Hi Shane, The simple answer to your question is that you don't need a lot of gas to cause a gas explorsion. The flash point is 5 percent. A room totally full of gas is apparently safer than a room with a small amout of gas in. I would not like to test this out personally, but that's what I was tought a gas train. Hope this helps. Warm regards. Martin Webster. >From the UK.
Shane Hecker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: One further question then. Can gas leak slowly enough to where you don't smell it? If so, then I'm assuming that could present a serious problem. Shane ----- Original Message ----- From: martin webster To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 11:20 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] gas? hell yes I got gas (conplete) Hi shane, Yes, it would sound like a torch before the regulator, and yes, that would most certainly blow up your balloon unregulated. Any gas in the pipes with in your home though, naa, no way. GL is correct, gas after the regulator is measured in milly bars and the regulator are set to allow 5/10/20/50/100 metres of gas an hour to pass through them. In a domestic home with one or two appliences, you would easily run with a 5 meter regulator 10 meter if you had several rooms with gas fires and central heating all so. It all so depends on how far from the gas meter the applicences are as to what size regulator is used. The regulator is the first thing the gas runs through and it is usually attached to the gas meter. In the UK they have a gas board seal on them, so as to detect tamptering. I have seen plumbers remove the regulator to blow crap out of the 1 inch pipe leading to a person house though in the past. Use a water filled or digital minometer at the gas meter to check for gas leaks. You will need a sighted person to read them though, unless the german talking multimeter can give accurate readings. I've not got my hands on one to try this out yet. Regards. Martin Webster. From the UK. Shane Hecker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: No it wasn't inflated. The only air that was in the baloon was there when I put it on the pipe. The baloon did nog stiffen up or grow in size. As far as gas pressure, I heard somewhere it was about 4 pounds. Put it this way, I remember several years back when a gas meter was replaced at a neighbor's house in Texas City. When the gas line was open, it sounded like someone had turned on a large torch and the smell was unbelievable. one dude almost passed out, and I could smell it. And at that time, I had a cold. I was perhaps 15 feet away from it. Shane ----- Original Message ----- From: NLG To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 5:31 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] gas? hell yes I got gas (conplete) Was the balloon inflated at all? The gas pressure inside your house is only ounces... maybe 3 to 4 ounces. This isn't enough pressure to inflate a balloon. In my not so humble opinion, this is a piss poor way to test for a gas leak! ----- Original Message ----- From: Shane Hecker To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 23:42 Subject: [BlindHandyMan] gas? hell yes I got gas (conplete) First, let me thank those of you who provided feedback. It was appreciated. Now to the fun part. This afternoon, I decided to implement the suggestion of using a baloon to check for a gas leak at the point where a gas line was capped off. So I go over to the house and think this should be easy, I can reach the cap from the blower closet. That would be where the furnace/ac blower and evaporator coil are. I get in the closet and sure shootin I can't reach the cap. It's just barely out of my reach, about 2 inches back from a 90 degree turn in the pipe. I really wanted to get this done, so time for a little exploration. The attic door is in the garage. A buddy of mine was with me, so after moving a couple things out of the way, I get the door and stairs down. I go into the attic and at first it looks easy. There's some plywood decking, so I figure this should be straight forward. Decking runs out where the garage ends and the house begins, so it's now time to balance on the beams. It took me a while but with the assistance of my buddy talking to me in the closet, I get there and put the baloon over the cap. He's got the duck (or is it duct) tape so he secures the baloon after I get it completely over the cap. He then goes back to the garage and talks to me so I can get back to the opening. I tell you, I didn't realize how quickly you can get hot. It's 75 degrees outside and I still sweat like a pig up there. Hey, no need for exercise, just crawl around in the attic for a while and you'll loose some weight. Anyway, got back down and went outside to turn on the gas. Easy enough. Went back in and checked the baloon. It didn't inflate as far as we could see. Time for the next item, light the water heater. I bought me one of those Bick lighters, the one where you hold down the button and pull a trigger. Kinda looks like a little gun. The first few times I tried lighting the pilot on the water heater, it didn't light. Don't know how much time went by, but I finally got the thing to light. I found out because I got a little too close to the poker and it was hot. Yeah, I think it's lit now. Turn the heater to on and the burner fires up. Now, it gets interesting. For a while there, the flame was jumping out about 6 inches outside the heater. It would jump out, then go back in, jump out, go back in. Every time it jumped out, you could hear a change in the sound. Come to find out that air in the gas line was causing it to do this. After a bit, it became stable. Since I'm not yet in the house, I put the heater on pilot so as not to waste gas. Went back in for another check of the baloon, still no change. Go to church and come back an hour or so later for another check. Still no change. I'm guessing there's no gas leak. The baloon is still up there. I'll probably take it down later. I'm not sure what's going to be more fun, me telling my family what I did or letting them find the baloon up there and the water heater lit and wondering how it came to pass. My mother and her husband probably won't care, but if her husband's dad found out, he'd probably give me an hour lecture on why I shouldn't have done it. If they ask me, I thought about pulling a Bill Engvall here's your sign on them, but might rethink that. What would you do? Thought you would like to know how this came out. I know the message is long, but had to post this. Hopefully someone else will get some benefit from this. Let me know what you think. Later. Shane [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ---------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. 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