Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gas

They tell me it's non toxic...

sunshinesky — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:28:41 -0800

I had a small natural gas leak in my home for 9 days. No one seem alarmed except me. Put my anxiety to rest? I'm particularly concerned because I had experienced some major fatigue (waking up very tired in the mornings) in the last few days leading up to the confirmation of this leak. I had also had a couple of migraines, which was highly unusual and I was having trouble identifying any other normal triggers. I only started feeling those symptoms when the windows were closed for a couple of days. Earlier in the week we'd had much nicer weather and the windows were wide open.

The fire department and gas company don't seem alarmed at the severity of the leak- in fact the fire department missed it on their first inspection and we had to call them back in. I don't think it was clear to anyone investigating just how long the leak had existed until my husband reminded me of that we'd recently had a pipe replaced along with other work in the house. My husband was told the gas is non toxic, but I'm a bit anxious considering I know I wasn't feeling normal for days. I'm slow moving in the morning regularly, but I felt especially slow.

Is this related at all? Should I be bringing this up with my doctor when I see him next week? Are my kids ok?

I'm finding this whole situation a bit difficult to handle because my known history of anxiety caused me to ignore my gut instinct in the first place, and also affected my ability to assert myself with the fire department on their first visit. I thought, "I must be wrong about this, we would have blown up by now.", I apologised for potentially "wasting" the fire departments time, etc.

Clearly my anxiety is a factor here, but tell me. Is a minor natural gas leak actually safe to breath for so long? Could my migraines and fatigue be related?

How to capture, transport and test a gas?

[insert clever name here] — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:20:40 -0800

I want to test what the composition of a gas is, and I don't even know where to begin. I don't have access to a lab, but I know enough people that might have access to equipment to help, if I knew what to ask for. And I also need some ideas of how to capture and transport the gas. I raise seahorses. One condition that afflicts seahorses is the accumulation of gas in their bodies, subcutaneous, internally or within their pouch. Unlike other fish with gas bubble disease, this happens in cases where there isn't gas supersaturation in the water. It can happen in that circumstance, but public aquariums have tested for supersaturation when this happens, and most cases haven't found instances of supersaturation.

There are a few hypotheses about why it happens, but it's never been tested really. One of the prevailing ones would suggest that the gas buildup has to be CO2. So I want to test this.

I have a male right now with the pouch manifestation, meaning his pouch fills with gas. I can remove it it fairly easily, which is what got me thinking I could probably capture the gas and test it. But I'm not sure how best to capture the gas, and then what to do to prevent it from being contaminated, and what equipment I would need to test.

So far for capturing the gas, I was thinking of using an iv catheter (the sleeve, not the needle) to release the air under water. I do this now. But I was then thinking of having a cup held under water over where I am releasing the bubbles to trap the gas; and then using a syringe to extract the gas from the cup. I have a crude drawing of what I am describing.

If this isn't a good way to capture the gas, any other thoughts? And how do I transport it, since I likely will need to test it someplace else.

Finally, how do I test it? I remember chemistry years ago we did various things to discover the composition of a gas, but I can't recall what they were. Also, there will likely be less than .5ml of gas to test. If possible I'd like to test at home, but I can reach out to various friends and acquantainces that might have access to lab equipment if I know what to ask for.

Help for balloon [wo]man

jezemars — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:01:17 -0800

What can I do in the short term to feel better while losing weight when everything seems to make me gassy, swollen and uncomfortable? My doctor's answer to everything seems to be "Lose weight!". That's not going to help these problems in the moment. TMI descriptions follow... I am significantly overweight and have been so since my tween years (I'm 40 now). Right now I have over 100 lbs that I'd like to lose and I have begun to chip away at it by tracking my calories through myfitnesspal and working out at a gym. While I've been unhappy with the weight for a long time there have been some changes in how my body is reacting to the extra weight that has helped to spur me along, so to speak.

