If your home's boiler, fireplace or central heating system runs on gas, any one of them could be the site of a gas leak. It could also be coming from another source, such as your garbage, sewage or piping, or a dead animal somewhere in your home.
If You Smell Gas Inside of Your House
Go to an area that's not near the smell and contact your gas company. While you wait for the gas company to arrive, stay away from the odor source and make sure you do not: Turn lights on or off. Smoke or strike any matches.
Sewer Gas vs Utility Gas
Pilots on or you don't have gas service? It is very likely what you smell is “sewer gas” which can come up into a house when the traps in drains get dry. It's a pungent gas-like smell.
Look at your plumbing system, water softener, and well
You could have clogged drain vents or some other issue that's causing this smell. Let's first consider this scenario. If you use a well to get water in your home, the problem could be coming from hydrogen sulfide gas.
An olfactory hallucination (phantosmia) makes you detect smells that aren't really there in your environment. The odors you notice in phantosmia are different from person to person and may be foul or pleasant.
Do not open windows and doors if you smell gas outside your home. Natural gas is lighter than air, so opening windows and doors will diffuse the gas to outside of your home. DO NOT use any open flame nor touch any switches, including exhaust fan, kitchen fan, and light switches.
Gas leaks are subtle in smell but very obvious in bills. They can even go on for months undetected. But if there's a significant amount of gas escaping from your system, it can cause a spike in your gas bill.
Exposure to a slow gas leak in your house or apartment may cause deadly symptoms including sickness, weakness, nausea, suffocation, and headaches. If you feel sick or abnormal, immediately call an ambulance to confirm if you have been exposed to gas poisoning.
The final location where gas leaks most commonly occur is where gas is actually being used in your home: your gas appliances. Not every home has a gas appliance, but some common gas appliances include hot water heaters, central heating, and gas range ovens.
An explosion can occur when a gas pipe is leaking. In a confined space like a home or business, the gas will mix with the air, increasing the pressure of the space. When there is a spark or flame (even a static electricity spark might be enough) present, the gas will ignite, causing an explosion.
Rotten Egg Odors
Most people describe this smell as something like rotten eggs, sewage, or sulfur.
Actually, sewer gas is mostly methane which is odorless but it's almost always mixed with other gases, the most common of which is hydrogen sulfide which has a rotten egg smell. Hydrogen sulfide comes from decomposing organic matter.
If you can already smell gas and/or think there could be a leak, you should call us immediately on 0800 111 999* at any time of the day or night. The smell of gas within your property can be alarming and should be treated seriously.
If you suspect there's a gas leak in your home, stop whatever you are doing and go outside. If you inhale it in higher amounts, it can cause asphyxia, which can occasionally lead to death.
It is much more likely for a gas leak to occur where pipes join together at the fittings: old shut off valves, tees, unions, flexible supply lines, regulators, and risers.
Exposure to lower concentrations can cause eye irritation, a sore throat and cough, shortness of breath and fluid in the lungs. These symptoms usually go away in a few weeks after exposure ends. Long-term, low-level exposure may result in fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, irritability, poor memory and dizziness.
Natural gas is non-toxic (non-poisonous), but can cause death by suffocation if the gas displaces the air in a confined space.
In its original form, natural gas is colorless and odorless. To help detect the smell of gas, a harmless chemical called mercaptan is added to give leaked gas a distinctive odor. Most people describe the scent like rotten eggs or a hydrogen sulfide odor.