Carbon Monoxide Monitor
How a Carbon Monoxide Monitor Can Save Your Life
Are you really coming down with the flu even if it is going around? Or is it a case of carbon monoxide poisoning? You can only be sure you are safe if you have a fully functioning carbon monoxide monitor in your home.
The reality is that people are killed every year by carbon monoxide. And every year a large number of people will suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning but luckily found out in time before it has built up enough to kill them.
I remember in college about two university students who died from carbon monoxide. This was back in the days before carbon monoxide monitors. They must have finally realized something bad was happening as the authorities found one had tried to get to the door. But it was too late for them. That story has had a profound effect on my life ever since.
First off, just what is carbon monoxide and why is it so harmful and why do you want a carbon monoxide monitor so badly? After all, how can something you can’t see, can’t taste and can’t smell be so bad. (For that matter for the skeptics, how can something that you can’t see, can’t taste and can’t smell keep you alive? You know – oxygen.)
Carbon monoxide is a gas that, unlike carbon dioxide, has only one oxygen atom. Unfortunately, in your body it can act like oxygen and attach to the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin which should be carrying that oxygen throughout your body. Instead it carries the carbon monoxide. If your body is not getting oxygen, guess what? You start having problems.
If only 10% of your hemoglobin is taken up by carbon monoxide (CO) you probably won’t have any symptoms. By the time it gets to 25% you are going to be nauseous and have a very bad headache. However, by the time it gets up to 45%, you will become unconscious. At 50% and above, well, it’s too late. You’re dead. You can find more about this at http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/extension/extprog/safety/Fire/COdetector.htm.
What is the source of this deadly gas? Just about anything in your home that consumes a fuel can potentially produce it including your fireplace, kerosene space heater, generator used during power outages, and the car you left running in your attached garage. Just look around and you may be surprised by all the potential sources of this lethal gas.
It is the job of carbon monoxide monitors to detect unsafe levels of the gas in your home. I say unsafe as you are going to have some level of CO in your home if you burn any fuels.
The EPA tells us that even homes without gas stoves will have 0.5 to 5 parts per million of carbon monoxide. It goes up from there if you have a gas or propane stove in your home. Just think of all the other things that may burn fuel in your home such as your heater (mine is propane – what’s yours?) or that gas fireplace you thought would be so much cleaner and more efficient than a wood burning fireplace. Oh, but a wood burner, even a wood stove, can produce it too. Just feels like you can’t get safe, doesn’t it?
But that is where a carbon monoxide detector comes in. It is there to alert you to problems that you won’t even know are happening. These detectors provide carbon monoxide monitoring and alert you when levels get too bad.
This is one reason why you should place a carbon monoxide monitor on every level of your home. Even better is to place one near each sleeping area within 10 feet of the bedrooms. That way, if things get bad which they might as your furnace is going to run more on a cold winter night, you can be awakened by the piercing siren a carbon monoxide sends out.
That’s your cue to open the windows, get outside or stay at the open window, and call 911 for help. It’s not just when the smoke alarm goes off that your kids need to know where to go when they get out of the house. Also teach them to meet at a certain place when the carbon monoxide detectors go off so you can count heads and be sure everyone got out safely.
A carbon monoxide monitor is an essential piece of equipment for any home as a gas detector. Be sure to keep yours functioning and place them in the proper places. You can find a good CO monitor at your local hardware store or even find a great one that meet the Underwriters’ Laboratory requirements right here on the internet and have it shipped directly to your home. It makes it easy to compare the different companies and their carbon monoxide detector products.