I get an upset stomach a lot, even when I eat really bland foods like oatmeal. Just this morning I had some oatmeal, immediately felt bloated and had diarrhea within an hour of breakfast. In addition, I often find myself belching after every meal and sometimes when I'm just drinking water. Whenever I mention these sorts of symptoms to my doctor her only response is to lose weight. Well, it's going to take me a very long time to get down to a "healthy" weight and I would love some options so that I don't have to be uncomfortable day in and out while I'm working on this.

The second issue I've noticed is that my feet are swelling on a regular basis. I am currently on high blood pressure medication and when I first when on it, my feet would swell so we adjusted the dosage down and the problem seemed to be corrected. Well, I've been on this medication for about 8 months and my feet are suddenly swelling almost daily and the joints in my feet hurt. Yeah, I know that age and weight will do this to your feet but is there something I can do to combat the problem while I work on weight loss? I don't have a hugely salty diet so I don't think that is the issue.

Any advice on how to deflate my tummy and my feet?

She wants to save money—and not f*ck up the environment

GlassHeart — Sat, 04 May 2013 19:53:12 -0800

Mom wants a fuel-efficient car . . . what should she get? My mom no longer wants to spend $500+/year on her current car and wants to get a new, fuel-efficient, car.

ATM she's familiar with and interested in the:

Chevrolet Cruze Eco

Ford Focus

Toyota Prius

Any of the above recommendable? And are there any good alternatives to the above?

Important info:

Mom lives in Canada; car prices differ greatly here than in the USA

Not sure what her budget is, but I'm guessing she wouldn't spend more than $30,000 CAD on a car

Are there new cars that have relatively even pedal heights?

NormieP — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:42:11 -0800

We need to get a new car where the brake pedal and the gas pedal are approximately the same height. We're located in the US. So far almost all of the cars we've tried have a rather substantial height difference between the brake and the gas (some as much as 2"). I'm looking for within 1/2" difference. Does anyone know of a late model cars that have a small difference in pedal height? My wife needs a new car. About a year ago she had surgery and her right ankle and unfortunately developed arthritis in that ankle. She finds it painful to lift her foot so much when pivoting between the break and the gas pedal. She has her doctor's clearance to drive and she's been driving my '99 Camry without issue (the pedals are about even).

I'm flexible on price, though I would prefer to stay between $20k and $30k.

We started going to dealerships this weekend to try out new cars. So far we've been to see Fords and Chevys. Every Ford she sat in (Focus, Fusion, Escape - both a 2013 and a used 2011, and Edge) had the height difference problem. The Chevy's (Malibu and Impala) were the same problem with one major exception: The 2013 Chevy Volt had pedals that were essentially even. We test drove it and it worked wonderfully for her. The downsides are that it is tiny, it doesn't have power seats (she also is recovering from two herniated discs from a fall she took during recovery from the ankle surgery), and it has a sticker of nearly $45k (GM isn't supporting the price as much as they were with the 2012s and while the gas savings are big, they're not big enough to make up the difference).

We're going to look at Honda's and Subaru's tomorrow. A 2009 Camry we tried had the height difference problem, so I suspect Toyota's won't work either.

I know the pedal height difference is done as a safety precaution, but after we drove the Volt I also know that not all new cars do this.

I also know that its possible to have accessibility shops (places that do hand controls and things like that) build up the gas pedal for her, but I rather get a car that works without modification.

Some questions about excess gas

Acari — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:24:35 -0800

I have dropped and broken a 20 pound container of CO2 in my basement. It was terrifying. While I air out the basement, I have a few questions: - other than bringing a big fan in and having the doors open, is there anything else that will help disperse this gas faster?
- the air intake for my furnace is also in the basement. Is this a problem?
- are there any other sorts of things that might be affected that I am not thinking of? The only thing I can kind of think of is that it will slightly acidify the water in the toilet and floor drains, but that isn't actually a big deal.

[the tank was behind a blanket and was knocked over when I dropped the tabletop I am making. It did not rocket through any walls like in mythbusters.]

