Robert Gammon wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
John wrote:

"Pete C." wrote:


John wrote:

"Pete C." wrote:


John wrote:

"Pete C." wrote:


" wrote:

Gas being lighter than air normally dissapates if it leaks.

That only works to a limited extent and less and less as homes get
"tighter". If windows and doors are closed well nat. gas will just
accumulate from the ceiling down. LP gas is heavier and will accumulate
from the floor up. In either case unless the home is quite drafty /
leaky it will continue to accumulate until it finds an ignition source.

There shouldn't be any gas at all outside the furnace or plumbing.

There shouldn't, if pipes, regulators, valves and controls were all 100%
reliable. As can plainly be seen from all the gas explosions that occur,
that is not the case.

How many explosions is "all the gas explosions?" Or people that awake to find
their home and its contents are destroyed by oil or that their basement is now an
oil spill site?

Relative to the total number of units? Very few. Relative to each other
there is a significant difference.

In numbers, what is the "significant difference" that you claim?


I don't feel like digging up numbers at the moment.





Oil pools and settles , causing a possible safety clean up issue with
guys in moon suits hauling away contaminated soil

This is *not* a safety issue, it is an over hyped environmental issue.

When your house is not inhabitable due to heavy oil contamination and fumes,
it *is* a safety issue. "Over hyped" environmental issue? Yeah right, unless
you consider oil contaminated earth and pollution as part of your
environment.

First off, uninhabitable meaning you have to leave during cleanup, and
uninhabitable because it collapsed after the gas explosion are vastly
different things. If you are home when the oil leaks you simply leave,
safe and sound. If you are home when the gas leaks you can easily end up
dead.

As for the environmental part, yes, it is over hyped. Cleanup of even
300 gal of fuel oil that leaks in a concrete basement is pretty minor if
it's done reasonably soon.

Cite? I know it is a lot more than that because a house near me had exactly that
happen to it, and the house was condemned during the cleanup last year.

Yes, well it can be overblown if you let yourself be taken in by the
hype. Even then it still pales in comparison to rebuilding from the

crater the gas explosion left, or paying for the funeral.

Yeah an oil spill into the ground causing environmental damage to the ground, not to
mention the damage to the house and its contents and/or making the house uninhabitable is
just "hype." I don't think there is a difference in funeral costs from people dying in
burning houses caused by oil, gas, or whatever. If oil is so much safer, which
insurance companies give the oil heat discount or gas heat surcharge?


The idea that an oil spill on the ground automatically is some
environmental disaster is exactly the hype I'm talking about. Unless
that oil is getting into ground water or heading for a stream there is
no environmental damage. Oil getting into ground water takes a good
amount of time, after all the ground water isn't 3" under your house or
your house would be floating. Have a spill and clean it up promptly and
the oil has not had an opportunity to go anywhere and there is no damage
despite what some dropout eco-nut might claim. Killing some soil
bacteria 3" below my basement slab is not environmental damage.


Well there is the environmental cleanup issue with the soil that is
contaminated. Any such leak to the soil ANYWHERE on your property, if
detected by others MAY make the property UNSALEABLE!!!

Unsaleable to the uninformed perhaps. To those who understand that
removing a few yards of soil and giving it to a construction company for
use under a road (where there is plenty of petroleum contamination
anyway) is pretty simple it should not affect saleability.

Too much uninformed and irrational hysteria in this country.

Pete C.