Carbon monoxide

JCH

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Another post has prompted a few questions. What are the acceptable levels of carbon monoxide in a house? Our alarm has never gone off, but records last highest level. Also, what are the signs to look out for in the house and what are the symptons for someone exposed to excessive amounts of carbon monoxide?
 
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Unless you live on a main road with all the windows open then you should only expect a background CO reading of 1-2 parts per million (PPM)

The World Health Organisation state that readings in excess of 30PPM are dangerous (If investigating a CO incident we evacuate at this point).

100PPM will kill you in a matter of minutes.

Symptoms of CO poisoning include nausea, drowsiness, lethargy, and eventually loss of conciousness and death.

See www.gassaferegister.co.uk for more information
 
Another post has prompted a few questions. What are the acceptable levels of carbon monoxide in a house? Our alarm has never gone off, but records last highest level. Also, what are the signs to look out for in the house and what are the symptons for someone exposed to excessive amounts of carbon monoxide?

Acceptable levels Zero

Records the last highest level, Get out now comes to mind

Signs to look out for, Dead Bodies

Symptoms resemble a bad dose of flue.

Excessive amounts Un-conscious within a few minutes, followed by death.
 
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I went to service a boiler today fitted by the flood repairers. Previous gas service man had arrived to find 7 screws missing more than half, from the casing seal. He just put some in I would have riddored the insurance company if I couldn't get a name. They shouldn't get away with it. Boiler was in a bedroom and the ocupants both had a lot of headaches when they moved back into the house.

Haemoglobin prefers Carbon monoxide 1,000 times more than it likes oxygen, furthermore it won't give it up when offered carbon dioxide instead, so that molecule of haemoglobin is rendered useless. When you have more uselss heamoglobin than free haemoglobin you better book your grave.
 
Another post has prompted a few questions. What are the acceptable levels of carbon monoxide in a house? Our alarm has never gone off, but records last highest level. Also, what are the signs to look out for in the house and what are the symptons for someone exposed to excessive amounts of carbon monoxide?

What is the highest reading you have seen?

Imho there is a difference between legally allowed and acceptable.
The latter is zero apart from slight rises momentarily.

To give you an idea what x ppm means: when I install a new boiler, and stick a sniffer right in the flue when the boiler is on heating, I expect 3 to 5 ppm, rising to 30-50 when blasting out on sustained maximum power.
 
so do all gas engineers carry out a co tests of all boilers they attend.
so for example a glowworm spacesaver 19 years old,balanced flue.do all service engineers and repair engineers always carry out a co test around all the vunerable areas ie gaskets and other sealing areas.
if so how do you do it and if not why do you not do it.
i assume all gas guys and gals have a device for testing for the above.
 
Not everybody has electronic testers as they are pricey to say the least and fairly fragile.
A bit of a long story about the how and what, but there is a variety of tell tale signs which prompts you to check for CO.
Some boilers are more prone to letting CO into the house than others, which is also a fairly important aspect.
In a way, it is a bit like catching drunk drivers. You simply don't have the time, nor are most people willing to pay, for a CO test on all boilers, but if you know what to look for, you will find most of the problems.
 

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