Method for determining the relative position of a gas leak

A method for determining a relative orientation of a gas leak relative to a sniffer leak detector which comprises

• a handpiece with a sniffer probe and a test gas inlet,
• a reference gas inlet disposed at the handpiece remote from the test gas inlet,
• a gas analyzer, and
• a switching valve,
• wherein the switching valve is configured to alternately connect the test gas inlet with the gas analyzer and the reference gas inlet with the gas analyzer in a gas conducting manner, so that either a gas sucked in through the test gas inlet or a gas sucked in through the reference gas inlet is analyzed by the gas analyzer, comprising steps:
• a) supplying the gas sucked in through the test gas inlet to the gas analyzer,
• b) determining a test gas concentration in the gas supplied to the gas analyzer,
• c) switching the switching valve,
• d) supplying the gas sucked in through the reference gas inlet to the gas analyzer,
• e) analyzing a test gas concentration in the gas supplied to the gas analyzer,
• f) forming a differential signal from a difference of the test gas concentration determined according to step b) and the test gas concentration determined according to step e),
• g) changing a spatial orientation of the handpiece, while the position of the handpiece and the distance between the handpiece and a gas leak is not changed or only negligibly changed as compared to the change in the spatial orientation of the handpiece,
• h) repeating steps a)-f),
• i) determining whether the differential signal has changed after step h) compared to the differential signal according to f), and
• j) deducing the relative direction of a gas leak to be localized relative to the orientation of the handpiece by a change in the differential signal.