Protect your family from carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) is called “the silent killer.”  It is an odorless, colorless gas that’s a by-product of gas combustion.  CO can cause illness or death before you’re aware of its presence.  Fortunately, with good ventilation and well maintained, properly adjusted gas and wood burning appliances, the chances are good you will have little to fear from carbon monoxide.

Unfortunately, many homeowners neglect appliance maintenance, which can be fatal.  According to the U.S. EPA’s James Raub, CO may cause more than half of all fatal poisonings.  “Fatal cases,” claimed Raub in the journal, Toxicology, “Also are grossly under-reported or misdiagnosed by medical professionals.”

Where CO Comes From

To start, background levels of carbon monoxide are always present in the atmosphere.  Some occurs naturally from volcanic activity and forest fires.  Automobile and industrial emissions also contribute to background levels.

In the home, carbon monoxide can come from tobacco smoke, unvented gas space heaters and appliances, and automobile, lawn mower, generator, and other small engine exhaust that enters the home.  You can minimize these risks by avoiding the indoor use of unvented appliances, by leaving your garage open when your car is running (and by not leaving the engine on while the car is in the garage), by starting and stopping small gas engines outside of the garage, and by locating gas generators outside away from doors, windows, or vents.

Carbon monoxide can also occur in the home when a gas appliance’s flue is improperly sized, becomes disconnected, or the flue becomes partially restricted.  A bird nest in the wrong place, for example, may become deadly.  Flues should be checked at the start of each heating season.

Another potential source of carbon monoxide is your home’s furnace.  Heat sections should be checked each fall to ensure the heat exchanger is leak free.  Additionally, properly adjusted burners not only mean more efficient operation, but less risk of carbon monoxide resulting from incomplete combustion. 

Backdrafting

Backdrafting occurs when the pressure inside the house is less than the pressure outside the house and the exhaust from natural drafting gas appliances is sucked back into the house.  Backdrafting is more of an issue today than the past due to tighter construction standards.  A bathroom fan may be enough to create negative pressure in a tightly sealed house.

Backdrafting can also result from leaking return air duct work, wood burning fireplaces (a fire can pull several hundred cubic feet of air out of the house each minute, causing appliances to backdraft), high wind conditions that result in high pressure on the windward side of the house and low pressure on the downwind side, and so on.

You can minimize the potential for backdrafting by installing modern, energy efficient gas furnaces, wood stoves, and water heaters that feature sealed combustion systems.  Sealed combustion appliances draw outside air for combustion and exhaust combustion by-products outdoors.  Since indoor air is not used for combustion, backdrafting is not a concern.

Another option is power vented furnaces or water heaters.  These products use indoor air for combustion, but use a fan to exhaust combustion by-products outside.

Everyone Recommends

Annual Heating System Maintenance

There’s a reason virtually every utility, consumer group, government agency, and consumer publication recommends annual heating system maintenance.  Good maintenance can save the lives of you and your family.  A heating professional should check for leaks in the heat exchanger, adjust the burners, clean and check the venting system, and more.

A heating system combustion safety inspection and tune-up is virtually free.  The adjustments that ensure you receive a clean burn also save energy.  Over the course of the heating season, the energy savings can easily exceed the cost of the tune-up.

An efficient, well-maintained heating system is also an environmentally friendly system.  Since you save money on utilities, tune-ups are like buying carbon credits from yourself.

There are many good reasons for getting a tune-up now and none for waiting.  Delaying only delays the energy savings.  Call us at 918.610.7300!

  

Carbon Monoxide: The Silent Killer

Did you know that the revised building code for the state of Oklahoma is requiring a CO detector for every home that uses a fossil fuel appliance? This means homes with natural gas fireplaces, dryers, HVAC systems, oven ranges, etc. If you are planning on having your home remodeled and the contractor pulls a permit, a CO detector will be required at the time of inspection.CO detectors monitor the amount of carbon monoxide in your home and alert you when dangerous levels are present. While it is not an immediate requirement for older homes to have a CO detector, we highly recommend having one installed. 

Carbon monoxide will cause death or serious brain damage to more than 500 victims this year—don’t let a family member be one of them! What exactly is it? Carbon monoxide (CO) is a byproduct from burning various fuels and can come from a variety of common, everyday home appliances… and it’s poisonous to breathe in. Have you ever heard that you should never start your car or lawn mower with the garage door closed? That’s why. It’s a tasteless, odorless, and colorless gas, making it a difficult opponent. Make sure your family doesn’t fall victim to this silent killer by knowing the facts. Homes are most at risk during fall, when people are starting up their furnace, boiler, or other seasonal combustion appliances for the first time in months.

Normally the toxic gases from fuel combustion are expelled from the home, but processes called the “stack effect” and “backdraft” trap them inside. The stack effect is when faulty appliances create a negative air pressure inside the home by ventilating too much air out of the home. The building will then “backdraft” to compensate for the air pressure imbalance by sucking air—including toxic gases—back inside.

This is usually caused by loose vent pipes, cracked metal, or corrosion.

Your home could also have internal equipment damage, malfunctioning components, or hidden blockage or damage in the vent or chimney. But how do you know?

CO is indiscernible by our senses, carbon monoxide can really sneak up on you—and your home’s CO detector! Because air can stratify, low-level leaks are difficult to identify, you should have at least one CO alarm on each floor of your home, and make sure it has a battery backup if it is hard-wired or plug-in.

What to do if your alarm goes off:

Turn off combustion appliances, open all doors and windows, leave the home, and seek medical attention for a blood check.

CO exposure is so dangerous because it interferes with the way your body absorbs oxygen, and can result in death or serious brain damage.

Symptoms of CO exposure include dizziness, nausea, headache, and shortness of breath—unfortunately, those are also symptoms for dozens of other illnesses, so it’s best to stay on the safe side and just get your home checked!

Call Elite for an annual inspection.  (…right about now would be a good time!) We can clean and tune-up the central heating system and check for chimney air leaks, cracked heat exchangers, and improperly installed or loose vent pipes. Make sure your family knows the warning signs and what to do to prevent a CO nightmare.  918.610.7300

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