Natural Gas Safety Basics

Since everyone is heading back to school, we thought to bring this back to the basics of natural gas safety. Starting with the rotten egg smell in natural gas.

Natural gas is an odorless, colorless and tasteless mixture of gases made up mostly of methane. The rotten egg smell comes from mercaptan, which is added to natural gas to make it quickly identifiable. Mercaptan is a colorless gas with a bad smell. If you smell a rotten egg smell, leave the area right away and call your natural gas provider from a different location immediately.

Here are a few safety tips below to refresh yourself with

Safety Tips

Use of natural gas appropriately is safe.

• Install and maintain a carbon monoxide detector on every story of a building, whether it be residential or commercial.
• Never use your range or oven to heat a house.
• Verify the blue, silent, and crisp flames of the gas range. Flames that are yellow need to be adjusted.
• Burners on range tops can be cleaned by washing them in water and mild detergent.
• Keep a fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen.
• Heater air filters should be cleaned or replaced regularly, follow manufactures recommendations.
• Have skilled contractors check the chimneys, vents, appliance connectors, and furnaces at least every other year for corrosion and obstructions.
• Keep impediments like plants, snow, ice, and trash away from gas meters.
• At least three days before you intend to dig, dial 811 so your utility company can locate the buried utilities.