Key Points
- Carbon monoxide is a dangerous gas that causes loss of consciousness and suffocation.
- Fossil fuel-burning appliances create carbon monoxide.
- Symptoms of CO poisoning are dizziness, headaches, muscle weakness, sour stomach, vomiting, and confusion.
- CO prevention tactics include annual heating system maintenance, keeping a backup CO detector, regular chimney inspections, and avoiding burning charcoal indoors.
Carbon monoxide safety in your home should be a high priority. Unlike the visual indicator of smoke during a fire or the scent of sulfur alerting you to a gas leak, carbon monoxide isn’t easy to identify. Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of many home heating systems, so carbon monoxide safety is something everyone should be aware of, homeowner or not. Winter temperatures in many regions across the United States require an effective and efficient heating solution to stay warm, so keeping your furnace off for the season isn’t a real solution. Luckily for you, IWAE is here to give you tips and tricks to help you feel safe and prepared in the event that carbon monoxide leaks into your home.
What is Carbon Monoxide?
Carbon monoxide, or CO, is a silent, odorless, and colorless gas that is lighter than air, meaning it will rise towards the ceiling as it dissipates. While CO is flammable, that isn’t the main cause for concern. When inhaled, CO displaces the oxygen in your blood to eventually deprive the heart, brain, lungs, and other vital organs of the oxygen they need to function. Lower concentrations of carbon monoxide can take up to 2 hours to poison you, but higher concentration levels can smother you within minutes. Once enough CO has entered your system, you’ll fall unconscious until you eventually suffocate. This isn’t a scare tactic; it’s just a fact: carbon monoxide can kill you.
What Causes Carbon Monoxide in a House?
CO is produced every time you burn fossil fuels like natural gas, charcoal, and wood. This means that any time you use a stove, lantern, fireplace, grill, gas range, or furnace that runs on oil or gas, carbon monoxide is created from an incomplete burning of carbon in oxygen. Many of these common household appliances are dangerous if they malfunction or don’t use proper ventilation. Even your favorite candles create CO as they burn, though the quantity is small enough that you don’t have to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning. Well, unless you have so many candles burning in an enclosed, poorly ventilated area that you'll risk burning up all your oxygen (please don't do this). Prevention and early detection are critical for keeping your home and loved ones protected from carbon monoxide.
What Are the Symptoms of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning?
Did you know that the effects of CO are often described as “flu-like” due to the overlap in their symptoms? The common early indicators of carbon monoxide poisoning are dizziness and headaches. After this phase, the severity jumps to include weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, and confusion. While you shouldn’t jump to conclusions every time you feel nauseous or fatigued, be cognizant. Keep track of how often you’re feeling ill, whether or not medication seems to help, and how long it takes to bounce back. If you suspect that carbon monoxide is the cause of how you’re feeling, don’t wait– open the windows, move to somewhere with fresh air, and seek medical attention. Head to the nearest emergency room or urgent care, or reach out to the Poison Help hotline for additional resources and support.
There are a few tell-tale signs around the house that indicate a CO leak:
- Lazy yellow or orange flames on your gas range
- Soot stains or dark marks around gas appliances
- Pilot lights that frequently go out
Who Is Most at Risk of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning?
Everyone is at risk of CO poisoning, but some groups are more vulnerable. CO poses significant risks to the unborn, so pregnant women should be especially careful. Small children and pets are also particularly at risk, their more compact bodies taking less time for the negative effects to kick in. The elderly, as well as those with heart and lung conditions like emphysema and chronic heart disease, are all more susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, more than 400 Americans die each year of CO poisoning not linked to house fires. While advances in carbon monoxide detectors have improved our overall response time to poisoning symptoms, more than 20,000 Americans visit the emergency room every year due to complications related to carbon monoxide inhalation. Of these, 4,000 wind up hospitalized on average. Catching symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning early can still lead to dire consequences, but you can keep yourself out of the hospital and breathing easy by taking CO safety seriously.
Carbon Monoxide Safety in Your Home
Fortunately, there are a plethora of ways to keep you and your family safe. We’ll break down our suggestions for mitigating the chance of carbon monoxide leaks and creation:
- Schedule annual heating system maintenance
- Choose a safer alternative
- Install a battery-operated back-up CO detector
- Check your chimney regularly
- Avoid burning charcoal indoors
Schedule Annual Heating System Maintenance
When it comes to combustible energy, you can never be too cautious. Call in a qualified heating technician to complete a yearly maintenance check and inspection on your furnace. This safety precaution applies to other gas, oil, and coal-burning appliances like water heaters within the home. An annual maintenance inspector will replace any worn parts to keep your heating system reliable. A regular service and maintenance schedule keeps you safe and ensures maximum efficiency to reduce energy costs.
