Posts Tagged ‘gas pipes’
October 2nd, 2009 | 
Author: Often times fires do as much damage as the earthquake itself! There is something that you can do about it though, install a gas main shutoff valve in your home and it will make sure that all gas to your house is turned off before any fires can start. The shut off valve is located around the gas main on the outside of your house. Once the shaking reaches a certain pre-determined level on the Richter scale (mine is set at 6.1) a golf ball sized ball is shaken off its perch inside the valve and falls into the gas main pipe closing off all gas to your house,
This is a huge step forward in making your home fire safe. If you do not have a gas main shutoff valve your gas pipes could rupture in a quake and begin leaking gas into the house where all it needs is one spark to turn your home into a fireball.
Once the gas main shutoff valve is activated it cannot be reversed unless by a licensed plumber and only after the residence has been declared safe to restore gas service by your local utility company. It could be a very long time depending on the damage that your house has sustained. In California’s famous 1906 earthquake, more damage was done by the fire that resuted from the earthquake than the actual quake itself
I found my shutoff valve at Roto Rooter and paid about 250.00 for mine but I am very glad that I have had it installed. Check with your local plumber contractor, if they carry this product and have them do the installation, the peace of mind is worth it just for that.
http://www.homeowner-emergency-preparedness.com
Article Source: How to Prevent House Fires after a Major Earthquake
When a fire hits any regular building off the street, you can expect that it will not last long. It only takes a few minutes for the raging fires to eat up anything and everything that it touches; especially if you have a lot of carpeting and wood all around your house.
Thus, you need to prepare and make sure that fires will not be able to harm you or your family: from using fire extinguisher cabinets to untangling the mess of wires in your pc, the responsibility lies in your hands.
• Fire Extinguisher Maintenance
Fire extinguishers are the first line of defense that you can use in case of a fire. Make sure that your extinguishers are kept safe in fire extinguisher cabinets to prevent them from rusting and being tossed around, and that they are not past their expiration date. You do not to find your extinguisher de-pressurized at the moment that you will need it the most.
• Wiring and Electronics
Overheating wires and a few sparks from overloaded circuits are more than enough to start a fire in your home, so make sure to check that the wires of your electronics do not wind up too close to each other or to flammable materials. Also, do not stuff all your plugs in one power outlet: the overloaded outlet will have a tendency to overheat and spark a lot when the demand for power grows beyond its capacity to safely supply it.
• Cooking and Cookware
Open flames are always a fire hazard, even in the safety of your kitchen. Curtains blown across an open range, a pressurized canister left beside a hot pot or a small leak in the gas pipes are just a few examples of ways that your kitchen could catch fire.
Check all connections for leaks, be aware of what you pick up and put down, and make sure that all flammable materials are kept segregated from all sources of heat within your kitchen.
• Smoking Safety
Cigarettes are also another major cause for fires. A carelessly flicked butt or a few cinders dropped on the carpet provides the necessary heat to start a raging inferno anywhere in the house.
For safety’s sake, never smoke in areas of the house that are carpeted or full of papers. Smoke outdoors and on stone or metal surfaces, carefully snuff out the cigarette butt and dispose all butts in a non-flammable container to ensure that there would be nothing for the cinders to light up.
• Fire Escape Plans
Fires are devastating mostly because they are unexpected. Any preparation you may take will minimize the risks that a fire will start, but this risk cannot be totally discounted. Thus, you still need to be prepared to do something when a fire does hit, and a fire escape plan will make sure that you will know what to do should the time come.
From watching the wiring, putting your extinguishers in a few fire extinguisher cabinets for safekeeping and drawing up an escape plan, you can make sure that you minimize the risk and prepare for the worst. After all, no one wants to lose their beloved family, as well as their own life, in a fire
Having specialized in the fire extinguisher cabinets trade for over 20 years, Brian now works tirelessly to promote affordable fire safety for home and for business.
Article Source: Fire-Free Homes: Keeping Your Family Safe and Sound
The phenomenon of electromagnetic induction was first discovered by Michael Faraday in 1831, and it is evident that he realised at least a part of its future potential in the modern world. A contemporary politician asked him about the usefulness of the discovery; he answered ‘at present I do not know, but one day you will be able to put a tax on it.’
The earliest record of using electromagnetic technology to locate buried cables dates from around 1910. More portable locators were made over the next years and the Sharman Main Finder was just one example. The user instructions give a tinge of envy to anyone trying to trace gas pipes .. ..’just clip the generator to a gas bracket in the nearest house or onto a street lamp.’
American and German schools of design emerged during the years leading up to the Second World War. In North America roads were wide and wide cables hung on poles so the main requirement for a locator was to locate widely spaced buried pipes. The result was a simple, high frequency, low power and low cost locator.
In Germany, cables as well as pipes were buried under narrow streets, so elaborate low frequency and high power locators were developed that required considerable expertise to obtain satisfactory results.
Dr Gerhard Fisher of California designed the Metallascope, the first high performance buried pipe and cable locating set. His system made use of the latest scientific developments and his company exists today and still produces the M-scope, an up-to-date descendent of the original Metallascope.
One of the engineering sections of Bell Laboratories studied the problem of accurate location of newly buried cables and recognised that an antenna with twin sensing aerials would give more positive plan definition, and also measure the depth of a target cable. The subsequent design, called the Depthometer, was engineered and manufactured in 1964. It was another 12 years before the first commercial twin aerial antenna locator was made by the Electrolocation company in Bristol England.
The twin aerial system was found to have substantial advantages over single aerial locators. Twin sensing aerials combined the seemingly contradictory qualities of discrimination with sensitivity. For the first time it was possible to locate buried cables below an overhead power line and to sort out crowded utility services under a city street intersection.
The introduction of the twin aerial antenna coupled with miniaturised electronic circuitry coincided with a programme of extending and upgrading utility distribution systems. This growing demand and technical progress resulted in a series of advances and new features to make locating more certain and more simple. Some of these advances included:
” Combination of active and passive signal reception
” Multi-frequency locating sets enabling the user to select the most suitable frequency for each application
” Electronic depth measurement.
” Current measurement along the length of a pipe or cable to detect coating or insulation defects.
” Current direction recognition to verify the identity of a target line.
” Permanently installed signal transmitters to apply a signal tone to a telephone cable over distances up to 150km/100 miles.
Today, electromagnetic locators are the worldwide standard for locating buried pipes and cables. A number of specialised manufacturers offer a choice of locators ranging from simple equipment used to detect the presence of buried cables to sophisticated instruments for pinpointing, identifying and fault finding buried pipes and cables in the most complex situations.
Written by Select Surveys, one of the UK’s leading independent surveying companies specialising in using electromagnetic, CAT and ground penetrating radar equipment to detect underground cables and utilities.
Article Source: A History of Underground Electromagnetic Surveying