I learned the hard way.... I hope you don't

a good piece of advice... we don't have any in our house. your story has made me decide to get one for sure. thanks.

 

De-oxygenation is as big a problem as CO. Anything that burns something (oil, gas, propane, wood) for heat will consume your oxygen unless it has an outside source for combustion air. People die from suffocation just as easily as they do from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Propane consumes oxygen and releases CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) and water vapor. Carbon Dioxide is not as deadly as CO, but it's still a problem. Remember Apollo 13.

Both CO and CO2 weigh about the same as Air, so they don't tend to travel up or down a lot. Put your detectors at eye level (nose & mouth level) in your living spaces if you can.

 

I'm a critical care RN, and have cared for several patients with CO poisening, some with very bad outcomes. We have CO and propane detectors in our trailer. Glad you're OK.

Brian

 

Glad to see your still here, alot of people dont make it out of that situation.

 

As Mike51merc stated I tried one of those propane salamanders in my garage.
I just use heat to take the chill out of the metal well I fired it up full blast for a coupe of minutes and you could feel the oxygen being sucked out

 

As Pastlane said CHECK THE BATTERIES in your alarms. Checking your heaters yearly is fine, but if you don't check the batteries in your alarm you may never wake up to find out you have a problem with your heater. Stay safe.

 

I use an electric heater when I work in my shop in the garage. Eventually I'd like a gas heater. The CO monitor idea is good, but most guys don't install them or deactivate them from the false-positive readings that come with garage fumes.

Also with the winter, you need to check the flue pipes for snow obstruction, tree branches that fall into them and animals that build nests in them.

Bob

 

For everyone using those jet type heaters, don't put in diesel as a fuel. Use kerosene. I got sick from running diesel in one. I think it did something to my brain too.

 

Glud to hear you are ok.
Being a retired Fire official I would like to put my 2 cents in.

Yes CO is colorless, odorless and tasteless.There are some people like myself that when Co is present they get a burning feeling on there lips.

When CO enter your body you blood thinks it is oxygen and graves it more then oxygen. So instead of oxygen going to all parts of your body co is. After your body has about 100 PPM in it you will start to get symptoms like Headaches, Flu like effects, Nausea and vomiting. If you happen to get a longer exposure of Co it will cause toxicity of the central nervous system and heart and can lead to death.

People that get long exposure to Co usually end up in a Oxygen rich 100% Hyperbaric camber until the Co level is below 100 PPM and there oxygen is at 90%. That is not fun.

On story I have about Co posioning is. This house had an oil fire furnace in it. The chimney and the fire place chimney were side by side. That night with the way the air was moving the smoke from the furnace was going up the chimney and ended up going back down the chimney for the fire place and filling the house with CO.

The father came home from work and found everyone in the house unconscious. He called 911 and by the time we got there he was also unconscious. We got all of them out alive but in the process some of us were overcome from the CO. The whole family and four fire fighters including myself ended up spending some time in the hyperbaric camber. Yes I did have an air pack on but when I ran out of air I took my mask off to finish the rescue.

As for placements of CO detectors. There should be one in the basement or area were the furnace is located unless it is electric heat. One in the area of the sleeping areas. Some areas require one on each floor. They should be place one on the ceiling or near the ceiling and one near floor level. ( the one near the floor can be the plug in type. ) If there is an attach garage one should be placed right inside the door that lead to the garage. If you work or spend any time in the garage there should be one in the garage ares also.

The reason there should be one inside the door leading to the garage is that people have a habit of starting there car either in the garage or right out side the garage and leave the garage door open. If the winds are blowing the right way the CO from the car is pushed into the garage and with the pressure from the wind it is pushed be the entrance door into the living area.

Smoke detectors: Smoke detector should have there batteries changed two times a year. The detectors should be replaced every ten years. They should be tested once a month to make sure that they are working and that no one has removed the battery. The ten year none battery type detectors should be replaced either in ten years or when they start beeping. If these detector have sounded becuase of an issue with smoke they should be replaced.

Smoke detector should be placed on every floor including any basements and all attic areas. They should be on placed in every sleeping area and outside the sleeping area. They should be place on the ceiling or high on the wall but not with in 6 inches of any corner and not within 12 inches of any ceiling fan.

Garages and cooking area should have Heat of rise detectors.

Smoke detector can be picked up for $15 - $25 a piece . That is cheap life insurance.