Any precautions needed in soldering to a millivolt gas control system?

mbarryf — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:46:22 -0800

A gas stove in our family room uses a thermocouple, millivolt valve and manual switch to control the gas to the stove. I need to solder a new switch to the leads that go to the old switch (the total wire length is about 4 feet). What precautions do I need to take to ensure that I do not blow out the millivolt gas valve when I do the soldering? I have done lots of electronics soldering in my lifetime, but never to a millivolt system. I plan to use a soldering pencil, and electronics solder (resin core). I am not lengthening the wire or adding a second switch.

What to do when Life's a Gas

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:26:07 -0800

You've got insane gas but you need to keep working. What do you do? Let me set the scene.

You are at work and you have an important meeting in 10 minutes. Or you're at an Art Museum looking at a Monet, or at a Benefit and you have to give a speech, or about a teach a class, or at some event in which your attendance is required. You need to stay in the building and deal with your problem. Your problem is that your stomach is producing a crazy amount of gas. You're uncomfortable and afraid to move because you'll let out a loud stinky fart...or, a series of farts with each stiff step you take (you all know of the fart walk. Fart-fart-fart-fart-fart). Your assets are water in the bathroom, some basic first-aid-kit elements such as headache medicine, and maybe some stale donuts or steal-able food in the breakroom. You can step outside but there is no pharmacy nearby. You have a breakroom and/or a shared bathroom that you can duck into.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

This has happened to everybody. Gas that bubbles up over and over again. You're afraid to fart while sitting down because you might go airborne off your chair. You don't want to crop dust around the museum because, well, that's just unpleasant. You don't want to fart loudly in front of your class and be known as the Fartsy Professor (no really, you don't). Mefites, I want to know what sort of folk remedies you have for this sort of situation. It has happened before and will happen again to the best of us.

With anonymous love, the Fartsy Professor

How much electricity does a gas boiler use?

lccslug — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 12:29:08 -0800

I know this question is a little bit arbitrary, but any response will be helpful. I live in a 2 family spilt house/condo. I noticed that my electrical box is powering the OTHER unit's gas boiler. I assume that the electrical just feeds the thermostat and maybe triggering the pilot to boil the water?? (My knowledge here is limited.) Without knowing too much about their heating use, I am trying to determine the urgency of getting an electrician to switch it from my electricity to the other unit's electrical box.

How do I know if my gas fireplace has a blower?

The corpse in the library — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:42:36 -0800

Does my gas fireplace have a blower? I have a Lennox gas fireplace. There are two switches on the wall next to it. One starts the fire, the other... does what? How do I know if my fireplace has a blower, or if the switch does nothing?

There's no sound of anything clicking on, but can modern fireplace blowers be silent? I might notice some air being blown from it, or it might be my imagination.

The house was built in 2004-ish. The fireplace works well, and has been checked out and cleaned.

I always need to fart

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 09:40:04 -0800

I frequently feel gaseous. Help me with my digestive system. The title was a bit circumspect, but hopefully this is straightforward: I need to fart very frequently, and it's a problem.

Basically every day, I am consciously holding in a fart, hoping I can make it to a bathroom to release. Sometimes they are smelly, sometimes not. In total, I probably fart three to five or more times a day. My bowel moments are fairly soft (but not diarrhea), and they probably happen about two times a day (Google tells me that what is typical is between three times and week and three times a day, so this is the high end of normal).

I'm a guy in my 20s, about 6ft0 160lbs. For breakfast I generally have a bowl of cereal with milk, for lunch I generally have either a couple chicken breasts or a diner cheeseburger/Subway sandwich/Chipotle burrito/the like, for dinner I have a couple more chicken breasts, and I snack on small things (cookies, pretzels, chocolate) every so often during the day when they appear at work. Sometimes I make peanut butter / whole wheat bread sandwiches and snack on those. (The chicken breast thing is basically because I tell myself I want to bulk-up diet-wise, but when it comes down to it, I'm know I'm not all that serious about doing so -- no protein shakes, probably not really eating enough calories, and so on.)

