Residential Gas Meters

In cities like Calgary, natural gas is the dominant fuel used for residential space heating. Natural gas is drawn through gas meters affixed to the sides of single- and multi-family residences prior to combustion in furnaces. Meters emit small amounts of methane intentionally to regulate the gas pressure and may leak methane from piping connections. There are hundreds of thousands of these meters in Calgary and tens of millions in operation across Canada and the U.S. Residential gas meters are a nontrivial source of methane emissions in aggregate.

We measured 37 residential natural gas meter assemblies in Calgary, AB in the late summer and fall of 2023 to test existing estimates. We found that every meter set was emitting a small amount of methane, mainly intentionally, but we did find a few leaks and notified residents of these emissions. Our estimates of emissions were larger than previous estimates, which has implications for previous upscaling efforts, such as in Canadian and U.S. greenhouse gas inventories.