I noticed the smell of propane coming from the equipment owned and operated by the gas company on my property last weekend. I was concerned about both the danger and the financial implications of a potentially leaking gas line. The line was 20 yards from my house, but directly behind my detatched garage.
The next day I got lucky and the gas man was driving by to file the tank (it's a propane tank owned and serviced by the gas company).
I asked him about the leak and he said he would take a look.
He informed me that it looked like the gas regulator on the unit was a defective unit that they had known about for sometime. He said the regulator manufacturer even sent them a bunch of units to replace the bad ones. Then tend to leak, which in my mind means a serious hazard and a huge increase in energy bills. Propane is very expensive in my area, and my house seems to consume about $150-$200 per month, even though we use very little. The thermostat is set to 58 in the winter because we heat the house with firewood. So the furnace never kicks on. The only other propane appliance is the water heater.
Back to the subject, the gas man couldn't dectect a leak, but he was concerned about the defective unit so he had one of their technicians come out and look at it the next day.
The technician did confirm it was a leaky regulator and replaced it. He didn't mention anything about the defects though.
If there was a bad batch of regulators, how many other customers have them? Why was a notice not sent out? It's not difficult to walk up to the unit, look at it and read a serial number. It seems like there could be a potential for harm here (albeit a small one since the tank is generally located away from the house for obvious reasons) but also that the gas company is actually making more money by having so many faulty/leaky regulators out there making customers go through more propane then they normally do.
What if anything should be done? At the bare minimum the company should have to send out letters or require inspections on all the tanks if they knowingly have leaky/defective parts supplied by them on them. Then there is the issue of lost revenue on the part of the customer....
Thoughts?
The next day I got lucky and the gas man was driving by to file the tank (it's a propane tank owned and serviced by the gas company).
I asked him about the leak and he said he would take a look.
He informed me that it looked like the gas regulator on the unit was a defective unit that they had known about for sometime. He said the regulator manufacturer even sent them a bunch of units to replace the bad ones. Then tend to leak, which in my mind means a serious hazard and a huge increase in energy bills. Propane is very expensive in my area, and my house seems to consume about $150-$200 per month, even though we use very little. The thermostat is set to 58 in the winter because we heat the house with firewood. So the furnace never kicks on. The only other propane appliance is the water heater.
Back to the subject, the gas man couldn't dectect a leak, but he was concerned about the defective unit so he had one of their technicians come out and look at it the next day.
The technician did confirm it was a leaky regulator and replaced it. He didn't mention anything about the defects though.
If there was a bad batch of regulators, how many other customers have them? Why was a notice not sent out? It's not difficult to walk up to the unit, look at it and read a serial number. It seems like there could be a potential for harm here (albeit a small one since the tank is generally located away from the house for obvious reasons) but also that the gas company is actually making more money by having so many faulty/leaky regulators out there making customers go through more propane then they normally do.
What if anything should be done? At the bare minimum the company should have to send out letters or require inspections on all the tanks if they knowingly have leaky/defective parts supplied by them on them. Then there is the issue of lost revenue on the part of the customer....
Thoughts?
