As you may or may not know, our sweet Abby continues to fight the after-effects of carbon monoxide poisoning received at our Texas parsonage when she was an infant. In light of that, we like to remind people each winter to make sure their furnaces are serviced by a qualified individual who carries a CO monitor as part of his/her standard equipment, and to purchase a digital CO monitor for each floor of their house.
Have a safe, warm winter!
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3 comments:
how did you know she had carbon monoxide poisoning? we have friends here who have gas heaters and are wondering if that is what they have as they cant seem to shake colds and stomach bugs. thanks for your sweet descriptions of family life.
We had "tummy bugs" and were tired, but had been told by a "professional" our furnace was fine. We had a non-digital CO monitor I had installed the year before her birth which actually saved our lives once before she was born too (long story as to why the furnace wasn't just replaced then). It finally went off again the second winter, but the perameters on monitors back then were for very high levels 4 hours straight before they would alarm. In Texas we only ran the furnace a few hours at a time, so we ended up with long term low level CO poisoning--now known to be just as destructive as short term high level poisoning. That's why we recommend digital monitors.
If your friends are concerned, they should try to get ahold of a CO alarm. I don't know how easy that would be to access over there, but if they can find one it can save their lives.
One more thing Monica.
Do your friends' "tummy bugs" tend to disappear if they are out of their house for several hours? That would be very telling.
Here the fire departments carry instant CO detectors, and most furnace repair people do too. Those give you an instant actual number for the amount of CO produced by each of your gas burning appliances. They are quicker than the alarms for diagnostics because they can be carried from appliance to appliance. Alarms need to be wall mounted and left to gather information over time.
CO is colorless and odorless, so they aren't going to see or smell leaks.
Laurie
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