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gas central heating and COPD

vangellis profile image
18 Replies

Hi

I just wondered how other people cope with Gas Cantral heating and COPD.

I have moderate COPD and find this heating gives me a sore throat and I feel tired most of the time, plus of course I feel more breathless than usual.

Is this normal? or do I need to see te doc

Thanks

Vangellis

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vangellis profile image
vangellis
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18 Replies

I have gas central heating vangellis and don't suffer any bad effects from it, but I very rarely use my gas fire. I do have a humidifier too. Just a thought, but when was the last time you had your system serviced? If it is not working to maximum efficiency that is what may be causing your problems.

1968 profile image
1968 in reply to

I have gas central heating and never get any effects, why don't you use the gas fire is it because of oxygen bottles or does the gas fire effect the lungs.

David 1968

in reply to1968

An open fire would maybe not be great as an oxygen user but I have never used it much. It does tend to dry the air out more but the main reason is that my main thermostat is in the same room so putting on the fire would knock off the heat to all the other rooms.

libby7827 profile image
libby7827

Hi vangellis, I have gas central heating too but don't think I suffer any ill effects from it either. Just a thought, and not wishing to be a scaremonger, have you got a carbon monoxide detector? Libby

in reply tolibby7827

That was my thoughts too, and why I suggested a service.

katieoxo60 profile image
katieoxo60

Further to the sound advice above if you are getting sore throats a cheap solution is to keep a bowl of water near your radiaters,this I'm told helps to keep the air moist. Of course it could be your inhalers too which has numerous solutions including changing them. So you need to do a bit of your own detective work to find the cause first,good luck.

vangellis profile image
vangellis

No, It's me, I can't stand the dry air, I get like this every year, even years before I had COPD.

Mind it doesn't help with my wife drying the washing on the radiators.

I hate waking up to the heating being on, I cough for about 1/2 hour then I'm fine :-(

Vangellis

vangellis profile image
vangellis

Sorry, yes it's been seviced about a month ago. And yes, I do have a carbon monoxide detector.

thanks guys

Vangellis

Superlisat profile image
Superlisat in reply tovangellis

Hi vangellis, I totally agree with the central heating thing I thought it was just me. Come September until May my copd becomes a lot worse, granted outside winter conditions do not help however as soon as I turn the central heating on my cough and mucus gets a lot worse. I'm still searching for a solution thanks

Drying laundry in the same rooms you use is not a good idea for copd sufferers,it can cause some breathing probs..

traindriver profile image
traindriver in reply to

Would have central heating over cold and damp everytime.

smokless profile image
smokless

I hate the heating going as like you I cant breath and feel dry mouthed ,my skin drys out and becomes sore I cough all night ,so horrid sleep ,I find that if I open a window and move the air about I can breath better , not have the house to warm , washing over rads is just one of the worst things for chests as its damp germs love damp . If you cant dry anyother way put on a airer in the bathroom open a window and shut the door or invest in a tumble dryer or better still hand out

Lynne1955 profile image
Lynne1955

Hi Vangellis. I too have gas central heating. The only thing I can say different to anyone else is that I always have a small window open in the bedroom and I never ave my bedroom radiator on. I don't have a problem at all, but I need some fresh air.

Vengelis, the steam and humidity caused by drying washing on the radiators will not be good for your breathing and may be what is giving you problems.

caroleoctober profile image
caroleoctober

As we are on the subject of central heating (not just gas) and Auntymary mentioned her thermostat and the fact that she is on oxygen, I thought I would just tell you of my experience. My thermostat was in the same room as my concentrator and because of the warmth given off by the concentrator it was taking the heat up in that room just enough to stop the heating coming on. There was nowhere else in my small bungalow that the thermostat could go and work efficiently so the heating engineer provided me with a wireless thermostat, no wires just put it where it controls the heating most efficiently, It works well, the things they can do with wireless nowadays, long way from the cat's whisker lol!!

Carole x

Gordon57 profile image
Gordon57

Changes in humidity seems the likely cause - if washing is being dried over radiators then it's putting a lot of damp in the air, but once dry and removed the air dries out again - it's enough to make wallpaper peel off walls and cause black mould, so imagine what it's doing to you!

We don't have central heating but here's what drives me nutty - the wife dries washing in the back bedroom over an airer with the wall heater on. The windows then get terrible condensation, so she wipes them down with an old towel she keeps for the purpose, and puts that over the same airer to dry out...

3pinks profile image
3pinks

every one is different i was advised to keep bowls of water under all heaters to stop the air drying

It's probably a grounding issue. In the Winter, excess electricitity from cell towers, wifi, cellphones, dumb meters, can't exactly go through non-polar highly electrical resistive ice. Instead electricity travels to water and gas lines, path of least resistance, to get into the ground. If you have heard your pipes suddenly banging, it's definitely your bet as that's an indicator your getting high voltage potentials and discharge. When electricity goes through the water pipes, it electrolysis the water, you get O2 and H2, corrosive to the copper pipes, and get black copper pipes Copper Oxide (CuO). Those horror films with black water coming out, actually originate from highly electrically charged home environments where people literally did get black water out of their sinks because of this type of corrosion. Now electrolysis of the gas line, probably wouldn't get you anything, because electrolysis is used to yield hydrocarbons, but this electrical build up, would probably electrically charge CO2 particles. When the blower kicks on, it would grab a bunch of air, charge it up, and blow it through your entire house, those charged molecules bouncing around, could be what's triggering your immune system. To solve this, we just need to add polar molecules to the environment. Like many people have stated humidifiers, adding polar water molecules into the air can help, but for a better option, take a ziploc bag, fill it with water, unscrew the vent cover, and place it inside. It will act as an electrical charge sink soaking up the charged particles blowing through.

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