incompetent inspectors..so glad to hear your plumber found the problem, AND you fixed it, as you could have ignored it since the purchasers' inspector failed to find it...

Wow! That is scary. An inspection on our home (done by a buyer who ended up backing out of the deal) showed a rusted-through vent on our water heater that the inspector said was leaking carbon monoxide into our house. We immediately had it replaced. It's one of those things you never think about. We hadn't been experiencing headaches or anything so we never had known had that inspector not discovered the rusty vent.

Here in Massachusetts, the law requires every dwelling unit to have a carbon monoxide detector. It's even required in this all-electric building.

When we were moving out of our rental, the gas company inadvertently shut the gas off. When they returned to turn it on, the rep from the company went to light the water heater. He discovered it was improperly vented and had been dumping some carbon monoxide in our basement for quite some time, too.

When we moved into our new home, the first thing we purchased was a carbon monoxide detector. I glance at it every day - the forty-five dollars or so it cost was well worth the piece of mind.

There was a thread a while back about gifts that Real Estate agents like to give their clients. A good carbon monoxide detector would be very practical!!!!

I was hospitalized for what I thought was a heart attack when we moved into our brand new house. I wasn't having one, but they also didn't check for CO poisoning b/c that normally happens in winter when the furance is in use with no windows open.

Anyway, a couple months later, I had the appliance company out to check our dishwasher and I mentioned the gas range took a long time to heat up and there was a smell of gas. He checked the CO and it was at 18 PPM - beyond dangerous.

I got online to check, and sure enough, the symptoms I had when I thought I was having a heart attack, were what I experienced when we moved in. I had run the oven for awhile to see how it worked.

We contacted the builder and they gave us the runaround. I contacted the appliance store who was contracted through the builder, they blamed GE. I finally had to call the builder's president before we got action. We were going to sue, but we settled for the medical expenses the trip to the ER cost since I didn't have insurance at the time since I wasn't married to my husband yet.

A few years ago when we'd been in our rental house ~1 year, I had the chimney cleaned. Apparently it was the first time that'd been done in millenia. The chimney was almost completely blocked. They said that if we'd had a gas furnace instead of oil, we'd probably be dead of CO poisoning. So, that was why it smelled funny when the furnace came on--incomplete combustion + incomplete venting = badness.

I forget whether this was before or after I had someone out to service the furnace and they slapped a big red DANGEROUS CONDITION sticker on it and shut it off. In winter. Said there was a huge crack in it that must have been there a few years (which would be why it kept breaking the whole previous winter, bursting pipes and causing mayhem. Wonder why no one noticed it then.) Of course, then someone from the company called and said it'd be OK for me to turn it back on. I said no thanks. I'll wait for the replacement.

I wonder if some of my headaches from that time were due to the furnace. Of course, the house was incredibly drafty, so the CO should have leaked right out. Still...

It's a wonder we all survived, given these horror stories. Of course, there are some who don't.

I now have 2 CO detectors--one in the furnace room, and one upstairs.

Everyone should have these detectors in their home. I'm suprised someone wouldn't take it upon themselves to do that. Just like with smoke detectors, our code now demands them, but I purchased them as soon as they were available.

They should be on each floor of the home.

Gloria

18 ppm is supposedly not dangerous unless its over a long time of exposure. No standards for CO have been agreed upon for indoor air. The U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards for outdoor air are 9 ppm for 8 hours, and 35 ppm for 1 hour.

I too keep a CO detector - one with a digital readout of what the CO reading is. Anytime its more than zero I investigate to find the cause. I keep my detector in the bedroom since its when you're asleap that its most likely to kill. But I have an all-electric house, so my attached garage is about my only likely source.

Our previous home was all electric, so no CO worries. The first night in our brand new home with gas heat, cooktop and hot water I bought 2 CO detectors, one for each floor.

reno fan -- congrats on the quick sale and close! So sorry to hear about the migraines and the carbon monoxide. I'm sure you will be a CO monitor in your next home! I would be curious to hear if your headaches subside in your new home.

Terriks,

"Our previous home was all electric, so no CO worries. The first night in our brand new home with gas heat, cooktop and hot water I bought 2 CO detectors, one for each floor."

There are other sources of CO, such as car warming up in an attached/built in garage. I have tested and found CO coming from an electric stove during a self clean cycle. Probably from the charred pizza cheese on the bottom.

