Thread: Hiden Killer, Trapped

Illness from Furnace problem

Again, it is time to remind / warn folks that there are a lot of pitfalls when heating a home or business during extreme cold.
It is a very good idea to have a furnace repair company come bye and check all the fueled appliances for leakage of gas or their exhaust for traces of CO or other combustion products escaping into the living areas.

I have been having a really bad autumn with lots of allergy attacks. I noticed the sneezing coughing attacks came strongest when the furnace around the corner from my computer fired up. It has been horribly cold this year, and the furnace fired often.

I called the local plumbing/heating dealer and was kind of brushed off. They had a lot of frozen burst pipes to deal with. After another day, I called again and told them they had rebuilt my boiler and they damn well better get over here to check it out.
Surprise..the "sniffer" found strong traces of Carbon Monoxide that was just below the level that would trip my in-home fire / CO detector.

They fixed the condensate trap which had dried out and let combustion gas into the rooms. They also found and fixed other leakages in the combustion area of the unit. (A condensate trap is often a tube from the bottom of the exhaust stack of the heater. It traps the moisture generated by the combustion to prevent rusting out the system. It is supposed to have a bit of water in the loop to prevent exhaust gas from entering the living area. In really cold dry periods that water evaporates and exhaust gas can enter the home through that tube.)

While in the house they also checked all other combustion, live flame, appliances; water heater, stove, and clothes drier and found them to be safe.

Now, I am getting the weeks of bad air out of my system and hope to recover soon.

There are many types of condensate traps and they vary by manufacturer of the appliance. If you retained your installation manual the type may be explained in that. If you have gas appliances the local utility will often do a checkout for you.

Again, if you are having sinus or allergy problems in your home, the combustion appliances should be checked out.

Some good information here.
Carbon Monoxide explained.
Google search for Carbon Monoxide

I have been told that the fire departments will also do this service when asked. I do not know for your area though.

~Richard