My electric co. BGE kindly notified me that they woudl be turning off my electricity on Nov8. Apparently I've been a bad boy.
While looking at their webpage, I came across natural gas safety
It says if you detect natural gas, Dont turn anything on or off. Of course Don't open a window. Huh? Don't try to find the leak. Take you too long and they have special tools, I presume.
Huh?
If I smelled a faint mercaptan odor, I'd shut the meter off and then find/fix the leak.
However, if I lived in an apartment building, I'd evacuate immediately and possibly call 911.
Your natural gas company is irresponsible by not explaining the reason.
"DO NOT open your windows if you smell natural gas in your home! Natural gas is combustible only when it makes up 5-15% of the air in a given space. By opening a window, you might actually make the area more unsafe."
Couple years ago the gas company shut the gas off to replace the meter. Then they come in to relight pilots, etc. The gas guy said he smelled gas near the furnace and water heater. I didn't smell anything, nor have I ever all the times I've been there and some times it's been quite a bit of time, eg putting in a new humidifier. He got his gas detector thing and it took a while, but he tracked it down to a plug on the end of a tee about eight feet from the furnace. That plug has been there, untouched for 25 years. Interesting that he could smell it, but I could not, though I have had no problem detecting the smell of gas in the past. I was also very lucky that it was a plug, not a joint in the long line that would have required a lot of disassembly work to be able to fix. He just tightened it a bit and all was good.
That doesn't make sense.
Once the meter is shut, how will you find the leak?
That doesn't make sense to you because that's counter-intuitive.
I'm glad you could catch that.
It is that, but the problem here was that as written above, I took 5 to
15% as a range of how much it takes to be combustible, that is, 5% all the way up to even 15% was the minimum necessary depending on circumstances. I didn't take 15% aa a maximum. I'll admit that I ignored the word only. ;-(So how is a guy who smells gas in his house to know if 1) he's over 15% and safe from explosion, or 2) if he's between 5 and 15% and at risk so that if he airs out his house, he'll be safe again. OR 3) if he's under
5% but since there is a leak the percent is increasing and soon he will be at risk.It only takes a trace to smell the gas, and I have no idea how 5, 10,
16, 20 percent smell? I can't identify the level of concentration with my nose or any other way and I think almost no one can.If there was a leak but now nothing is coming out, is it still a leak?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound?
Do the answers have to be the same?
You still have pilots?
Sense of smell degrades with age.
Jeeeeze! Call the friggin' gas company after you get out of the house.
I find those things much better when they're explained.
[snip]
Since 5%-15% natural gas to air ratio is explosive, there will be 85% odds of the gas in the house is safely above that 15% explosive mix. Therefore there is 85% chance you will help the mixture achieve that
5%-15% explosive range by opening the windows.According to quantum physics, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears or sees it, it has not yet fallen. The status of the tree (fallen or not fallen) is in a superposition state (the tree is both fallen and upright).
This can make your head spin:
Schrodinger's cat
Methyl mercaptan can be smelled down to 0.002 ppm and gas may have up to
10 ppm. Whenever I went into the furnace room of a house that used gas heat and water heater, I could smell it. Do not recall smelling it when hunting near well heads in central PA.
Water heaters. Propane/CH4 franklin stoves.
are just some examples.
That doesn't follow. You're using apples to reach a conclusion about oranges. The percent that is explosive does not determine, does not influence, the % that is present.
You're assuming the room or house was in status 1 of my 3 statuses above and you can't know it's not in status 2 or 3.
Me too. So I googled: why should I not open a window if I smell gas
And the people's gas company said DO NOT open your windows if you smell natural gas in your home! Natural gas is combustible only when it makes up 5-15% of the air in a given space. By opening a window, you might actually make the area more unsafe. DO NOT turn on/off any lights or appliances if you smell natural gas in your home or building.
At least they said "might" but they didn't mention that you might make it more safe, actually safe, and with enough time you would almost surely make it safe. They too are assuming the place is in status 1 and not 2 or 3 of the 3 I list in another post.
OTOH, I've been assuming a slow leak. If burners were on but not lit, could you have more gas coming out than an open window could dissipate?
In Japan they say the opposite. Maybe that's because it's east of Greenwich and we're west of it, so things work diffently there.
When you smell gas | Emergency Notification tohogas.co.jp
I'm still mad about WWII but I'll go with the Japanese here.
Boston.com says Do not open windows and doors You may be tempted to ventilate the area, but both the state agency and gas company advise against it. Simply put: Do not open or close windows and doors, other than the door you are using to leave your home.
Again, no explanation. Based on what I know about corporate or public psychology, I think the reason is they want you to leave immediately, and they think 20 seconds to open a window is too much to spend even to avoid blowing your house up. They should remember that if your house blows up it might take the houses next door with it and the people in it who don't know yet that you have a leak**, and if it doesn't blow up in those extra 20 seconds, then there was no risk to you after all during those extra 20 seconds. Same thing if it's 2 minutes. **Plus I want my house to be in one piece.
The reason they don't give a reason is that the reason they have is not good enough and they know it.
I haven't had a water heater with a pilot for almost a quarter-century. Franklin stoves are kind of an edge case, aren't they?
I was born that way. It's called "personality". It's in my DNA. I can't help it. Blame "God". If you are an atheist, blame nature.
Assuming you have a gas water heater, only those with electrical connections can use a solid surface igniter. The pilot light thermopile provides enough current to operate the gas valve; no electrical connection required. All of the gas and propane water heaters for sale at the local Home Depot use pilot lights because one seldom finds an electrical connection near the water heater, at least in this neck of the woods.
No. I have one. Say gas log fireplace instead, if you will.
My water heater has a pilot and wifi.
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