How much has gas leak cost me

Richchad

I have always had a smell of gas when near my external gas meter, well decided to get it checked out and Transco found that the outgoing copper elbow joint hadn't been soldered well and showed me a small section with solder missing from joint, so he replaced the joint.

My question is that this must have been like this since the house was built about 15 years ago and as it was on my side of the meter I am wondering what this has cost me and will I notice a reduced gas bill in future?

dogshome

Hi Richchad - The answer to your question isYES

Premier_2

Richchad wrote: »

...
My question is that this must have been like this since the house was built about 15 years ago and as it was on my side of the meter I am wondering what this has cost me and will I notice a reduced gas bill in future?

Hopefully, if the engineer who fitted and commissioned the gas meter installation did a proper job, it wouldn't have been leaking at the time of installation.
When a new meter is fitted, (or when the whole installation is commssioned) the engineer should carry out pressure check which would have identified any leaks present at that time. This is carried out at the meter and so would identify any leak your side of the meter.
An annual gas safety check would have also included such a basic check if you had got one done

SwanJon

Richchad wrote: »

will I notice a reduced gas bill in future?

My money.would be on no.

For the leak to have been big enough to have a noticeable effect on you bill you (and anyone walking past the house) would have noticed it a lot sooner.

Richchad

Premier wrote: »

Hopefully, if the engineer who fitted and commissioned the gas meter installation did a proper job, it wouldn't have been leaking at the time of installation.
When a new meter is fitted, (or when the whole installation is commssioned) the engineer should carry out pressure check which would have identified any leaks present at that time. This is carried out at the meter and so would identify any leak your side of the meter.
An annual gas safety check would have also included such a basic check if you had got one done

The Transco engineer showed me the removed copper elbow joint which clearly showed that the solder had not run completely around the the joint as a small gap with missing solder was present, so can only presume this had been like this from day one when installed.

Still sort of reassuring that if a pressure test had been done it would have shown any leaks, so maybe it was such a small leak it wasn't detected?