LPG to Mains Gas Conversion: 40% Lower Gas Costs and Two Thirds More Oven Throughput

Runcorn Powder Coatings strips, shot blasts and powder coats metal from its unit on Goddard Court, on the Astmoor Industrial Estate in Runcorn. Until August 2026 its curing ovens ran on bottled gas (LPG). Since 12 August they have run on mains gas.

Director Kev Matthews puts the change in three numbers. Gas costs are down 40% in money terms. The ovens heat up a degree every 9 seconds, against 21 to 22 seconds on bottled gas. And the site gets through about two thirds more loads a day.

Getting there took 212 days. The unit already had a medium-pressure gas service, but no meter, and the service was due to be cut off. We fixed a five-year gas price in January, then chased the supplier, the gas network and the meter operator for seven months until a U40 meter went in, 15 days before the disconnection date. The customer paid nothing for the connection work we handled.

When Chris Murray, director, asked us for help in January 2026, the unit had a 2 bar medium-pressure gas service laid in 2018. The meter had been removed, and the gas network had logged the service to be cut off. The ovens were still running on bottled gas.

Three problems stood between the business and mains gas.

• The pipe ended inside the building. A medium-pressure supply needs a pressure regulator ahead of the meter, and that equipment cannot sit inside the main building unless strict conditions are met. The first meter visit, on 25 February, could not go ahead.
• The first new box was too small. In April the network relaid about 10 metres of pipe to an outside meter box, but the box was sized for a small U6 meter. Gas-fired curing ovens need a U40.
• The clock was running. On 30 July a letter from Cadent, the gas network, set a disconnection date of 27 August 2026 and warned that a disconnected site may have to pay for a new connection.

A connection like this depends on several companies acting in the right order: the supplier, the gas network that owns the service pipe, and the meter operator that fits the meter. A delay at any one of them holds up the rest.

We fixed the price first. On 16 January 2026, four days after the first call, the business signed a five-year fixed gas contract at 3.74p/kWh, running to 31 December 2030.

Then we worked the connection. Our case file holds 100 entries between January and August, 60 of them calls, emails and chases to the supplier, Cadent, Stark (the meter asset manager) and the meter installer. Along the way we:

• got the supplier to confirm there would be no charge for the new connection;
• escalated with Cadent so the service was relaid outside the building as emergency work, free of charge, rather than through a non-standard alteration with a £570 + VAT quotation charge;
• pushed back when the first box proved too small, until Cadent agreed, as a gesture of goodwill, to return and build a U40 kiosk;
• sent Stark the kiosk and valve photos it needed to order a medium-pressure meter module, and booked the install for 12 August, 15 days before the disconnection date;
• sent Cadent written confirmation that the meter was fitted when it called to check, ahead of the 27 August date.

We also waived our own site-works fee for the meter installation.

The U40 meter was fitted on 12 August 2026, and Stark confirmed the job was completed as planned.

Kev Matthews, Director, describes the difference in his own words: gas costs down 40% in money terms, the ovens heating a degree every 9 seconds instead of 21 to 22 seconds on bottled gas, and about two thirds more loads a day.

To put the oven figures in context, warming an oven from 20°C to the 160°C cure temperature takes roughly 50 minutes at 21.5 seconds a degree, and 21 minutes at 9 seconds a degree. That is our arithmetic from Kev's figures, and it is time the business now spends coating rather than waiting.

The unit rate is fixed at 3.74p/kWh until 31 December 2030, so the business knows what its ovens will cost to run for the next four years.

How long does a business gas connection take?

This one took 212 days from the first call to a working meter. The installation itself was quick: the meter went in seven days after it was booked. The months went on what came before it, moving a medium-pressure service outside the building and getting a kiosk the right size for the meter. That stage sits with the gas network and the meter operator, and it is where connections often stall, which is why we chase it for you.

If you are thinking of moving from LPG to mains gas, start with our guide to a new gas connection and what new connection costs look like, or send us the details through the gas connection application. For another manufacturer that cut its gas costs with us, read how Typocolor saved £22,668 on gas.