I feel like the gas thing is a relatively new thing for me (within the past two years, maybe the last one), and while I do not know if it's getting worse, it's not getting better. It's certainly getting more prominent in my thoughts, because sometimes I feel like I'm forced to "sneak" a fart while walking down the street or whatever -- and this sort of thing is *going* to eventually get me in trouble.

What do I need to be eating? What should I not be eating? Any other advice?

Most Efficient Anaerobic Digestion?

gzimmer — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 07:25:16 -0800

All other factors held constant, what types of microbes at what temperatures would yield the most efficient way of turning an organic waste stream into a a source of methane fuel for use as natural gas? I haven't taken biology in many years, so I'm missing a lot of knowledge in the area I'm sure. But I'm learning more about anaerobic digesters and find them very interesting, but I'm having trouble finding more indepth analyses of the specifics of the microbial interactions and how it could be optimized.

Home Physics Filter: Does squeezing the bottle of a carbonated beverage help keep it from going flat?

dammitjim — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 19:22:46 -0800

Does squeezing the bottle of a carbonated beverage help keep it from going flat? My wife does this, and I can not understand how it would be beneficial. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. How might this keep the gases from escaping? She says it's about having less air inside the bottle. Please esplain to me how this could be.

Can I make it from Boston to Brooklyn tomorrow (Saturday?)

caoimhe — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:22:18 -0800

Any issues with roads traveling from Boston to Brooklyn tomorrow? Hi! I really need to make it to Brooklyn tomorrow, but I'm worried about making the drive from Boston to Brooklyn post-Sandy.

What are the roads like? (I'll be dodging Manhattan.) Traffic? And gas? How far out of the city would I need to get gas?

Is it safe to carry gas with me in the car in one of the containers from Boston?

Any advice?

THANKS!!

Post-Sandy gas for trip from NYC to upstate New York?

lips — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 06:22:30 -0800

Post-Sandy gas for trip from NYC to upstate New York? My partner's best friend is getting married in Monroe NY this weekend and festivities start tonight. My partner and I live in Brooklyn and are going to try to drive up there tonight. She's got a little Honda that currently has a half of tank of gas and gets about 30-40 miles per gallon. So basically we have enough gas to get up there, but will definitely need to get gas to get ourselves home safely. What are our best options to get gas now that its like we are living in the 70's gas crisis era again? Is it better to find gas here in NYC, or find it upstate? Any idea how long to plan on it taking at the pump with lines?

As a followup, any advice on best way to get upstate from Brooklyn with the current conditions? Planning on leaving around 3pm.

help a baby out - eating and sleeping shouldn't be mutually exclusive

machine — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 20:19:45 -0800

Babyfilter: At just over five and a half months, baby machine is starting to try solid foods. So far what this seems to mean is that about 4 hours after he goes to bed at night he wakes up crying due to gas. I'm looking for suggestions or anecdotal experience around how to help the little guy out. Baby machine has been primarily breastfed with the occasional bottle of formula (say once, maybe twice a month). At our last dr.'s visit, the doc suggested that we could start on solid foods when the baby started to reach for things people were eating. So last week we tried homemade apple sauce courtesy of grandma and this week it was sweet potato puree.

In general, he seems fine with the actual eating piece of this (tho there are many hilarious faces) but then we have nights where the gas wakes him up multiple times per night. The gas itself is usually solved by picking him up - changing positions or changing his diaper to get him moving his legs. But it's no fun for me or him.

Is this a case of the mouth says yes but the intestines say no and we should just wait a while more? Try different foods? Baby pro-biotics? Any ideas? Thanks!

