Steps to Take to Avoid Carbon Monoxide Poisoning From Your Heating System
Submitted by: Precision Air And Heating.com
If you live in regions where there are winters, can you imagine a life without heating systems? Even our ancestors had their fireplaces to keep them warm and toasty. While many homes still have functioning fireplaces, most now depend on more modern heating systems like furnaces, heat pumps, water heaters, and boilers to help everyone in the household make it through winter.
If you’re using a furnace as a heating system, then you have an especially effective way of warming the house. Unfortunately, it also brings one danger that you must address without fail: carbon monoxide poisoning.
Furnaces, gas-fired water heaters, and boilers all involve combustion to produce heat, and all that action creates carbon monoxide. Deadly to both humans and pets, carbon monoxide is odorless, tasteless, and colorless, and therefore incredibly hard to detect. Many victims of carbon monoxide poisoning never had any idea that carbon monoxide was present in their home, and they knew what hit them.
Considering the dangers of carbon monoxide or CO, it falls upon us to take all possible steps to ensure that our loved ones are safe from the deadly gas while inside our homes. Here are some measures you must implement to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning from your heating system.
Put up carbon monoxide detectors in all rooms
There is no better way to warn everyone in your family that there is a buildup of CO in your home than a carbon monoxide detector. These carbon monoxide detectors, which you should install in all rooms and floors, can pick even the slightest hint of the deadly gas in the air, and will promptly sound an alarm to drive everyone out of the house to safety.
It would be great if you buy CO alarms that have a battery backup, and can be plugged into an electrical outlet.
We would also recommend that you plug your CO detectors into outlets that are closer to the floor because the gas typically stays near the ground.
Clear the vents
In case of a CO leak, you must make sure the gas finds its way outside so it can disperse there. The best way to ensure this happens is to have your floor vents, dryer vents, and chimneys clear of debris.
Exhaust fans can also help evacuate the gas out of your home to dissipate outside.
Know the signs and symptoms of CO poisoning
Getting your loved ones treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning would be easier and faster if you know its signs and symptoms. They include the following:
- A dull headache
- nausea
- dizziness
- shortness of breath
- blurry vision
- disorientation
- feeling physically weak
Get a heating tuneup done every year
All furnaces need periodic heating service, so make sure you call in HVAC professionals for the job. They will check every single aspect of your furnace and determine if a heating system repair is necessary. If they find anything that indicates the possibility of a CO leak in the future, you can rest assured that these heating repair experts will find a way to prevent that from ever happening.
—
