's. I currently have 1" pipe running in my attic. I was originally thinking we could just tie into this and then Tee off of it and run the new line the rest of the way through the attic and then down the house and out to the firepit. The total run would be about 175 ft. My dilemma though, if I'm reading the spec correctly, is that 1" line can only supply 144k BTU's at 175'. So I'm thinking that my firepit would be starving for fuel since I'm either going to get a 180k or a 250k firepit. I contacted the gas company and they assured me that it's fine, but I'm not sure I trust them.
I was wondering if I could get a second opinion from the experts on here. Not sure if it matters, but I'm in California and I have a gas meter that has a 1.5" output pipe that gets downgraded to a 1" pipe before it goes into my house and through the attic.
As a follow up question, if I'm right and I won't have enough BTU's for the firepit, could I Tee off the 1" line immediately as it enters the attic and run a dedicated 1.5 inch line through the attic out to the firepit? So I'd have 1.5" out of the meter, downgraded to 1" when it goes into the exterior wall where it will travel about 10' into the attic, then it would Tee off and be upgraded to 1.5" for the remainder of the 165' through the attic, down the other side of the house and through the ground to the firepit.
I'm not sure how natural gas flow works. Would that single 10' section of 1" pipe strangle the rest of the system that's downstream? Or Should I just bite the bullet and rip out the sheetrock on the exterior wall and replace the pipe going from the meter up into the attic with 1.5" as well? Trying not to do that if I don't have to, but if it's my only choice, then it's my only choice.
Curious what you guys think?
Thanks in advance!
