Gas Fitting Services for the entire home

Southern Plumbing can assist with all your gas fitting needs, no matter how big or small the job is. Our local Wellington gas fitters provide fast service, quality workmanship combined with quality parts and products is what makes us great.

We can also help with gas fitting repairs and maintenance, as well as residential gas appliances like ovens, gas heating & cooking, BBQ’s and hot water heaters.

Get in touch with us today on 0800 484 353.

Our registered Master Gasfitters can come to any location within Wellington.

Gas Cooking

We supply  install upright cookers and gas cook tops or hobs. We install commercial  and domestic varieties including gas deep fryers, barbecues, grillers and salamanders, gas ovens, and hot plates. We also convert gas cooking equipment to LPG or Natural Gas.  We eliminate gas daily charges by installing gas bottles using LPG also.

Gas Heating

We supply and  install gas fires and flame effect fires, panel heaters and wall furnaces. A popular gas heater is the Rinnai Energy Saver series for fast efficient and low cost heating of spaces.

Gas Central Heating

We undertake central heating repairs and replacements, new installations. We can take your old unit away and replace your ducting with more efficient ducting with less heat loss. New furnaces are more efficient and have lower running costs.

A typical installation will require a new gas line installed from under the building or house  or gas meter and run it to the new location either inside or outside. A return air duct will be taken to the hall way and new ducting taken from

the central heating furnace to the new outlets usually situated near windows and outside walls. The grills are 300mm x 100mm and have a closing damper on each one.

We install a thermostat in the hall and connect it to the furnace.

Gas furnaces can be fueled by a number of fuel including LPG and Diesel but are usually supplied with Natural gas as it is a cheaper fuel.

Buildings with central heating should be insulated in the ceiling particularly but also in the walls and under floor. The windows should be double glazed.

Gas Water Heating

We supply and install gas water heating. Storage , and continuous flow.

Gas Installation Check list

• Gas supply to house
• Pipe large enough to water heater position
• Position of waterheater is clear of combustibles eg chemicals stored close by
• Position meets manufacturers position requirements
• Flue will be in the right place and can exit ok
• Power supply needed
• Power supply is RCD protected

We install and service gas water heating Wellington wide. There are different types of gas water heating. Continuous flow or storage gas water heating. Continuous is vastly more popular now as it has the advantage of not running out and the heater is small and you only heat what you need. There is little heat loss with continuous flow gas water heating.

Continuous Flow Gas Water Heating

Location

Continuous flow water heaters can be installed outside which is the more common location near the kitchen sink if possible this reduces the run to the most used hot water outlet therefore reducing the heat loss of hot water in dead legs of piping.

Internal units can also be used and are often installed in ceiling spaces with a flue extending through the roof. The reason fewer internal units are installed is due to the higher cost of the flue.

Types

Continuous flow units come in two types. One is plugged into the wall and the other generates its own power to operate the ignition.

Sizes

Continuous flow units have out puts measured in litres per minute or hour often at shower temperature.

Installation Issues

Continuous Flow gas water heaters use a lot of gas quickly so need a larger supply pipe than that of a storage type or gas cooker.

There are clearances to opening windows and corners of buildings of 300mm and in front of the unit of 500mm.

The installation of the units must be approved by a Certifying gas fitter. Which we have.  We don’t need to bring a certifier in from another firm.

The electricity outlet needs to have a plug to comply with warranty and that point needs to be protected by RCD device.

Common Installations

Bosch or Rinnai 24 or 26 installed outside with 20 meters of piping, hot, cold or gas piping, an electrical connection and removal of the old hot water heater and cap piping.

Storage Gas Water Heating

Storage gas water heaters were fairly common and ran out of hot water  a lot less than electric water heaters and recovered 3 times faster. They are mostly superseded by continuous flow gas water heaters.  There are internal and external types. We install a range of hot water cylinders Wellington wide.

Dual Purpose Hot Water and Heating

Overseas split systems are more popular in Europe for example they install these water heaters outside and inside where there is a freezing risk, and they are similar to continuous water heaters but they also heat water for space heating which is sent to radiators in each room. They are installed here too in small numbers due to the higher cost of radiator installation.

Gas Hot Water Wellington

There is a trend to continuous flow water gas hot water heating, to gain the space occupied by the water heater storage tank, and have more hot water. The new continuous flow gas hot water heaters are normally mounted on the outside wall, as they are usually, more expensive to mount inside due to the flue cost. The job of changing over normally involves taking out an electric storage tank inside, and fitting a gas continuous flow unit outside. A check is needed to determine if sufficient gas pressure is available from the gas supplier. A new gas supply is run from an existing gas supply in the building, and a cold water pipe taken to the new position and a hot water pipe taken to the existing hot water piping from the new unit.
An external electric hot point is installed outside below the new unit to power the ignition and control mechanism, which has an Residual Circuit Breaker Device (RCD). You can also specify optional control pads which are installed in the bathroom, and or kitchen. These give a digital readout on the temperature. They can also control the temperature by setting the control pad to a set temperature. This can be used instead of a shower mixer and have bath fill options. The maximum temperature for a domestic unit is 55 degrees C’.

Some of the Installation Requirements for Continuous Flow gas water heaters

The gas supply has to be large, to get enough energy to the unit, and is often a big part of the job. It cannot be taken from a pipe less than 20mm in diameter, and not more than 9m of 20mm pipe can be installed. After that the rest of the pipe must be 25mm and that rules out taking a branch of cookers, fires, and storage water heaters.

So we have to find a bigger pipe e.g. 25mm usually. This is because the water heaters need a lot of energy quickly to heat 20-26 liters of water in one minute. In fact 50Kw of energy input is why gas has an advantage over electric, where 2-3 Kw is normal.

The Continuous flow units can only be installed in certain positions –

• 300mm away from internal and external corners
• 300mm away from an opening windows
• 1.5m below and opening window
• 500mm away from electrical meter boxes vent openings

On completion a gas installation needs to be certified  Gasfitter, and a Registered Electrician which is done as part of the job.

The Old Mechanical units

Many people are familiar with the old mechanical units which deliver a lot less hot water and used to suffer from pilot outage – this is no longer a problem with the new units. The old mechanical gas units used to deliver 10-13 liters per minute the new units deliver 20-32 liters per minute of shower temperature water.

The older units have improved considerably in recent times and are now able to generate their own electricity for ignition purposes.  That means no pilot any more to go out and no batteries either.

Benefits of Gas Hot Water

• Endless showers in the case of continuous flow water heaters
• Smaller size of gas heaters over electric or gas storage tanks.
• Improves the value of buildings.
• Better for the environment.
• Better shower flow.