This post is more of a reminder for those who heat their homes with gas, or use wood burners etc. to make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector and, if you do, that it’s in date.
I’d been waking in the mornings for a while feeling pretty rubbish, with headaches, lightheadedness and sometimes nausea . I thought it was perhaps the side-effects of my medication, or being in persistent AF, or just sleeping badly etc. Once I got up and out I’d start to feel better. Stupidly, I never made the connection between feeling better outside the house and worse inside! Anyway,, a week ago my boiler, which is located in an airing cupboard opposite my bedroom, sprang a leak. My usual heating engineer couldn’t come out, so I called one my neighbour uses. After completing the repair he did a few safety checks and discovered the boiler was leaking carbon monoxide. I then discovered my CO detector had expired two years previously!
Since the boiler seal has been replaced I am waking in the morning feeling absolutely fine, so clearly it had been the effects of low level CO poisoning that had been the reason for my morning symptoms. Interestingly, I have since discovered that CO poisoning can cause AF. That makes me wonder if exposure to CO over a long period of time is what has caused me to go from having hardly any AF episodes to becoming persistent in the space of a week. Who knows 🤷♀️ Anyway, I’m attaching a report from a case, of a lady presenting in the Emergency Room with a first episode of AF caused by CO poisoning. I hope the link won’t be removed, as I think this is an important issue.
Thanks Jean, yes, I’m feeling much better now. I couldn’t believe it to begin with as I’ve had the boiler serviced every year by the same Gas Safe registered guy who installed it, so had no idea there was a problem! Glad it’s alerted you to check your CO detector, anyway👍
Yes CO poisoning can mimic flu like symptoms as well . The thing people need to understand about CO warning meters is that it is not just batteries that "run down" with age. The sensor also degrades with time so the whole unit MUST be replaced periodically. They should, like smoke alarms, be tested regularly. In our case only when the cat is out or he freaks out and nearly has a heart attack! lol 😁
Boilers also need annual service and Britsh Gas can provide that service for a reasonable fee with 24 hour response.
That’s a very good point about the sensor in the detector degrading with time, thanks for pointing that out Bob.
As for the boiler, mine was serviced every year by the same chap who installed it 16 years previously. According to the guy who found the CO leak, Worcester Bosch sent out a technical bulletin in 2019 asking servicing engineers to specifically check around the burner gasket seal when servicing the type of boiler I have, as failure is a known problem past the 5 year mark. Looks like my original chap didn’t read the memo!
That is a salutary warning. In my own daughter-in-law's family, there was, many years ago, a fatality from just this so we are always extra vigilant and have detectors of the latest and best kind.
An unusual detector is the own-brand Amazon air quality monitor, which strangely detects CO, rather than CO2, along with PM2,5 and other things. I wouldn't use it alone for CO detection, but it does work well as an air quality monitor. I find CO2 monitors more generally useful to indicate when a window needs opening, though, so eventually gave up using it.
When our son and his wife moved into their new home, the boiler hadn't been serviced for a long time but we had it checked anyway and were told it was safe but old. Within an hour of their moving in, the CO monitor I put in their kitchen sounded and showed a tiny concentration. We were shocked. The heating engineer who later came decided the boiler needed changing.
Wow, that’s the trouble with these things, they can be missed. Thank goodness for the CO detector you installed. As I replied to Bob earlier, I’d only had the boiler serviced last December, by the engineer who’d originally installed it for me 16 years ago and he missed it, too. Apparently, according to the technical bulletin I read from Worcester Bosch, only analysing the flue gasses, as is normally done during a service, as you know, doesn’t pick up the leak from the burner seal failing, hence their directive to engineers to do an additional check on this area . Unfortunately my original guy must have missed the memo!
It was such the same with us. He did point out that the boiler was past its sell by date and that there was a small issue with the flue but he was as surprised as us that CO was detected in the kitchen. It was a tiny amount, but still, it forced us to change the boiler immediately.
Thank you for posting this. I knew someone who died alongside her partner from CO poisoning about 10 years ago. Such a loss.Unlike smoke and flames it's a silent killer.
People forget or just don't know that CO is odourless, the smell from cars is actually smelly combustion waste containing (odourless) CO.Rather like methane (natural gas) in its normal form is also odourless.
At least we can now get cheap, effective detectors now.
A very good point. I noticed my detector is due for renewal just a few weeks ago but had it checked and it's still working. Must get a new one ordered. Oh and a reminder my plumber made- they should be placed very high up in the room.
That is a very good point Qualipop, CO detectors should indeed be placed higher on the wall - above door level but 6” below the ceiling height according to instructions I have here.
Thanks for the reminder. These monitors are not expensive, they’re easy enough to buy in the shops and online, but we need to check them periodically in case the batteries go flat. Shockingly, a friend of mine told me she didn’t know what a CO monitor was!
Very true Ahtumn. For the sake of a few pounds spent on a monitor , it could potentially save a life. As for batteries going flat, that is certainly something to check, but, as Bob mentioned earlier, the sensor itself degrades with time as well,, hence they have an expiry date, despite battery status. That is what caught me out. I could have sworn the monitor had only been up for three years, turns out I was wrong! I’ve written the expiry date on the new one where I can see it this time!
Sad to say I don’t think your friend is alone in not being aware of CO monitors.
Good job you detected the problem. It is worrying that people aren’t aware they should have one in the first place but it seems that knowing that they wear out is important too.
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