I so almost died and didnt even know it!

[enflyt 0]

Alright folks.. the weathers cooling off and the heaters will be coming on... this is a friendly reminder to check your heaters, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

I just moved into this apartment a few months ago, and decided to have the maintenance guys look at my fireplace to make sure I didnt burn the house down. I'm not a big fan of using a heater-it costs money.. But, while waiting for the guy to show up, I turned it on. It smelled pretty strong-I figured its cause it hadnt been on for months and the smell would go away in a little while. Well.. The guy shows up and kinda makes a B-line for the utilty closet, and he discovers that the panel for my heater was not on correctly, thus, carbon monoxide was leaking out. I'd been in the apartment so I couldnt smell it. He "fixed" it, and promised to order me a carbon monoxide detector to put in along with the smoke detector-but there's no way i'm using the heater again till then!

So yeah. Check those heaters, fireplaces, smoke alarms and all that jazz... I'm just so glad I got cold early and turned the darn thing on before that guy got here, or else I might not have noticed.

[dbattman 0]

edit cause I forgot how to add

If it goes off the utility company will probably come out and sniff your house for free as a service.

[SpeedRacer 1]

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thus, carbon monoxide was leaking out. I'd been in the apartment so I couldnt smell it.

You can't smell carbon monoxide. It is odorless.

Speed Racer
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[enflyt 0]

doesnt it have a faint natural gas smell? or what is that?

[JohnMitchell 16]

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doesnt it have a faint natural gas smell? or what is that?

Nope, CO, carbon monoxide is odorless. Actually, natural gas is odorless also. The smell is added as a safety measure so that we smell gas leaks.

We have a CO detector in our house. It's much cheaper than an AAD and could just as well save our lives.

[enflyt 0]

So... its odorless, but they add an odor so you can detect it? So.. one could smell a CO leak and it would smell like gas which is also odorless but has a smell anyways? I'm confused.

but yeah. i'm very excited about this detector.. if they dont get it to me soon, i'll just buy one.

[Andy_Copland 0]

Slightly off topic but its the same with Helium, the Germans put garlic in it.

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[enflyt 0]

K. so is Carbon Monoxide the same thing as natural gas? or a bi-product of it? or something totally different??

and is helium toxic? all those balloons we'd inhale to talk funny!

[virgin-burner 1]

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doesnt it have a faint natural gas smell? or what is that?

you wont smell carbon monoxide, nor carbon dioxide.. later "only" replaces the oxygen, its heavier than it, thus replacing it. monoxide is poisonous, meaning it connects to your bloodcells and prevents oxygen from doing so. tthat would kill you, even if you'd get saved at some stage..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[riddler 0]

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So... its odorless, but they add an odor so you can detect it?

They add an odor (sulpheric) to Natural gas that you get from the gas company. That's exactly the point - you smell it before it kills you. (Edit to add that Natural Gas is not carbon monoxide - CO is a byproduct of burning NG).

And on the same subject, be aware that many heater repairmen do run scams to "detect" gas coming from your heater in order to charge you for an expensive new heater or furnace. It's pretty easy to crank up those detectors to sniff out gas where there really is none. I would trust the CO detector from the store more than those guys.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[Andy_Copland 0]

I have no idea, i was just throwing in my random fact. I failed chemisty

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[ACMESkydiver 0]

Reminds me of when we turned on our baseboard heat for the first time one winter in our little apartment. We forgot that baby Jaleesa's Pooh Bear chair was sitting right in front of it...or it had gotten pushed in front of it somehow.

Anyhoo, it started to smell like something was burning, and lo and behold it was! Pulled the chair out, and there was a black hole through the back of it I'd guess 14" in diameter and charred in about 3" deep. The foam smouldered but never flamed.

Yikes.

Glad you didn't die from your CO leak!

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[JohnMitchell 16]

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K. so is Carbon Monoxide the same thing as natural gas? or a bi-product of it? or something totally different??

and is helium toxic? all those balloons we'd inhale to talk funny!

CO, carbon monoxide, is the product of incomplete combustion of carbon. it is poisonous, binding with the hemaglobin in your red blood cells, making them unable to deliver oxygen to your body. It is odorless. Natural gas is mostly methane, CH4. Lighter than air, it is not poisonous, but if it displaces enough oxygen from you you will suffocate, same as with carbon dioxide, CO2. Methane is odorless, but the gas companies put an odor in it for safety reasons. Helium, He, is an inert gas. It can suffocate you if it displaces enough oxygen in your enviroment, but, being chemically inert, it can not poison you. it can make you talk like Donald Duck, though.

[godfrog 2]

the odor that is added to natural gas is mercaptain, it has a rotten egg odor, it is to alert you of a leak, if you smell this call the gas company from outside or some one elses house, could be in danger of an explosion. carbon monoxide is from incomplete combustion of fuels, it can be caused by burning wood, oil, natural gas, or any combustible. As said, it attaches to red blood cells and is not easily purged from the body, it is oderless, colorless, and tastless, the threshhold limit value (TLV) is 50 parts per million over an 8 hour period. It accumulates in the body also if continually exposed.

Experience is a difficult teacher, she gives you the test first and the lesson afterward