Flower Mound Online News

We are fortunate here in North Texas to have generally warm temperatures. It’s amazing that in early December, we’re still experiencing highs in the 70’s. As the temperature turns cooler, and I sit here hearing my furnace come on, I am reminded of one of my ‘fears’ and that is of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. Most of us have smoke detectors in our homes (have you checked yours lately?), but do you have a Carbon Monoxide Detector? They’re not the same thing, though you can purchase a combination unit.

I’ve always had a CO Detector in my home, and even insisted on my daughter having one in her sorority house room. Bluntly, you never know the quality of the furnace, hot water and gas systems in an old place that someone else maintains. For that matter you may not know the quality of the system in your own relatively new home!

A few years ago I was out of state on a business trip when my family was awakened around 2am by our CO Detector. Grabbing the kids out of bed and calling 911, they were advised to immediately open a couple of windows and get outside quickly. The kids were wide eyed, all standing out on the front lawn wrapped in blankets and my wife was embarrassed when the big red fire truck and ambulance rolled up in front of our home and a half-dozen firefighters jumped out!

She explained how the CO Detector was beeping so they took their equipment inside and advised her that she had done the right thing by calling. They said the CO was coming from our upstairs furnace which was in the attic so they shut it off. It was a couple of hours before they considered it safe for them to return inside. Now when it’s cold enough for the furnace to be running, standing outside is the last place you want to be at 2am in your pajamas!

We got an HVAC company out that morning and learned that the furnace had a cracked heat exchanger and had to be replaced NOW! The heat exchanger captures the heat from the hot flue gas and transfers it to your home’s ductwork. If the heat exchanger fails, it will leak those flue gases into the house. Every time the furnace heats and cools the heat exchanger will expand and contract, stretching the metal in and out. This eventually leads to metal fatigue and can split open the metal. Just imagine taking a piece of metal and bending it back and forth several times, it will eventually crack and break off.

Our home was only 8 years old at the time! Yep, out of warranty so we had to spend several thousand dollars, unexpectedly right before Christmas, and it had to be done. Thank goodness for our CO Detector. Carbon Monoxide can lull everyone in a household into a permanent sleep.  CO is colorless, and odorless and works very fast in high concentration. A concentration of 1500 PPM can kill in 15 minutes and you may not notice the effects until it’s too late. This makes the furnace the most dangerous appliance you will ever own. Cracks or holes in the heat exchanger in most residential furnaces cannot be repaired.

Check your CO Detector and Smoke Detectors now. If you don’t have one, go to the store to get one, NOW!  Prices range from $30 to $60 and they’re readily available at Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, and others.   Click here for more information on buying a Carbon Monoxide Detector from Lowe’s How To Library.   Though there’s a variety of units, remember, they all do their job, oh, and they all need to replaced every 3-7 years depending on who you listen to.