This isn’t directly related to marketing, but, if you’re dead … you can’t market anything!

With the Holidays and winter fast approaching, this is a good time to consider your home’s gas appliances and their components. The first winter heating start-up and the long nights in the dead of winter are the two time frames when you should be alert to carbon monoxide poisoning issues. It’s during these periods that the danger from carbon monoxide (CO for short) is highest. The best advice; have your systems serviced at the beginning of each heating season and make sure they check the flue and combustion air. (You should be changing your air filters at least quarterly.)

Don’t forget to remind all the holiday cooks that if they use a gas oven for baking, they should open a window a couple of inches to bring in some fresh air. Most gas ovens emit some level of carbon monoxide. In a small kitchen, using the oven for a few hours could produce dangerous levels of CO.

If you’ve upgraded windows and done major caulking and sealing to reduce drafts and infiltration air, you’ve also reduced the ability of your home to breath. At some point, your home may become so air tight it’s like a ziplock sandwich bag. No air in, but no air out! 

If you’ve remodeled or finished your basement, you should consider whether any of the construction had an impact on the amount of air available to your furnace and water heater. If you’ve added a room in the basement, constructed walls around your furnace and water heater, or made changes to the heating system duct work, there may be problems with combustion air for your appliances. This needs to be checked by a competent professional. Most carbon monoxide problems are the result of bad applications and not usually due to bad equipment.

In case you’re not familiar with carbon monoxide, here’s a quick rundown.

It’s a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that kills by suffocating its victims. Carbon monoxide (chemical designation “CO”) is produced in large measure from internal combustion engines like your car engine, lawnmower engine, electric generator or gas-driven air-compressor. Even your gas-powered weed whip produces dangerous levels of CO. Never use any of these items in a confined space (indoors, or under a carport, or on a back patio with no free air circulation.)

==================================================
DO NOT run these gasoline or diesel powered devices indoors:
==================================================

• gas driven electric generator
• gas driven air compressor
• gas driven sprayer
• lawn mowers
• gas powered weed whips
• automobile or motorcycle engines

=================================================

Even short-duration runs of any of the above engines can put enough carbon monoxide in the garage that it will permeate cracks in drywall and around doors and get into the home. The amount of CO that winds up in the house depends on how long the engine runs and how big it is.

CO is also produced by gas appliances like your oven, maybe your stove, and your gas furnace or gas water heater if there are extenuating circumstances. Normally, the amount of CO produced by indoor appliances is low enough that there is NO danger. But, if you use your stove or oven to heat your home during a power outage … you’re asking for trouble.

=================================================
DO NOT use your stove or oven for temporary heat!
=================================================

Once the available oxygen in the area is used up by the appliances, any of them will start to emit large amounts of CO. Normally the furnace and water heater are connected to a flue which vents the CO and other combustion products out of the house.

In the case of the stove and oven, they will continue to operate and re-burn the oxygen-depleted air. Once that begins, carbon monoxide output will spike through the roof. At this point your CO detector should have gone into alarm and you and your family only have a matter of minutes to evacuate the area. If you happened to fall asleep with the oven or stove-top burner on, there’s a good chance you will not wake up.

Most stoves, because of their construction, emit low levels of carbon monoxide when they operate. According to government standards (ANSI Z21) an oven is permitted to produce up to 800ppm while operating.

If the oven is operating in a confined kitchen space, it’s possible to create a carbon monoxide hazard after only a few minutes of operation. Make sure you at least crack open a window in the kitchen when you are baking with a gas oven.

The best defense against carbon monoxide poisoning is to make sure your gas appliances are in good working order. Have the flues and combustion air checked every season. A blocked flue will definitely cause CO build up. But, being short of combustion air will be a major problem as well.

There are a zillion myths about carbon monoxide, some are true, but most are false. For example, if you have your gas furnace checked and it is given a clean bill of health, that is NO indication that your safe from CO poisoning.

Another carbon monoxide myth is that a CO detector will protect your family from potential CO poisoning. That’s true ONLY if the CO detector is in working order and can actually detect the CO. If you’re running the oven to heat the house and the CO detector is in a bedroom hallway, you could be overcome by CO before the detector goes into alarm.

Knowledge of how your appliances work and what conditions are necessary to create carbon monoxide in the first place, are your best defense.

Should you have a CO detector? Definitely yes! Should you rely on it as your sole monitor/protector? NO!

There’s a list of myths at www.carbonmonoxidemyths.com that are real eye-openers.

Tags: carbon monoxide, CO, silent killer