Have I breathed in something bad for me?

unixrat — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:36:09 -0800

Is my unseated toilet pipe going to kill me somehow overnight? I'm stripping the wallpaper in my average American bathroom. I went to remove my toilet tank (after all proper drainage/prep steps were taken) and the shifting weight revealed a deteriorated o-ring. After setting tank down, I moved the stool to find that essentially 2/3 of it was rotted into a fine gunk.

Okay, I can replace that. But at current the hardware store is closed and the toilet is sitting to the side of the open pipe. I didn't think this was a problem for some reason and worked in the small-ish bathroom for a couple of hours until I got to the area near the toilet. It suddenly smelled 'off' and I realized that "Hey, this might be a problem."

I jammed a sacrificial towel into the hole but I'm worried that either I've inhaled some levels of badness or poison is seeping around the towel or something.

Googling doesn't reveal much, which I think is heartening. There are warnings about sewer gas, but that's... not this, right?

For what it's worth, I was doing fairly involved cooking work in the kitchen at the same time without incident. I feel my motor and reasoning skills are doing fine.

Am I going to die?

Gassy baby is gassy

bq — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 22:34:23 -0800

Please give me your best tips to burp a six week old, or otherwise soothe a gassy infant. Baby is six weeks old. He is in a co-sleeper attached to our bed. Breastfeeding and sleeping are going well except that at night - around 3 am or so usually - he starts grunting and straining loudly, which keeps us awake. He's not crying and is usually actually asleep while he makes these noises. Sometimes the straining will result in a loud fart or poop, but he just keeps on with the grunting. I've tried burping him after feelings, but it's hard to get a good burp out of him. I've tried bicycle legs during the grunting sessions but that doesn't seem to produce anything or make him more comfortable.

I don't think it's reflux as he rarely spits up. My supply is fine and I don't think we have an oversupply problem or an over active letdown.

What are your burping best practices or other suggestions? Besides earplugs?

Is NJ gas better than Massachusetts gas?

Rafaelloello — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:16:08 -0800

New Jersey gasoline is more efficient than Massachusetts gasoline? I seem to get much better gas mileage with both my cars when they are filled up in NJ. What gives? We live in Boston, have family in NJ, so we make the pilgrimage at least two times, sometimes three times a year. Our older car (a 2002 Mazda Tribute V-6) goes one way on almost exactly one tank of gas so I fill up usually as quick as I can when getting to one side or the other. I consistently, barring traffic (Grrrr!Thanksgiving) get 22mpg going to NJ and 24mpg going back. Over the last 10 years I chalked it up to loss of elevation and perhaps tailwind and maybe less traffic coming East. Now we have a newer car with a bigger tank and better mpg. Not only is the difference more exaggerated, but I can arrive back in MA with nearly a half tank of NJ gas which I did this week, but that's not the mystery. Also, our new car has an mpg computer and not only did I notice a big change in mpg coming home (about 4 mpg), now I'm still using the NJ gas and I'm seeing 2-4mpg better gas mileage on my short 9 mile commute to work. Being an engineer, I know exactly what my mpg is with and without Air Conditioning and it's vastly better with the NJ gas. I just know I'm going to fill up this weekend with MA gas and it's going to drop back down. More ethanol? Some other additive? We use only name brand gas (Shell, Sunoco, Gulf, etc.) from various stations. One more side-note: Even though our MA gas mpg seems lower, I found one gas station here in MA where the price is good and the mpg is even 2mpg lower still? Is there a way to dilute gasoline and sell it for a lower price? Interestingly this same lower mpg supposedly name brand station gives a discount for cash instead of a higher price for credit. Thanks in advance.

Can someone give me an estimate of how long food takes to go through your digestive system.

sockpim — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 13:29:23 -0800

Can someone give me an estimate of how long food takes to go through your digestive system. This is a rather stupid but also serious question.

I've always wondered and gotten several different answers from people when asking them.

The serious side to it is that I have (chronic) acid reflux and am wondering how long it takes my food to affect this condition - so I can work out exactly what foods irritate my stomach/esophagus.