"mfbenson" wrote:

"18 ppm is supposedly not dangerous unless its over a long time of exposure. No standards for CO have been agreed upon for indoor air. The U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards for outdoor air are 9 ppm for 8 hours, and 35 ppm for 1 hour. "

That may be "technically" true, but PLEASE be aware that for an occupied dwelling, the only acceptable carbon monoxide reading is ZERO!

Any reading other than ZERO *MUST* be investigated and corrected. Think about it; a furnace heat exchanger may have a hairline crack that leaks enough CO to give a low reading. Do not ignore this low reading as "not dangerous". That hairline crack could let go and the heat exhanger could completly rupture at any time during the night, when the occupants are asleep. They may never wake up.

Don't ignore a low reading just because the detector is not beeping at you. Most CO detectors won't alarm until a certain level is reached. Here are the rules we use at my house:

1. Any reading greater than zero warrants a call to a qualifed service company to verify the reading and find the cause.

2. An audible alarm means "evacuate the house".

I had carbon monoxide poisoning last fall from a faulty heating system. The medical treatment was weird (hyperbaric chambers are NOT fun) and I often thought about how I could have died. By the time I got to the hospital, the doctor could only detect a level of 8 ppm in my system. However, he believes I had been exposed to much more than that due to the fact that I had passed out before getting help.

I am usually very quick with words and I noticeably struggled to express myself for months afterwards. I also spent a considerable amount of time worrying whether I would be back to my normal self again.

I post this because everyone should recognize the seriousness of this type of exposure. I will never sleep in a house again that does not have carbon monoxide detectors. Everyone should heed chapnc's advice regarding readings on the monitors. You do not want to sleep yourself to death.

mfbenson - 18 ppm is supposedly not dangerous unless its over a long time of exposure. No standards for CO have been agreed upon for indoor air. The U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards for outdoor air are 9 ppm for 8 hours, and 35 ppm for 1 hour.

This was over a period of three months, but the incident where I was sent to hospital was when the range was turned on for the first time, all the windows were closed and I left it on for awhile because I was testing all the different functions. When I left the house, I had a headache on the way back to our old place from which we hadn't moved and about an hour later, my heart was palpitating and racing like it never had before. I seriously thought I was having a heart attack.

So, even though it was at 18, it had a severe effect on me, enough to send me to the ER.

When it was discovered, the appliance repairman's eyes were deer in headlight and said it was a dangerous level. As someone else pointed out, the only safe level of CO is zero.

What if we had a baby in the home? 18ppm to them is alot higher than to a grown adult.

"...the only safe level of CO is zero."

That is simply Chicken little thinking.
Low levels produced by correctly operating appliances are not a hazard.
Gas ranges are not 100% combustion. A small percent of CO is produced. It is NOT a hazard unless you are trying to heat the house with the range (ever wonder about that warning?).
ALL combustion produces some CO as a byproduct. Every time, all the time.

"Chicken Little thinking"?

OK. Let me state it *this* way:

If you have the gas range or oven going and you see a small number on your detector, for a short period of time, then don't be alarmed. If it was me, however, I'd have my gas kitchen appliances serviced to make sure that they are, indeed, "correctly operating appliances". I've never seen a reading on my CO detector while I was cooking. I'm not saying that it can't happen, it depends on placement and the sensitivity of your detector. I'm also in the habit of using my vent hood when I'm using my gas cooktop, as my hood seems to have a very quite motor.

If, however, you get up one morning and notice a non-zero level of Carbon Monoxide, you *must* find and correct the cause. A previous poster gave some specific numbers that may lull the unsuspecting into a false sense of security, because the numbers are "low".

If your gas furnace is emitting *any* level of CO into the living space, then something is dangerously wrong. The CO that your furnace produces should all be exhausted outdoors through the flue.

I was simply trying to counter the specific numbers that were posted as "not harmful".

To state the only acceptable CO concentration indoors is zero is absurd. Stoves, candles, garages...et can all be sources. I have an atmospheric gas analyzer and it regularly detects blips of 1-2arm ppm in homes without obvious CO sources. A 2 hr exposure at 800 ppm could be considered a lethal dose. I've also had people spaz out and demand zero lead exposure.....my advice then...quit breathing b/c it's in the air. We are surrounded by contaminants, however; the human body can tolerate small concentrations of many common pollutants without h