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The Facts About Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Cold winds, freezing temperatures and high fuel costs this winter may lead some people to use unapproved and unsafe portable fuel-burning heaters in their homes. These heating systems may put your family at risk for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Portable fuel-burning heaters, whether fired by gasoline, kerosene, oil, or charcoal, are health and fire hazards. These fuels release carbon monoxide as they burn. Carbon monoxide is an odorless invisible, toxic gas that is difficult to detect.

Warning Signs
Review the following list of symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning:

nausea
vomiting
headache
confusion
sleepiness
dizziness

Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide can lead to unconsciousness, brain damage and even death.

If you suspect that you have been exposed to this gas, you should get fresh air immediately and call your primary care physician or covering physician. Because the early warning signs of carbon monoxide poisoning closely resemble those for food poisoning, it is important to keep the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning in mind.

Safety Measures
If you use fuel-fired heating systems, gas appliances or fireplaces in your home, you should have them inspected annually by a reputable expert. This will ensure proper combustion and ventilation. Your chimney flue should be free of all obstructions and inspected for cracks and ill-fitting seams. All gas flames generated by kitchen ranges or heating systems should be blue in color. A yellowish flame that is noisy and excessively high may be caused by improper combustion and may result in unsafe levels of carbon monoxide.

Many hardware stores now carry carbon monoxide detectors that operate much the same way that smoke detectors do. They are affordable and well worth the money especially if you use portable fuel-burning heaters.

Proper ventilation and testing of equipment are two of the best ways to protect yourself and your family against carbon monoxide poisoning. So make sure you are careful and smart when keeping warm this winter.

Why Filter Your Air ?

To Protect your Health

The air we breath is a sea of particles (most too small to be seen with the naked eye) that includes dust, pollen, bacteria, mold spores, mineral dust, animal hair and dander. It is everywhere and works its way into our clothes, furniture, computers, and lungs. The average person breathes about two gallons of air per minute. These can act as carriers for viruses, bacteria, and other harmful pollutants. This can lead to simple minor allergies or worse.

To $ave Money

Yes, I said save money. Your heating and air conditioning system is most efficient when the air flow is at its peak performance. Quite simply put, if your A/C coil or ductwork is clogged, the airflow is diminished. That means the system must run longer to heat or cool the same amount of space. So if you filter the air as it enters the system, your equipment won't get clogged up. If you neglect the filter (or just don't have one) long enough, the A/C coil will get so clogged that the air conditioning evaporator coil will freeze into a solid block of ice. To repair this will require a service technician to take the system apart and clean it. This is very labor inten$ive.

Esthetics

You take pride in your home. You vacuum the floor, you dust the furniture, you wash the fingerprints off the walls. So where did that ugly black film around the supply air registers come from? In a new home it is usually a sign of extreme filter neglect (you know, no filter). In an older home it can be a sign of dirty air ducts caused by using an inefficient air filter. At any rate it is dirt, smoke, pollen, and dust that was not caught by the filter. You can wash it off but it will come back.

The solution at this stage is:

Have the air duct system cleaned
Get an air filter (or a better one).

If the ugly register syndrome has not yet begun you can do something about it now.

Get a filter and put it in.

Now you need to know what is available out there and what will fill your needs.

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