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Do You Have Gas?

By
Home Inspector with Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton

I know you think that is too personal a problem to share on line, but your probably thinking about the wrong kind of gas.

Testing for a gas leak is sometimes a tricky business.  (Are you thinking about a different kind of gas now?) Some gases found in the home can be hard to find and give you different readings depending on what your testing for and where your testing. Why you ask? Well some gases are lighter than air and some are heavier than air. 

For example, natural gas is a compound of gases that are combustible.  It is made up of, normally depending on the area of the U.S. your in, mostly methane(95%), but it also contains elements of ethane, propane, and carbon dioxide. Methane is lighter than air, so if there isn't much of the other gases (all heavier than air) natural gases (at room temperature) will rise.  Therefore, a natural gas leak should be tested for at the pipe or appliance that it services.

Air is light, so there are very few gases that are lighter than air.  Here is a list of all but the most obscure:

Methane   Ammonia   Hydrogen   Helium   Hafnium   Diborane   Acetylene   Ethylene   Hydrogen cyanide   Nitrogen   Carbon monoxide 

Combustion gases contain many elements that are normally lighter than air after being heated. After cooling these gases are heavier than air at  room temperature.  High efficiency combustion of natural gas produces nitrogen (basically non-flammable), carbon dioxide (basically non-flammable), water vapor and nitrogen oxides and sulfer dioxide (giving that familiar smell).  These gases are carried away by the flue (hopefully) which vents to the outside air.  If there is a leak in the flue gases could escape into the environment where they stay until vented in someway to the outside. Since carbon dioxide is relatively easy to test for this is the combustion bi-product that is the most indicative of a problem with gases in the home.  If there is an abundance of carbon dioxide in your home then there are most likely other combustion by-products (even more dangerous than carbon dioxide) in evidence too.

Luckily, correcting this problem is rather simple.  First, get an expert to find where the problem is and correct it and second, air out your home.  The EPA says that indoor air is, on the average, much more polluted than outside air.  Todays houses are built tight to save energy and ventilation is sometimes ignored in favor of energy and money savings. 

Jack Gilleland

Home Inspection Services

Clayton, Ohio

Comments (15)

Valerie Osterhoudt
Johnson Real Estate, Inc. - Cromwell, CT
ABR, Cromwell, CT Real Estate ~ 860.883.8889

Jack.. This is some very good information.  Thanks for sharing.  I'll keep this in mind for future clients as well as myself.

valerie osterhoudt

Apr 07, 2009 08:56 AM
Myrl Jeffcoat
Sacramento, CA
Greater Sacramento Realtor - Retired

Jack and Izzy - Very important information.  If you have followed the national news the last couple of months, you will note that not far from my home, there was a incident where a natural gas leak was left unattended, and literally blew the house to spitherines, as if a bomb went off.  The occupant was thrown across the street, and didn't survive it.  A few others were injured.  Gas leaks aren't something to mess with!

Apr 07, 2009 09:01 AM
Russel Ray, San Diego Business & Marketing Consultant & Photographer
Russel Ray - San Diego State University, CA

Hey, Jack. Did you let Izzy type that second-to-the-last paragraph? I think you mean carbon monoxide in that paragraph.

Apr 07, 2009 06:51 PM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

Valerie, thanks.  I hope it is useful.

Myrl, so many people treat gas leaks as something they'll put on their list to take care of.

 

Apr 08, 2009 06:29 AM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

RR, a high efficiency furnace produces much less carbon monoxide than many other gases.  CO in these amounts is difficult to test for, on the other hand if the CO2 levels are high then we can assume that all combustion gases are high also.  There most prevalent gas from combustion is N2 (nitrogen) then come the carbon gases (CO and CO2).  Carbon monoxide is the most dangerous of the 2 because it actually disrupts the ability of the blood to absorb oxygen thus starving the body. None of the combustion gases should be found in the home in high concentrations.

I've been trying to teach Izzy to type, but since he only has 4 toes the spaces keep getting left out and thewordslooksomethinglikethis.

Apr 08, 2009 06:52 AM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Great post Jack!  I learned some things!  Being familiar with gases that seem to rise quickly, ahem, I did not know so many were lighter than air.  CO is only slightly lighter than air, but lighter nonetheless!

GIveiZzymYbEst.

Apr 08, 2009 01:59 PM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

Jay, thanks.  Glad I could impart some of my limited knowledge.  

Izzy says ThanksJaysayHItoyourdaughterforme.

 

Apr 08, 2009 02:54 PM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

I was looking at the list above of gases lighter than air.  I saw Hafnium.  Well, of course THAT'S lighter than air.  Wholenium would definitely be heavier.  Totally.

Apr 09, 2009 12:57 PM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

Hafnium is just 1/2 the weight of wholenium of course.

Apr 09, 2009 01:19 PM
Dennis Goudreau
DRG INSPECTIONS LLC - Nashua, NH

Jack

Russel told me something very interesting the other day, when looking for an exterior gas leak he looks for blue headed flies congregating in a area  sorry Russel this was to cool info

Apr 11, 2009 04:24 AM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

Dennis, never heard that before, I'll give it a try.

Apr 11, 2009 06:56 AM
Jim Frimmer
HomeSmart Realty West - San Diego, CA
Realtor & CDPE, Mission Valley specialist

I see Dennis's comment #10 and can confirm that exterior gas leaks are very attractive to the blue/green irridescent flies. They will come from miles and miles around to a gas leak. We had a gas leak at the spa heater at our home back in 2000 before Russel was a home inspector. That's when he introduced me to the irridescent flies. When I worked as a home inspector for him from 2001-2005, I had a couple of opportunities to see those flies at exterior gas leaks on inspections, almost always at the spa heater for some reason.

Apr 17, 2009 02:20 PM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

Jim as I said before that is great info and I'll remember it. Tell your business consultant I said thanks.

Apr 17, 2009 03:25 PM
Not a real person
San Diego, CA

I learned about the irridescent flies way back when I was just 12 or 13. I was working out at my uncle's place, and he was trying to teach me about automobiles and all things mechanical. I wasn't a good student, but when we got to the cows, chickens, and the different types of flies -- manure, gas leaks, food -- then he got my interest.

Probably in some rural areas of the Deep South, a swarm of irridescent flies are still the best way to detect a gas leak.

Apr 18, 2009 11:42 PM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

Hey Bus. Consultant it just came to me, that won't work in the winter.  I guess I'll just have to keep my gas detector.  Thanks.

Apr 19, 2009 07:57 AM