To round off Gas Safety Week we have put together 10 facts that you may not know about gas. Many of them have been taken from the blogs that we have been posting this week on a variety of topics around the subject of gas. You can see them all here.
Did you know any of these?
1. Natural gas is predominantly methane. Around 44% of the UK’s gas comes from reserves in the North Sea. We import the rest from Europe
2. Natural gas burns blue when it has the right amount of oxygen. If there is not enough oxygen it burns yellow and this can create carbon monoxide, which is very toxic
3. Natural gas is odourless. The ‘eggy’ small is added to it to make it easy to detect a leak
4. The natural gas that we use in gas appliances is formed from decomposed organic matter in the earth, which is subjected to intense heat and pressure over millions of years. This is why it is known as a ‘fossil fuel’.
5. Fossil fuels are bad for the environment because they produce CO2 when burned, which is a major contributor to global warming
6. If we continued to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, it is estimated that we would deplete reserves by 2060. Aside from the environmental factor, this is why we need to switch to renewable energy sources
7. The Climate Change Act of 2008 has set a target for the UK to be carbon neutral by the year 2050. Greener energy sources include solar energy, ground and air sources, wind and sea energy, and hydrogen
8. Signs that your boiler could be dangerous include the smell of gas, feeling nauseous or dizzy, heavy condensation, pilot light burning yellow or going out, and black marks around the boiler
9. Condensing boilers can be over 90% efficient, which means that over 90% of the energy originally in the gas is converted into energy to heat your home and water. This is because of the way it re-uses the waste gas rather than passing it out through the flue (as a non-condensing boiler does)
10. ‘Kettling’, a common fault in boilers, is usually caused by limescale build up on the heat exchanger. This restricts the flow of water and traps it. It then becomes too hot and will boil and steam – just like a kettle, hence the name.
We hope that you have enjoyed the blogs this week, created for Gas Safety Week 2020. Gas is so commonly used and yet most people don’t really know too much about it or how it works in appliances in boilers and fires. Hopefully this week will have provided an insight into this and you will also have learned how to keep yourself and your family safe.
This is the last day of Gas Safety Week 2020. You can see all the blogs we have created for it here.
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Very helpful