Carbon Monoxide Monitor

Are you Prepared To Close up Your Home for Winter?

MISHAWAKA/FORT WAYNE/PLYMOUTH IN; ST. JOSEPH/NILES, MI — Fall is the time to think about closing up your home, but this means a greater risk from carbon monoxide gases as well as furnace and dryer related fires.

Each winter, sadly, there are newsworthy deaths resulting from house fires. Stories of very sick people, often the elderly or children, also seem to pop up as temperatures drop. These are often because of CO leaks from not only the home furnace, but any gas-burning device.

 

6 COMMON SOURCES OF CARBON MONOXIDE

  • Gas furnaces
  • Gas water heaters
  • Portable generators
  • Idling automobiles
  • Kerosene heaters
  • Wood or gas fireplaces

 

CO poisoning doesn’t always result in death or an emergency room-level illness. Often, symptoms appear as though you have the flu, migraines, disorientation or dementia. What the home may need is fresh, clean air.

Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas created by burning. When fueled appliances are poorly maintained or improperly vented, leaking CO builds up over time in a person’s bloodstream because it’s in the air you breathe. CO doesn’t just “work itself out” by going for a walk outside, either.

Home Comfort Experts wants builders and homeowners to know there is a difference between the hardware store CO detector and a professional-grade CO monitor.

A CO detector will not alarm until it has detected between 75 to 100 ppm in the air you breathe for a full hour — at which point many in the household may already be feeling symptoms.

A professional-grade CO monitor, available for installation by Home Comfort Experts, continuously monitors the smallest CO levels in the home starting at five parts per million, alerting you before problems exist.

Monitors are the best way to go to protect your family from CO poisoning.

Additionally, homeowners should preschedule a dryer vent cleaning to prevent dryer fires, a key cause of house fires.

In the meantime, a precision furnace tuneup and safety inspection will look for furnace failures and keep you toasty warm all season. Also, at the time of your visit, ask your technician to check your water heater.

If you have any questions about how a carbon monoxide monitor can help keep your family healthy and safe, please contact us at callhomecomfort.com