Natural gas gives off lots of energy when it burns. Energy makes things work. We use energy to heat our homes with gas central heating. We also use gas to heat water for washing and for warm baths and showers.
At home your gas comes from a pipe in the street or from a tank.
In towns and cities, most houses are supplied with gas from ‘the mains’ – a network of gas pipes under the road. In smaller areas, the network of pipes may not be available. Instead, these houses may have a tank of liquid gas in the garden. This is refilled from a lorry when the gas is running low.
The energy from gas can be used to cook.
When natural gas burns, the energy can be used to heat soup on a gas ring or roast a chicken in a gas oven. A gas metre measures how much gas you use in your home. You then pay for gas that you use.
The heat energy from natural gas can be turned into electricity.
You use electricity from the moment you wake up and turn on the light to when you go to bed and listen to a CD. Fossil fuels are often used to make electricity. In a power station, natural has heats water to make steam which turns a turbine. This turns coils of copper wire that pass through magnets, creating electricity.