(ARA) - Whether your favorite summer pastime is going to the beach, playing golf or just soaking up the air conditioning at your local multiplex, the one activity almost all Americans partake in sometime during the season is an outdoor barbecue.

That people love to cook and eat outdoors should come as no surprise. A total of 14.4 million barbecue grills were shipped to stores last year to meet the demand, and the trend is expected to continue in 2005, according to the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association (HPBA).

On its Web site, HPBA (www.hpba.org) reports that the average grill owner holds 22 cookouts during the grilling ‘season’ from mid-May to September. Some 70 percent of all grill owners fire-up their grills on the Fourth of July, making our nation’s birthday the most popular holiday for barbecuing, followed by Memorial Day (62 percent) and Labor Day (55 percent).

Most grill owners (63 percent) fuel their barbecues with Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), better known as propane, and the majority of these grills use portable gas canisters that must be refilled or exchanged at designated locations when the canister is empty.

For the 63 million American households with access to natural gas or a propane supply (usually through a permanently installed propane tank), there is an easier way to barbecue that doesn’t require refilling gas canisters.

Just as a gas fireplace, oven, water heater or clothes dryer may be permanently connected to a home’s gas supply, so can an outdoor barbecue. Connecting a gas branch line to the grill is a relatively simple procedure that a qualified plumber can perform in a matter of hours.

To help keep installation costs down, make sure your plumber uses flexible soft-temper annealed copper tubing. Sold in 50- and 100-foot coils, it can be installed in one long, continuous run -- without the time-consuming jointing and threading required for rigid steel “black” pipe. It’s also less expensive and easier to work with than corrugated stainless steel tubing, known in the industry as CSST.

Another option for homes with a gas supply is installing a gas convenience outlet outdoors. This makes plugging in your outdoor appliances, like grills and patio heaters, as easy as plugging in an electrical appliance inside.

Convenience gas outlets have a built-in safety device that prevents the gas from flowing if the appliance is not properly connected. The grill can be easily attached and disconnected from the outlet, so moving the grill for storage or cleaning is never a problem.

Grill manufacturers sell gas conversion kits separately to allow their grills to be used with either natural gas or propane, so you don’t have to get rid of your favorite grill.

For more information on the many uses for copper tube in your home, visit the Copper Development Association’s web site, www.copper.org, or log on to www.copperinyourhome.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

SIDEBAR

Function, Not Fashion, Rules in Home Buying

Energy efficiency a major consideration, and gas is fuel of choice

In the excitement of purchasing or building a new home, buyers often find it difficult to tell which features add real value to the home and which are merely “window dressing.”

Buyers need to look “below the surface” to evaluate what they’re really getting, says Tracey Lynn Shifflet, manager of Marketing and Communications for the American Gas Association. Eye-catching décor items like granite countertops are nice, but over time they may not contribute to a home’s resale value, and they won’t help you manage your day-to-day energy bills.

A good place for buyers to start their evaluation, she says, is with the home’s heating and cooling system. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), heating and cooling are a home’s biggest energy users. To find out if your “dream home” is energy-efficient, ask your builder or realty agent a few basic questions.

* Does the house use natural or bottled propane gas, fuel oil, or electricity for space heating?

* If it is an existing home, how old is the furnace?

* Are tax incentives available from the state, or rebates from the builder, if you install a newer, more energy-efficient heating system?

If the answer to the first question is gas, you’ll be happy to know that natural gas will cost less in 2005 than any other home energy source, according to DOE estimates. Bottled gas costs slightly more, but is typically lower in price than oil. Electricity is the most expensive option – costing twice as much as natural gas, on average.

In a resale home, an old or worn-out furnace or boiler will eventually need replacing – something buyers should factor into the purchase price. A modern, high-efficiency gas heating system often pays for itself within a few years of installation, however, and it continues to pay dividends in lower energy bills as long as you own the home. In many states, homeowners can also earn tax rebates for upgrading to energy-efficient heating equipment. Check with your local utility for details.

When considering a home’s energy needs, you’ll want to include appliances as well. The variety of energy-efficient gas appliances available today is virtually unlimited, and includes stainless steel barbecue grills, indoor/outdoor fireplaces, professional-grade ranges and ovens, and heaters designed especially for garage, pool, patio or spa.

If the home you’re buying doesn’t have gas service, installing it before you move in can save you money in the long run. Municipalities and gas utilities frequently offer incentives for doing so, and installation costs are typically low. And even if you can’t afford that gas fireplace in the master bedroom just yet, having gas service gives you the option of adding appliances throughout your home at a later date.

According to the Copper Development Association, the best choice for fuel-gas installations in both new construction and renovations is flexible copper tubing. Unlike rigid steel “black” pipe, copper tubing is easily maneuvered through confined spaces and requires few, if any, joints. And unlike corrugated stainless steel tubing, or CSST, flexible copper tubing is far less expensive and readily available at most plumbing supply houses.

Image 1: Barbecuing is one of the nation's most popular summer pastimes with most grill owners firing up at least 22 times between mid-May to September. Photo courtesy of the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association.