WHAT IS THE ECONOMIC LIFE IN SERVICE REGULATORS? HOW LONG SHOULD IT BE?

The use of natural gas in the dwellings in our country has been continuing for more than 30 years. Therefore, the use of service regulators, which are the most important part of gas distribution, has exceeded 30 years. In the meantime, these studies have not yet been completed for regulators while standards concerning economic use related to calibration and replacement have been established for meters, which are important in terms of measurement. Now it is an important need to properly determine the concept of ‘’economic life’’ for the regulators being an important part of the gas distribution system in terms of measurement and safety and to carry out appropriate studies. We take sharing our nearly 30 years of production and design experiences, specifically in the service regulator as a team that has been in the sector since the day when the gas distribution in our country has started, as a duty for the development of the sector. Primarily, we should define the ‘’economic life’’. We can call the period from the start of a device to the time when it is deactivated the ‘’economic life’’.

However, this is not enough by definition because it should be also required to consider the "service" and "maintenance" costs of the regulator which will be required during this period. Furthermore, the initial cost of the device should be considered with these ‘’service-maintenance’’ costs. Considering the average product costs, it is known that the expedition service cost for a device will be almost approximate to the purchase value of the product. Based on this, the ‘’economic life’’ can be defined as the period from the commissioning of the regulator to the first date when it requires ‘’service’’ or ‘’maintenance’’. This is because the primary cost here is no longer the product, but the ‘’service’’ charge of that product. A time can be determined based on good engineering practices and customer expectations accepted all over the world.

According to us, this period should be usually determined as "20 years" for single stage devices (see UK PRS-3 Specification) and this should be usually determined as ‘’10 years’’ (UK PRS-29 specification) for double stage products used in our system. Miscellaneous factors are affecting the economic life cycle. These can be grouped under three main titles as environmental factors, product design, and the type of materials used in the product. Our experiences and research on the effects of these factors on the economic life of the products and the proper designs and materials to be preferred to extend the economic life are specified in our other articles.