Lets be safe out there. You only have one shoot at like.

 

Scary. Thanks for the reminder. I have a nonventing wall mount propane heater in my basement and have used it to take the edge off when I'm down there working in the winters or when we lose power. I installed a carbon monoxide detector the same day.
Last week I was moving something and ended up pushing the detector off the wall and it shattered on the floor. Guess I'll be buying one on the way home tonight.
Sure, the old one never went off, but that doesn't mean anything apparently.

On a side note, I made the mistake of being a cheapskate the other day and buying the dyed gas pump kerosene for my garage heater. NOT the same as the clear stuff you can buy. My old kerosene heater started "huffing" and blowing clouds of thick smoke out and the flame got out of control in the firebox. I immediately shut off the fuel feed valve opened the garage door and armed myself with the fire extinguisher. I just stood there and watched it like a hawk while it burned itself out, but it was scary shit. It left the entire inside of the firebox coated with thick greasy soot. Scary stuff.

 

I use a 2-burner radiant propane heater in my garage.

The place isn't even anything close to airtight (big gaps around the rollup doors) so I never thought enough CO could accumulate to be dangerous.

I'll get a CO detector and see what's up. Hopefully I'm not killing myself a little at a time.

 

Just a note too for those with vent fans - they should be blowing fresh air IN, not sucking the bad air out. Your goal is to dilute the bad air, not to create a vacuum, where, as it was pointed out, it could suck furnace fumes back into the room.

 

Long term will get you too. Several years ago I had a cousin that drove low end auction cars between buffalo, ny and smithport, pa and a professional mechanic friend here in ny that worked out of his 1 1/2 car garage. After a period of years
both guys ended up with brain cancer.

 

I had a good friend die this way a few years ago... As others have said it stays with you (no doctor here) but I've read about it taking up to thirty days to leave your system after exposer no matter how slight and the real issue is that it builds up. So even if you feel fine but keep getting exposed to small amounts it can still kill you. I have no idea how you can tell but the coroner claimed this is how it killed him. It wasn't a large amount of exposer but that two months of it slowly did him in...

 

Wow, THANKS for all of the good info! I'm going to buy new smoke and CO detectors for my house tonight! Mine are about 10 - 11 years old from when we first bought the house.

I had a similar problem when hurricane Isabel came through here in 2003... The power was out, so we put one of those nice old hurricane lamps in the living room, filled it with the proper fuel, and turned the wick way down low so that it didn't smoke at all, and my wife and I sat and read & played some cards. About an hour later, she and I were both complaining about having a horrible headache and feeling drowsy. We put out the hurricane lamp, cracked open the windows, and stood my Maglite up on the end table pointing up towards the ceiling for light instead. Within minutes were were both feeling better. The SCARY part is that we had both said something like "I feel like I need a nap, but this headache is killing me". Imagine if we'd have fallen asleep.... CHILLS!

 

Not to make light of the comment "I think it did something to my brain", but almost all the chemicals we use in the automotive world will do some damage sooner or later. One more point to meation, and it might already have been is if you use a fuel that has a flame, be sure and put the pilot light out before you paint, especially in a small garage. Welding fumes will cause headaches also as someone asked about. Especially on old cars with old paint, rust-proofing, etc.

 

Ive been following this thread to see what the problem was to your heater.It was already posted about a problem i came acrossed.I was a suib contractor for a heat and air co.While on the roof cutting a hole for a vent for a new bathroom,i seen a bird fly into the furnace vent.The vent cap was damaged and the wire screen part was gone just enough to let the bird in.Let the owner know of this and replaced the cap($8.00) and there was a nest built in the cap.Im glad i seen this,could have been bad.Keep a eye on your vent caps ect guys.......................JB

 

Sorry, once again...but with my house layout it ends up being one in every room except the bathroom

 

u r right !!i worked at a chysler dealership in the collision industry an we painting cars on the floor an the booth the problem was the raident heater was not drawing outside air it was drawing the shop air ...so my friend an i were wondering why we feeling sick so we went to the manger an told him the heater was the cause so he puts in a detector an tells usthere isno problem...well i ended up knock'n the guy out an quit....end of story sort of it seems the dealership went bankrupt five years l8ter an my buddy rented it so him an i took down the heater an the tube was full of piant an crap we cleaned it out with a chimmy brush an revented to the outside air source an it once again work perfect...lesson learned....excellent post