Hello,

Should I shut off my natural gas to the house at the meter for the rollover? If yes, why? If no, why?

Thank you kindly in advance.

-- What (Is That Rotten@Egg.Smell), December 05, 1999

Answers

What - the answer to your question probably depends on where you live. In our part of the country all of our natural gas comes from wells in our area and the pumps on the compressor stations are run by natural gas. Also, they don't have any chips or anything that will make them go wacko at the rollover so we will leave ours connected and use it as much as possible. I have a gas stove, gas water heater, gas dryer and our generator runs on natural gas, propane or unleaded gas so it maght come in handy for that too. As for the question in your name...the rotten egg smell is an odorant they add to it so you'll know if it's leaking since natural gas doesn't have much of a smell on it's own. Hope this helps - Mom

-- Mother Hen (Mother Hen@Gathering her chicks.com), December 06, 1999.

Sometimes an improper burning of gas will
create a residue that can have a bad smell.

Make sure that you use a carbon monoxide
tester if you use gas.

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 08, 1999.

Most houses have their own pressure regulator which is 100% mechanical and should not subject you to overpressure. In some very small towns they use a common regulator, and yes there was that one little town here in Missouri about 6 years ago where most of the houses burnt down because the regulator failed and everybody's furnace and water heater became blow torchs, but that is a very unusual occurance.

IF you are worried about service interuption, you can (or have your gas company do it) turn off your gas to your furnace or water heater, allow it to sit for a while and listen to how fast the autosafety turns off the pilot valve. The chances of a rapid loss of pressure followed by a rapid restoration of pressure are darn near imposible. If your safety cuts in within a few minutes, that should be fine.

This might be a good day for everybody to learn about relighting their pilot lights and putting those matches in a sealed glass or metal jar so mice don't eat the ends and start a fire.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), December 08, 1999.