Why Do I Need A Gas Shut-Off Valve?
There have been several big earthquakes around the world recently, including the April 1st 8.2 quake off the coast of Chile and another aftershock from the same quake which registered a huge 7.7 magnitude.
In light of this recent seismic activity, we thought it would be a good idea to educate our customers about the importance of gas shut-off valves.
Gas shut-off valves have one simple purpose: they are made to automatically shut off the supply of gas in the event of a disruptive earthquake.
There are two types of gas shut-off valves: one type detects motion and the other type detects the presence of excessive gas. Both types will automatically shut off the gas supply to the building.
There is a third type of gas shut-off device – a manual one. This type requires you to turn off the gas by hand. It has no detector, and you must personally make the decision as to whether the gas supply needs to be shut off.
If you smell gas, turn off the gas supply immediately. But if you are not present when the earthquake happens, the manual type of gas shut-off will be useless to you. For this reason, automatic devices are the way to go.
All commercial buildings and residential apartment buildings are required by California law to install automatic gas shut-off valves in case of earthquake or other emergency. Recently, laws have been passed to require these automatic shut-off valves to be installed in every single-family home or dwelling in California.
Installing an automatic gas shut-off valve in your residential home can cost you between $300 and $800. The difference in price depends on things like whether you have a swimming pool or other features in your home which use more gas and have larger-diameter gas pipes.
