If you use a gas-powered heater in your Victorville, CA home, you need reliable carbon monoxide (CO) detection. Having carbon monoxide alarms throughout your residence will alert you to this otherwise undetectable threat. CO detectors give building residents ample time to exit before CO exposure causes serious symptoms or death.
Read on to find out why our heating services experts Aace's Heating, Air Conditioning & Swamp Coolers insist carbon monoxide alarms are crucial with gas heating.
Fuel-Burning Appliances Produce Carbon Monoxide
All fuel-burning appliances produce carbon monoxide during operation, and gas-powered furnaces are no exception. Carbon monoxide is an exhaust gas that results from incomplete fuel combustion. Whenever you burn fuel, you convert some of it into usable heat energy. The remainder is lost as exhaust.
Gas-fired furnaces have venting systems that route CO and other exhaust gases outdoors. However, there are multiple problems that could cause gas-fired furnaces to malfunction or furnace venting systems to fail.
Cracked Heat Exchangers
In gas furnaces, heat exchangers transfer the heat from gas combustion to the air that furnaces circulate throughout buildings. Your furnace’s heat exchanger serves as an effective barrier between exhaust gases and your indoor air. If your heat exchanger cracks, this barrier will fail, and your furnace will route CO and other gaseous chemical contaminants throughout your home.
Cracked heat exchangers are a common issue among furnaces nearing the end of their lifespans. Ongoing exposure to the byproducts of combustion, including acidic condensation, gradually wears heat exchangers down. Paired with continuous thermal stress, acidic condensation can cause metal fatigue, thinning, corrosion, and cracks.
Unfortunately, heat exchangers can crack at any time. In between routine furnace services, the fastest and surest way to detect the resulting CO leaks is by installing and maintaining carbon monoxide detectors in your home. Another important benefit of early CO detection is being able to schedule furnace repairs before a cracked heat exchanger causes complete heating system failure.
Blocked or Damaged Exhaust Vents
When obstructed, exhaust vents cannot reliably expel exhaust gases. Regular furnace inspections and maintenance allow HVAC technicians to identify blockages caused by bird nests, collapsed or crushed vent sections, built-up debris, and more. However, slow-forming blockages can gradually decrease your indoor air quality (IAQ) with steadily increasing CO leaks. CO alarms will issue alerts as soon as concentrations of carbon monoxide inside your home reach unsafe levels.
Negative Air Pressure and Back-Drafting
To function effectively, furnace exhaust vents require a steady flow of combustion air. Whenever air leaves your home, new air must replace it. If it does not, you run the risk of developing negative air pressure.
Negative air pressure self-corrects by drawing air in from all viable openings, including exhaust vents. This phenomenon is known as backdrafting. Backdrafting pulls exhaust gases like CO back into living spaces.
Negative air pressure and backdrafting are common risks in modern homes. To minimize heat loss, many people create tight, efficient building envelopes and virtually airtight living spaces.
If your home envelope is too tight, something as simple as running your bathroom exhaust fan or turning on your range hood vent could cause back-drafting. Given that the risk of backdrafting always exists for homes with tight envelopes, residents always need the protection that CO detectors supply.
Incorrect Furnace Installation
Residents of Victorville must schedule a professional furnace installation when needing a unit replaced. Having trained and experienced HVAC technicians handle these projects ensures safe and effective venting and overall safe furnace performance. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that trained professionals don’t make mistakes. Several installation errors could lead to CO leaks, including:
- Incorrect furnace sizing
- Poor vent installation
- Leaky vent seams
- Poor leveling
Furnaces that are too large for the home they are in can experience elevated thermal stress that rapidly degrades heat exchangers and sets the stage for premature cracking. If your furnace isn’t level, acidic condensation could build up and accelerate heat exchanger corrosion. With adequate CO detection, you can protect your health by identifying installation-related problems early on.
Insufficient Furnace Maintenance
Clogged filters, dirty burners, and other maintenance-related concerns decrease the efficiency of gas furnaces. As a result, they convert less gas into usable heat energy and produce more carbon monoxide and other exhaust gases. If you forget to schedule a pre-season furnace inspection and maintenance or fail to change your air filter regularly, your CO detector will prevent negligence or unintentional oversight from becoming deadly.
CO Detection Is a Legal Requirement
Installing carbon monoxide alarms is a legal requirement for all Victorville homes with gas furnaces. By law, all California properties with fuel-burning appliances must have CO detectors on every level, by every sleeping area, and in basements or other furnace storage areas. Adhering to this law is a critical part of your duty of care as a property owner.
Carbon Monoxide Is Odorless and Colorless
When they aren’t properly installed or maintained, gas-fired furnaces pose many safety risks. For instance, the gas lines that supply gas furnaces with fuel can develop leaks that release toxic natural gas into the air. These leaks can cause fires, explosions, asphyxiation, and more. However, natural gas suppliers make gas leaks easy to identify by treating their gas with mercaptan. This odorous addition makes natural gas smell like rotten eggs. Catching a whiff of this smell near a fuel-burning appliance will alert you to problems.
Because carbon monoxide is a byproduct of combustion, there’s no opportunity to spot a leak using your sense of smell. This odorless and colorless gas requires the use of a carbon monoxide alarm to detect its presence. Lacking CO detection, the only way to know if CO is present is by experiencing an increasingly severe and potentially deadly range of symptoms.
Signs of CO Exposure and Poisoning
Carbon monoxide displaces oxygen in the body. It does so by binding to the hemoglobin in red blood cells. Hemoglobin is a protein that transports oxygen throughout the body. CO exposure creates an oxygen shortage known as hypoxia, and prolonged hypoxia and CO exposure create symptoms like:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Dizziness
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain
- Confusion
With time, CO exposure can make people feel drowsy and cause them to lose consciousness. If no interventions are made following loss of consciousness, CO exposure will invariably result in death.
CO Exposure During the Nighttime Hours
Unfortunately, furnace use is often heaviest during the nighttime hours when outside temperatures are lowest and people are asleep. If changes in how the body feels are the only way to identify CO exposure, nighttime exposure can prove fatal. This is why California law requires homeowners to install CO detectors outside all sleeping areas.
How to Maintain Your CO Detectors
The best way to ensure reliable CO detection with your gas-fired furnace is by working with our trusted HVAC company and performing routine detector checks on your own. CO alarm testing is a common part of routine furnace maintenance. During furnace installation, we’ll make sure that you have enough high-functioning CO alarms in all required spaces. When maintaining your furnace, we’ll test your CO alarms, replace their batteries as needed, and perform other alarm maintenance.
Since 2007, we here at Aace's Heating, Air Conditioning & Swamp Coolers have proudly served Victorville and the surrounding communities with expert furnace service. We offer heating installation, maintenance, and repairs. If you have a gas-fired furnace in your home and want optimum carbon monoxide protection, get in touch with Aace's Heating, Air Conditioning & Swamp Coolers in Victorville today!
