Residential Methane Detector
The Dangers of Methane
Gas leaks can have a variety of effects on you and the home.
Natural Gas (Methane) is more efficient and cheaper than electricity for heating and cooking. Since nothing is perfect, gas pipes and gas appliances have the potential to malfunction and send gas throughout the home.
Gas leaks within the home can have a variety of effects on those living within the home and on the home itself.
Natural gas leak home effects.
Health Effects
Many gas leaks are so small that makes them undetectable to our smelling and hearing senses . This increases your chances of getting methane gas poisoning.
Symptoms of natural gas poisoning include gastrointestinal problems, an increase in allergic reactions, fatigue, forgetfulness, high red and white blood cell counts, migraines, pain and discomfort.
Smell & Sound
Gas leaks typically emit a rotten-egg smell throughout the house. However, if the gas leak is small and steady, this smell can be undetectable. The rotten-egg smell can dissipate over time so that it’s not detectable, which can lead people to assume incorrectly that the problem has been resolved.
Another sign of a gas leak is a hissing sound that may be coming from the damaged line or appliance that is causing the problem.
Explosion Hazard
Another harmful effect of a home natural gas leak is the potential for an explosion. If gas builds up enough in a home, something as minor as lighting a match, igniting an oven burner or even switching your lights on could cause the entire home to explode.
A fire caused by a natural gas leak could also cause further explosions in the household appliances that commonly use natural gas, such as clothes dryers, furnaces, hot water heaters, fireplaces and stoves.
Prevention & Monitoring
The best way to protect your home and your loved ones is to have a Residential Methane Leak Detector (RMD) that you can trust, one that will trigger an alarm way before the natural gas reaches its explosive level and at the same time will not give false alarms (also called false positives).
Having many RMD units through out the house, like the smoke detectors we all have, all connected to each other will provide the best protection in a way that if your gas water boiler appliance leaks gas, in the basement for example, where the audible alarm can not heard upstairs in the bedroom, the connected model will all alarm at the same time giving you and your family enough time to evacuate the premisses and call for help way before the methane concentration in the air reaches the explosive levels.
Remote Monitoring & Notification
One of the most dangerous situation that will produce an explosion hazard in your home is an empty house where all occupants are out and all doors and windows are closed. Meaning no one will be there to smell the gas leak or hear the alarm if RMDs are present, nobody will be there to take action to notify first responders and your gas utility company. You simply have a ticking bomb waiting for the inevitable: When the first home occupant returns home at night, the first thing most of us do is to automatically turn on the light even before noticing any smell. And that is all an explosive gas present in the air in enough concentration needs to detonate and in most cases level the house causing severe property damages not to mention death !
The ideal protection and prevention solution is a smart IoT RMD (Residential Methane Detector) that is constantly connected to the cloud that from the first moment where a methane leak is detected at the initial stage that in most cases is still far from the explosion levels will notify the home occupants via a mobile app to your smart phone or smart watch so you will know not to return home until you know is safe to do so. And at the same time automatically notify your gas company of the leak providing them with your address. From that point on your Gas Utility Company will then take all the necessary immediate actions to mitigate the situation and they can also call first responders if they realize this is also a necessary precaution measure.
Asphyxiation
Methane is nontoxic on its own but can become lethal when it combines with another gas. Methane causes asphyxiation by displacing oxygen. It may produce symptoms of dizziness and headache, but these often go unnoticed until the brain signals the body to gasp for air.
This happens too late, and the individual collapses. Because of the lack of oxygen, the result is usually death.
Explosion
Methane is extremely flammable and will easily cause explosions. It can leak unnoticed into structures and spaces, and a tiny spark can ignite the undetected gas. Explosions from methane gas are extremely strong, and the damage is devastating.
The explosions associated with methane gas are not limited to the space that has the highest concentration, but anywhere it has seeped. It may be in one room, or it can travel through an entire city block.