Gas Lights

My wife and I have always loved the old world charm of Gas Lights. When we set out to build our home we knew we wanted to install them on the front of our house.

After choosing our House Plans we revised them to add gas lanterns on the front porch. We added a gas line to either side of the porch. During construction it is very easy to add gas piping when installing the piping to the other gas users.

Considerations When Installing Gas Lights

Make certain you plumber installs isolation valves on the piping to the gas lights. Most gas lights come with a small grease filled valve that over time may leak or fail. It is far easier to close an isolation valve and replace the faulty part than to have to shut down your entire gas to the house. This can be very inconvenient in the winter.

Proper Mounting is a very important consideration. Make sure you purchase lights that can be easily removed for cleaning or repair. Our lights came with a bracket that is a square hoop that the lights simply slide into. All I have to do is loosen the gas line and lift the gas light out.

What type of Gas will you use? Will you use propane of natural gas? Many of these fixtures will need to be fitted with the proper orifice to insure a good burning pattern. Gas lights are not designed to be efficient, they are designed to produce a yellow old timey looking flame.

Insure they are easy to light, and will not blow out frequently. Our lights have a easy open door on the front that makes lighting a breeze. The manufacturer also guaranteed they would not blow out under normal conditions. This I had my doubts about, but I am now convinced they have been lit for almost 2 years and never have been blown out.

Consider the finish that you want. You can choose from many different finishes, but one key difference was important to us when choosing. You may prefer a highly polished finish or a old time cooper verdigris look. We chose the cooper verdigris look.

If you choose a highly polished finish make sure you can be assured of it staying that way over time. If you choose the verdigris look you can pay more money and have it pre distressed to give it the old green cooper look. We bought ours in plain cooper and are letting time do the finish work.

We chose our lights from GasLite America West.

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