For the alarms, fit them to FCUs rather than 13A sockets, which will A) prevent the alarms accidentally getting unplugged and B) prevent someone using a 3kW heater on the lighting circuit. Label it accordingly.
I can smell the cow shit, not the gas. Peoples ability to detect and diiferentiate smells decreases with age and lifestyle. Over 70 there is a an even more marked degradation and these people are advised to fit flammable gas detecors.
What about dog shit? Can you smell that? Because as I understand it, it is the same mercaptans which give both dog shit and the stenching agent in natural gas their characteristic and (to most people) very pungent aromas.
It's interesting that a stenching agent which has been chosen because it is detectable in exceptionally low concentrations is not detectable by some people.
Could you smell gas when you were younger, or have you never been able to smell it?
Did town/coal gas have sufficient smell of its own not to need a stenching agent? I'm just slightly too young to remember coal gas: I was probably a few years old when our area got "North Sea gas" - too young to remember what its predecessor was like. I can remember the sulphurous (H2S) smell from a gasworks (I can remember we used to go past one on the M1 somewhere near Sheffield), but I think that was a by product, not the smell of the gas itself. And it was nowhere near as all-pervading as the mercaptans added to natural gas.
Never tried to smell dog shit! I could smell both town gas and natural gas until a few years ago. In high concentrations I can smell natural gas, but they have to be quite high, It seems to be a sensitivity problem centred on mercaptans. Smell apparently is located in the sinuses, so sinus nerve damage is indicated. People with colds frequently lose their sense of smell. There are only a few super sniffers who can detect cyanide gas AIUI.
Difficult to know how many (domestic) gas explosions there are pa. A lot of elderly folk will set their GCH timers early, perhaps before getting out of bed.
With the bedroom door closed and whilst asleep, they may not smell the gas. I'm retired but I seriously think it's worth having one in kitchen another in the loft, for peace of mind.
HSE stats show between 1994 and 2004 show an average of about 35 gas fires/explosions per year with fatalities tailing-off to a low of 2 in
2004. I can't find more a recent report
Doesn't everyone?
Presumably you've already got CO detectors? It's several times more likely to kill you ...
gas fire/explosion fatality figures for recent years
2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15 3 1 1 3 0
Some people can't. My great aunt was nearly killed by a towns gas leak as she had no sense of taste or smell at all. Everything tasted like cardboard to her - she could only distinguish textures in food.
My dad could smell it and called the gas board. It was a serious leak.
If you don't smell it quickly enough then it takes out the nerves - the same is also true of hydrogen sulphide.
From my friends in the electroplating business I was told if you have smelled hydrogen cyanide and are still alive 15 minutes later then you got away with it. The plating baths sometimes emitted a bit when the chemistry wasn't quite right. This was in the pre H&S days...
My MIL used to have her meals 50:50 food / salt because she couldn't taste anything without.
I'm lucky (in some respects) in that I can generally smell the slightest whiff of stuff, from someone smoking pot in the car in front to the gas on on a ring (even on low) but not lit.
The Mrs / daughter even have to put perfume (and it's good stuff I'm told) on on the way out of the house as the smell (or 'fumes' as I smell them ) often start me coughing. ;-(
It was the same sensitivity to 'fumes' that used to make me puke as a kid if Dad lit a cigar whilst driving ...
Cheers, T i m
The bes thing you can do is to ensure that all places a gas pipe passes through are ventilated to prevent gas accumulations.
Makes a lot more sense to have mains powered gas sensors where the gas can accumulate.
We cook on electric and the Baxi is mounted in the (extended) kitchen. The GCH is switched on/off manually as needed. No intention of fixing an alarm in the kitchen, as the Baxi is well sealed and flued.
As you know, combustible gas rises and my main concern is the loft (where the gas pipes are situated). I'm going to follow Andy's suggestion and get an electrician mate to tap into the ceiling rose and install a 40w bulb (handy) and hard wire in one of these
The house next door has just had the (extended) kitchen demolished by a builder (not explosion). He's just removed all the Mundik block and is likely to be onsite for at least 7 weeks. Our suffits' are already ventilated but I'm going to ask his advice on ventilating tiles or ridge. If the price is right .......
Occasionaly I thought I could smell gas, but on two seperate occasions when the meter reader turned up he couldn't smell gas. So for the 3 or so weeks before my meter was due to be read I nevr opened t he cupboard where the gas meter was. The on teh next reading he smelt gas and called wjoever out as a gas leak. Friends said they could smell gas, but both have a very good sense of smell they think it's because they are vegitarian, they can smell chip fat that' s usues animal oli from across the street. SO I do belive differnt people h ave difernt sensitivities, to smells.
Rubbish. Any active sensor can fail. The best rule is KISS. Keep It Stupid Simple. It's what's in the regulations anyway.
There are some people with ZERO sense of smell, not no stenching agent could be 100% effective.
According to wp, town gas was typically Hydrogen/Methane/Carbon Monoxide (at 10% !)/Ethylene. Of course the source coal wasn't particularly sulpher free, so there was enough H2S et al to make it smell.
North Sea Gas also isn't pure methane, but the composition is *very* variable so a decision was made to add a smell.
I thought that most people can detect cyanide at sufficiently high concentrations. The trouble is that this is close to (or above) lethal concentrations ...
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