Moving Gas Meter Outside? archived

I suspect it is more a question for PSEG than the township department of buildings. The meter is after-all property of PSEG.

As a side note, I know you can pay to have a wireless reading device installed on an interior gas meter that will allow the meter to be read without PSEG entering your house.

We have the wireless reader, but are finishing the basement and the meter is very much in the way.

Does anyone here have their meter outside, perhaps?

A quick review of the NJ International Residential Code which is the accepted building code in the entire state did not reveal anything that would prevent a gas meter from being located outside.

Interesting, it requires that newly installed gas piping enter a house above grade. Most of our old houses have internal meters with buried gas piping entering below grade which are obviously grandfathered.

I've found the Maplewood Plumbing Sub-code Official (Gas piping is under his jurisdiction), to be extremely courteous and helpful offering advice for my DIY projects. You may want to give him a call and discuss with him.

Oh we will definitely call, just wondering if anyone here knew already. Immediate gratification and all that!

I called last week after having an estimate read for three months. they told me that there is no "list", but they are contracting out to another company who will provide the area with meters. there is a letter that will go out and to homes when they have enough supply.

goldstec said:

I called last week after having an estimate read for three months. they told me that there is no "list", but they are contracting out to another company who will provide the area with meters. there is a letter that will go out and to homes when they have enough supply.

I hope this is true, but I've been told a variation of this for over 5 years.

When I called the other day they didn't even say that much. They just said that I could not get on a list and I would be notified when the opportunity arose to get the outside reader. I've lived in this house 20 years and never received any kind of notification of the availability of those readers. With the water company, I just called and they came and installed it. I don't understand why it isn't in PSE&G's interest to get them in so that the meter readers can do their jobs without customers being at home.

I think it is because they make out better by estimating your meter reading by estimating on the high end. They get that float to use until things get settled with an actual reading. And they do not make getting a reading easy for those of us that work during the day. I've even been stood up when I had a scheduled appointment. Anyway, that's my theory. there's got to be some sort of financial incentive for them to keep the meters inside.

Job protection is a factor. In my two-family house, I was able to get remote-read meters for gas and for electric for the two apartments, but the house meter, which is considered a commercial account, can't be a remote-read meter. The guy who installed the remote-read meters told me it's a union thing. The house meter hasn't been read in over two years. Hope I'm not in for an unpleasant surprise.