Sparker said:
It makes me nervous to have/use gas. My neighbors house blew up when I was little (from a gas leak) and I have a fear of it.
I understand that what you witnessed to your neighbor's house is very difficult to get over. However, to help put your mind at ease, consider the big picture of how many houses/buildings around the world have natural gas appliances (furnaces, cooktops, ovens, etc.). If natural gas were that hazardous, market demand would not support this large installed base of gas appliances and/or they would be regulated out of existence. Plus, natural gas appliances (and propane appliances for that matter) are much safer than they were many years ago. Many gas explosions that occurred over 30 years ago were due to pilot lights that somehow went out. Meanwhile, the gas would continue to flow. Without a pilot flame to safely burn this gas off, the raw gas would accumulate. Eventually, an electrical spark elsewhere in the house would ignite it. I'm not sure when your neighbors house blew up, but if it was over 30 or so years ago or was an old house built prior to the 1970's, this would be my first guess as to how it happened. My second guess would be it was due to old copper tubing that developed a series of pinhole leaks. Copper is no longer used for residential gas lines, at least not in this area. Plus, the cleaning and distribution of natural gas has improved greatly over the years, especially with the development of regulations strictly limiting the amount of hydrogen sulfide and other contaminants that contributed to corrosion.
Pilot lights are largely non-existent now, having been replaced with electronic igniters in most cases. Regardless of whether an appliance has an electronic igniter or pilot, most all indoor gas/propane appliances sold in the last 20 years or so have a gas control valve that will shut off the supply of gas if the pilot should ever go out or if the electronic igniter or hot-surface igniter (glow bar) failed. These features did not exist many decades ago.
Natural gas, like all gases, will ignite only in the presence of a specific air/fuel ratio and an ignition source. An example: I have a friend that had a gas leak due to copper gas lines (his house is 60-70 years old). The first time I went to his house, I smelled gas near the stove, which was the original one that came with the house. He didn't smell anything that night but mentioned that he did several months back (he had since gone "nose-blind" to it). We checked the burner valves and they were all off. Then, I opened the cabinets beneath the stove and saw some pinhole leaks in the copper tubing. Of course, we got it replaced with black iron piping. However, there is no telling how long this condition had existed. Since he had gone "nose-blind" to it, I suspect it was quite some time - we know it was at least several months, but it could have been even a year or more. The point is that his house is still standing today, even though this condition existed for quite some time, because the air/fuel ratio never got within the range required to cause ignition. Of course, he should have addressed this situation the first time he smelled gas and verified that the stove burners were all off.
I have worked around natural gas and propane appliances all my life (but no, I do not work for a gas company, refiner, or distributor) and have never had an incident. To put it in perspective, I would be much more concerned about storing gasoline (for the car or lawnmower) in a portable gasoline container in an attached garage than I would be about a natural gas-related malfunction. Fumes can easily escape those containers and gasoline fumes will ignite down to -44°F! Those gasoline containers are not built to anything near the standard of the gas tank in your car. I actually had a shed built with adequate ventilation that is detached from the house. One of the primary reasons for having it built was so that I can store gasoline containers there instead of in the garage.
Hope this puts your mind at ease about using natural gas.
BTW, a quick tip that is especially useful for lighting a gas grill or fireplace...light a long-stemmed lighter or matchstick and place it near the burner. At the same time, slowly open the gas valve. The lighted match/lighter will ignite the burner without a "whooosh". If I had penny for every time I saw someone open the gas valve
and then stumble around for a lighter or match while raw gas is accumulating, I would be on my private yacht right now. In the case of BBQ grills, the igniters are the weakest link - even on high-end grills. It can take multiple attempts to light the burner using the grill igniter all while raw gas is flowing out.
I don't have gas at my house, but gas runs about 4 feet away from my property and the gas company said it wouldn't be hard at all to connect to it. I only planned on using it here and there....maybe just weekends in May.....then again, late September. It makes me nervous to have/use gas. My neighbors house blew up when I was little (from a gas leak) and I have a fear of it. Electric heater....I can't afford the extra cost upfront. I'll look into the Raypack as well. I'm still debating on if I really want to mess with one or not.
