How to lower the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning?
I know it kills people silently. So how do we prevent carbon monoxide poisoning at home. Does leaving the heater on the whole night make it more susceptible to it? What are the risks?
Tags: carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide poisoning
CO is the product of incomplete combustion. If you have gas or oil heat, or some other combustion-based heat, this can certainly become an issue, especially if the ventilation is poor or blocked.
The easiest way to protect yourself is to maintain your heaters and water heaters frequently and keep them clean, for most efficient combustion. Keep them well-ventilated, and install a CO detector in your home. If it goes off, leave the house and call the Fire Department. They have gas meters, and can enter and determine the levels of CO in the home, and in some cases the areas of highest concentration.
carbon monoxide detector
Avoid sitting in a car with the engine running and a hose from the exhaust pipe through the top of the wndow.
Carbon monoxide is caused by incomplete combustion. The CO really really wants to become CO2 so it binds to oxygen. So when we breathe it in, it deprives our body of oxygen and kills us. It has no color or smell. Most household appliances like fridges, heaters, furnaces, etc, don't emit this gas. Although it could be a product of a malfunction. Just get a CO detector. It looks and sounds like a smoke detector, but when this one goes off and it seems like nothing's wrong, you take it seriously instead of looking at it like another idiotic smoke detector with low battery.