Is Carbon Monoxide only a product of combustion?
After combustion appliances (WH,Furnace,Fireplace,Range, etc) attached garages and tobacco smoke….Are there any other sources of CO in a home?
Are properly installed sealed combustion wh’s and furnaces 100% effective for not contributing CO into the house?
Replies
CO is a product of incomplete combustion. CO2 is complete combustion.
CO most often happens when a burning process (i.e. water heater) can't get enought oxygen and starts to pull it in from the exhaust pipe. This is alot of work and often results is CO.
Add charcoal grills to your list as well as unvented fossil fuel space heaters.
CO problems are commonly caused by backdrafting woodstoves and fireplaces, leaking appliance flues, cracked furnace heat exchangers, or atmospheric flue backdrafting due to exhaust fans or open fireplace.
Using sealed combustion (direct vent) appliances and sealing the house/garage interface (and not heating the house with the gas oven or the barbeque grill when the power goes out) should eliminate CO at the source.
But beware that new direct-vent heating plants often vent out the band joist just above ground level and can get blocked by snow, causing CO levels to rise indoors before the burner turns itself off.
Also watch out for idling gasoline power tools and emergency generators near the house.
New construction often requires a hardwired CO detector, and existing houses should have a battery powered one for safety.
Unintentional carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning sends an estimated 10,000 people to hospital emergency rooms annually and claims more than 200 lives.
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