The gas company routinely sends representatives around the neighborhood to check the gas meters for leaks. A while back I found just such a person checking my gas meter. Given the number of leaking meters that I have found over the years I would say this is a really good idea. It also may indicate that they don’t do it quite often enough and why if you ever smell gas you should have it checked out by a qualified person.
The reason that Thiols (also known as Mercaptans) are added to Natural gas is so that when you smell that rotten egg smell you will pay attention to it. Without the odor your entire house could fill up with gas and you wouldn’t even know it until it was too late.
Whenever I smell what might be a gas leak during an inspection, I do my best to find it and/or make sure the gas company or HVAC Company gets called to find the leak and/or make repairs.
In this picture below we can see a gas leak blowing bubbles in a “soap test” for leaks.
I don’t soap-test to “find” the leaks—I soap test to be able to “see” the leaks.
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