Easy Methods for Methane Gas Detection

Knowing about methane gas detection is important because this gas is not only an explosive but also acts as an asphyxiant. It can therefore cause serious harm to your and your family's health and home.

Methane gas detection was pioneered in the twentieth century by coal miners who used canary birds that would pass out if there were any spike in the amount of methane in the atmosphere.

Thankfully, methods of methane gas detection have moved on from this primitive means of highlighting its presence in the air. There are now a number of methods and devices you can use for methane gas detection.

Before discussing these methods of methane gas detection, let us look at why the gas poses such a threat to human health. Methane can lead to explosions in coal shafts - the gas trapped in the rock can be released as a result of mining - and also fires in landfill sites as a result of a process known as methanogenesis. In the home, methane is found in the natural gas used for cooking. There is also a risk of methane leaking into your home from sewer pipes.

Methane in the atmosphere is dangerous because our lungs only function normally when the atmospheric concentration of oxygen is more than twenty per cent. If the level falls below this, including as a result of it being replaced by methane, it can trigger asphyxiation and if undetected will ultimately lead to death.

Let us now turn to the various methods of methane gas detection.

As methane is odorless and colorless, it can be very difficult to detect. A methane gas detector is by far the best method of alerting yourself to the presence of this gas in the air around you. Methane gas detectors are normally portable so that you can carry them around in your kitchen or near sewers to pick up the presence of methane gas. If you use a fixed methane gas detector it should be installed high up near the ceiling because methane being lighter than oxygen rises to the top of whatever space it is in.