Gas meter covers

Today I learned why it’s a good idea to have the little plastic shields over my natural gas meter. We were down in Marshall at Mike Surls birthday party over the weekend. Around 7pm we arrived home to find the temperature in the house a tad bit chilly at 38°. I reset my furnace (high efficiency self-ignitor) and it still wouldn’t ignite. That can only mean that there’s no gas coming in.

I put my boots on and found my gas meter covered in ice, including the little “breather” port on top of it. I’m not fully certain what function it plays but I guessed an important one. I fetched a crow bar and liberated it from its ice cocoon. I could smell gas at the meter after that so I guessed that something good had happened. After rebooting the furnace, it auto-ignited and roared to life.

Apparently the sun melted snow from the roof, which dropped onto the gas meter where it instantly froze. It looks like I’ll be doing something about that soon. The house is now warming but it’s taking a while. I have to sign off, my fingers don’t cooperate with the keyboard when they’re this cold. I type even worse with my gloves on. I can’t understand why it’s taking the house so long to warm, it only -8° F outside.

Update (Jan 2011): Meter-mate wrote me a note informing me of their existence.