smell of gas

dooj

Thanks for the advice moneysavingplumber i called the number on the meter and the fella was there within the hour. The problem was that the Governer (is that correct) was leaking, anyway he put it right. Just one more question... will i be charged for the work he carried out?????

robowen

dooj wrote:

. The problem was that the Governer (is that correct) was leaking, anyway he put it right. Just one more question... will i be charged for the work he carried out?????

in a word ....no ! :j

rob

Davidboy

Umm Robown - me thinks you work or have worked a gas company? Not many people know explosive range of 5-15% gas in air. You are right of course as I used to teach such things.

Please please people out there. If you smell gas at anytime, in the street, in your home, ring flippen Transco, they provide this free service so that no one has to worry about horrible things happening. Even if you think it is gas but not sure...ring them.

R I N G 0800 111 999, anytime 24/7, if it is uncontrolled, ie can not be turned off they will be there within the hour.

I can not believe that people still do not know about this!!


D

ffym

Agreed, Any one smell Gas then phone 0800 111 999
Transco has now become "National Grid Gas", Gas Safety Homepage here:
National Grid Gas Safety
As is says, it will not cost you anything - and what you could save is priceless!

robowen

Davidboy wrote:

Umm Robown - me thinks you work or have worked a gas company? Not many people know explosive range of 5-15% gas in air. You are right of course as I used to teach such things.
D

Everyone who works with gas should know the explosive limits.
The public's perception of the dangers of gas is a long way away from those who work with it.
The public in general are terrified by stories of huge gas blasts.
I can only recall about 2 instances of gas blasts in the last 19 years in the area I cover....and both these were exceptional circumstances.

I try to allay fears of explosions by not recalling how granny was trapped in her flat as the boiler exploded through to next door. It doesnt help anyone to spread panic.

Natural gas doesn't smell. BG put an additive in it to make it smell, so you'd know you had a leak. There was a plan to reduce call-outs by reducing the ammount of additive put in the gas. BG said there was no risk to the public. I think that plan was shelved after a little pressure...I'm not sure.
However, I dont think BG would have done it in the first instance if there was a big risk to Joe.Public. :think:

Gas blasts are rare events caused by exceptional circumstances.

My advice has been the same as everyone else's.
rob

Davidboy

Robowen - yes agree with all. But just to put you right on one little thing.

You are getting confused with which company does what.

BG = British Gas Owned by Centrica. They are the ones that bill you.

Transco, now NG or National Grid and dropped the Transco bit. They are the ones who operate the Nations Gas supply, who put the smell in the gas. operate the safety of the gas supply network.

These two companies are totally seperate from eachother. They used to be one company before demerger years ago.

D

moneysavingplumber

robowen wrote:

Everyone who works with gas should know the explosive limits.
The public's perception of the dangers of gas is a long way away from those who work with it.
The public in general are terrified by stories of huge gas blasts.
I can only recall about 2 instances of gas blasts in the last 19 years in the area I cover....and both these were exceptional circumstances.

I try to allay fears of explosions by not recalling how granny was trapped in her flat as the boiler exploded through to next door. It doesnt help anyone to spread panic.

I agree, although I wouldn't ever ignore smell of gas or delay action.

The public are pretty aware of the dangers of gas with regards to explosion etc, but they are far less easy to convince when it comes to the dangers of faulty case seals on room sealed boilers, and combustion problems and poor ventilation on conventionally flued boilers, which between them probably cause more deaths than gas explosions do. Unfortunately there is no big ad campaign that urges people to call out Transco when their gas fire is causing them nausea and headaches and sadly CO really doesn't have a smell to it at all.

robowen

Davidboy wrote:

Robowen - yes agree with all. But just to put you right on one little thing.

You are getting confused with which company does what.

BG = British Gas Owned by Centrica. They are the ones that bill you.

Transco, now NG or National Grid and dropped the Transco bit. They are the ones who operate the Nations Gas supply, who put the smell in the gas. operate the safety of the gas supply network.

These two companies are totally seperate from eachother. They used to be one company before demerger years ago.

D

No....no confusion !
Technically we are both right :think:
I refered back to around 1998 when BG and Transco were operating together. I made reference to this event :
"Gas

120. There are two major safety issues relevant to the use of natural gas as a fuel. Gas leaks from pipes or appliances must be swiftly dealt with in order to avoid accumulation and ignition. In order to facilitate the detection of leaked gas, Transco odorises gas when it is brought into the transmission network. Recent press reports suggested that Transco intended to lower the level of gas odorisation in order to lessen the number of occasions on which their engineers are called-out to investigate leaks which later turn out to be spurious.[309] BG plc confirmed in evidence to us that in future they intended to odorise locally, rather than at the beach terminals, so that gas better maintains its odour throughout the pipeline network. We welcome BG plc's assurance that, although their intention was to reduce unnecessary engineer call-outs, the average level of odour in the gas transmission network would not change and that safety remained their paramount concern."

This comes from a Trade and Industry select comitee report I was researching for a project a couple of years ago.

Centrica are a relatively new company who wouldn't know what mercaptan and sulphide was if it jumped up and bit them in the face !
I agree with you, :beer: changes have been made as to who Transco operate under. It's hard to keep upto date with who owns what !

The principle facts remain :
It was BG and maybe Transco.....I don't know..... who put the smell in gas in the first instance in the 1960's. .....and not Centrica.

But lets not split hairs here :think:

The OP has had the info they required to which we are all in agreement. Lets move on. :beer:

rob

robowen

moneysavingplumber wrote:

Unfortunately there is no big ad campaign that urges people to call out Transco when their gas fire is causing them nausea and headaches and sadly CO really doesn't have a smell to it at all.

Totally agree ! :beer:
Interestingly, a few years ago I had to go back to college to do a refresher course.
The tutor then was a rather crusty old ex-British Gas engineer. He'd been doing gas for years. He doctored this cooker and asked everyone to smell the fumes from it....most of us declined :rotfl:
"That smell is carbon monoxide" he told us.

....It made no difference to him the fact he was standing next to a huge poster from corgi, stating CO doesn't smell at all. :rotfl:

...I don't think he teaches anymore :doh:

rob