"Tim Downie" wrote in message
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"dennis@home" wrote in message
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"Tim Downie" wrote in message
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I was recently told when a plumber cut off a dead leg in our gas
pipework that we had a small (but allowable) leak in our system.

Clearly he wasn't wild about chasing the leak but I'd rather there
wasn't one. Before I start hunting, what's the acceptable leak level in
mbar/min?

Zero!

No such thing as zero. That would mean waiting infinitely long to prove
that there was no leak.

Unless you know the gas is being vented to the outside air how do you
know it will not go *BANG*?

Funnily enough, I have a nose. It's proved a lot more reliable than BG
gas fitter's testing proceedures.

Well there is your first error.. to smell it means it has to be escaping
into the room, what about the roof/floor/wall spaces where you don't stick
your nose.


It may take weeks or months to build to an explosive mixture but how do
you know it hasn't?

If we were talking about LPG, I would worry more but natural gas has a
lower density than air, so it's less inclined to lurk.

Checked your roof space recently? ;-)

LPG is very dangerous on boats as they tend to be gas tight and there have
been some very big bangs.
Like I said any leak is dangerous unless you know where it is going.