The stupid part is that currently I'm having a bout of awesome gas (awesome being a term that for most people, would be translated as a horribly disgusting smell) and I'm wondering how I would be able to tell what food made it happen. I would like to know this so a) I can avoid eating it when seeing a girl. And b) eat some on purpose if I feel the need to exterminate my colleagues at work.

Single-family home energy advances?

usermac — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:36:54 -0800

Home energy advances. Are there any new developments I should know about as I'm about to move into an older single-family home after 13 years of living in an apartment? It is a gas/electric home with heavy tree shade.

Stop sparking!

evil_esto — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 01:49:39 -0800

The sparkers on my gas cook-top keep 'sparking' even when everything is turned off. There is no gas flowing to the range but the little spark plugs keeping sparking by themselves. From my lounge room I can hear them and it's getting worse and worse. Any ideas? Should I just get someone in to fix it? European stainless steel cook-top around 10 years old. I saw this AskMefi, but it doesn't quite answer my question.

Homemade napalm?

werkzeuger — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 13:12:29 -0800

Any uses for old gasoline (petrol)? Are there any good uses for small amounts - say half to three gallons - of gasoline that is too old to use as fuel in an engine? This gas is at least two years old and contains no stabilizer (which, yes, I'm aware of). The only thing that I can think of is starting bonfires, which I seldom need to do, or as a workshop solvent for cleaning parts, for which there are safer and less smelly alternatives.

In the past I've run old gas through 4-cycle engines like lawnmowers but now realize that's a bad practice. If I have to I'll take it to the local govt to be processed as waste but I'd really rather not bother for such a small amount.

So, I'm hoping other MeFites will have some innovative uses I haven't thought of.

How can I successfully land an internship as an engineering student?

This Is Reality — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:15:51 -0800

I'm an engineering student that's been applying for internships since the start of the year but with no offers. Can any MeFi members give me any advice on landing one and how to keep my motivation? I'm a third-year Chemical Engineering student in Canada with a huge interest in having a career in the oil and gas industry. Ideally, I was looking for a 16-month internship in oil but since the initial round of offers I've been applying for summer, 8 and 12 month work term positions as well. That being said, I've been applying to anything chemical engineering related and I've been having no success. My marks aren't terrible (B+ average) and my relevant experiences seem sufficient enough to land me some interviews, but I can never cross the line between being an applicant and the intern they want. I've been using the university's careers website, monster.ca and indeed.ca for job postings.

I've been shortlisted for every position I've been interviewed for but never chosen. Now, people including friends and classmates around me are getting internships and engineering summer jobs, and frankly I'm feeling absolutely depressed and worthless. Since I'm an out of town student, I've delayed my housing to the point that I'm going to have to find a temporary place for the summer and am probably going to have to live with strangers in the school year. I really wanted a year-long or at least a summer internship because I have no connections to the industry I want to work in and I see this as a way of getting my foot in the door.

I've had numerous mock interviews (they said I was good), resume checks (apparently my CLs and resumes are good to excellent) and phoned a few of the places I applied for to check in but it seems that no matter how much work I put in to it, I just end up disappointed. Now companies are closing up shop for student positions and I'm afraid that I just screwed myself over by trying so hard to get one for the next school year.

Can anyone who's been in my position, has done an internship or is an engineer in the oil and gas industry give me any advice on how I should proceed?

The car that idled way too slow

exphysicist345 — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:37:09 -0800

The car had run out of gas. When it got gas and finally started, it ran very strangely. How come? The '95 Ford Thunderbird ran out of gas, completely, and was parked on the shoulder when a gallon of gas arrived and was poured into the tank. The starter was cranked, cranked, cranked to pump the gas to the engine. Finally it started, kinda, but sounded very strange. At idle, the sound from the tailpipe was a quiet pum... pum...pum pum....pum... like individual cylinders firing.

Any ideas what was going on? Does running out of gas do something to a a fuel-injected engine? (I don't know what happened thereafter, as I left in my own car.)