Don’t be tempted to skip a service because your system is working perfectly! A furnace that appears to function correctly doesn’t guarantee safety. Every time your furnace starts up, it puts the internal components under strain. Over prolonged periods, things malfunction. Once a crack appears, you have the potential for a CO leak. It may be small at first, just 0-20 parts per million (PPM), but if left unchecked and the crack widens, the CO leakage increases. This is, in part, why carbon monoxide has been dubbed the “silent killer.”
Install a Battery-Operated Back-Up CO Detector
If you must have a fossil fuel appliance in your home, a carbon monoxide detector can be a lifesaver. In fact, it will be what alerts you to carbon monoxide should any leak into your home, since you cannot smell, taste, or hear CO. If you can get a detector with a digital readout, even better! These kinds of carbon monoxide detectors tell you what the CO levels are and whether they are rising or falling. You should conduct a test once a week to check battery status and ensure particulate matter isn't blocking the sensor. The easiest way to keep the sensor unobstructed is to run the vacuum nozzle over the detector to remove dust and dirt each time you clean. Another good tip is to replace the batteries every time you change the clock in spring and fall.
Remember: Location is important. Install the sensor about 5 feet from the ground. You should also try to place it in a central location– somewhere that is both close enough to the source of CO and where you live, sleep, and cook. Depending on the size and layout of the building, it may be advisable to install multiple detectors in hotspots around the home.
Other than the CO detector location, the other vital factor is the threshold of the alarm. Some trigger at concentrations of 75 PPM, while others that are more sensitive alert you to danger at 35 PPM or less. Health problems are more likely to occur with higher levels of carbon monoxide, but establishing a lower threshold can ensure you have time to get medical assistance before CO poisoning progresses. Because carbon monoxide poisoning can also coincide with house fires, it might also be a good idea to combine a CO alarm with a separate smoke detector to give you the best possible protection. BUT! Keep in mind that smoke detectors do not work to identify and warn you about CO alone, so do not rely on them as your backup.
Check Your Chimney Regularly
Chimneys are your tool to safely expel carbon monoxide and other harmful gases from your home, so making sure they stay unclogged and in good shape is integral. It’s a good practice to inspect for blockages at least once every year to maintain proper ventilation that will not leak CO gas into the home. If you have a solid fuel burner, this is especially important because soot accumulates as a coating on the chimney walls, narrowing the avenue for smoke to escape. An obvious sign that your chimney is blocked is smoke spreading throughout the room. When the smoke cannot escape from its designed exit point due to an obstruction in the chimney, the smoke billows back down towards the next opening: your room. Professionals call it the “draw.” Having a healthy draw is crucial to preventing deadly gases from being released in your home.
Choose a Safer Alternative
The ultimate way to ensure carbon monoxide safety is to eliminate fossil fuel-burning appliances. New, modern air-source and geothermal heat pumps can keep your house cozy with higher efficiency ratings in extremely low temperatures. A geothermal heat pump delivers stable heating performance in virtually any weather without the use of fossil fuels. If geothermal heating interests you, have a look at any of our GeoCool Heat Pumps.
Units that rely on electricity rather than fossil fuels are also an option. The MrCool Universal maintains performance standards in temperatures as low as -22 degrees Fahrenheit without relying on combustible fuel.
You could also invest in an air conditioner and a gas package unit. The difference between a package unit and a traditional split system is that all the major components are housed in a cabinet that is installed outside the house. Even if you have a leak in the furnace that’s releasing CO, the package unit as a whole is installed outside. With the majority of the gas exhausted into the atmosphere, you won’t have to worry about CO lurking within your home.
Avoid Burning Charcoal Indoors
It may seem like an obvious danger to many of us, but lighting a barbecue or smoker under cover is a more common occurrence than you think. People shelter from the rain in covered, partially enclosed spaces that restrict airflow and trap smoke from the grill. No steak is going to be good enough that you should put your life at risk to cook it up. Use our tips for winter grilling to safely smoke or grill without putting you and your loved ones at risk.
If bad weather knocks out your heating system, do not run an improperly ventilated fossil fuel heater in your home. Trying a solution like this is more dangerous than fighting the cold temperatures head-on. This would be a good time to leave your property and seek out a nearby warming center, or use this as an excuse to go visit some friends and family.
Stay Safe from Carbon Monoxide with IWAE
Properly maintaining your heating system is crucial for more than ensuring toasty temperatures; you need to fight off winter’s chill. If you don’t maintain your heating system, you introduce the likelihood of malfunctions impacting your quality of life—or, in this case, threatening your life itself. If you have a fossil fuel-burning heating system in your home, carbon monoxide exposure is always lurking in the shadows. Make sure that you keep the safety of your whole home top of mind by installing carbon monoxide detectors and following a regular maintenance schedule. If an inspection shows that it’s time to upgrade your home heating, give the experts at IWAE a call. We can help you find the best HVAC solution for your home that prioritizes efficiency and safety.
