Carbon Monoxide

bawn79

Sorry to bother people, I've been staying in my brother in laws house for over a year. It has a gas hob cooker in it (from a bottle) and this week I had a gas guy installer look at it because when my dad was around he thought one of the fittings looked lose.

While there, the gas installer found that the wrong jets were on hobs and that it was burning carbon monoxide when lit.

I don't really understand how carbon monoxide works but thankfully I'm still alive. I'm just worried about any long term effects it might have caused to me?

Would it only have been emitted when I was cooking (I always turned the gas off at the off side switch when not in use).

I also purchased a carbon monoxide alarm about 6 months ago and that never off.

Michael D Not Higgins

Carbon Monoxide is a byproduct of incomplete combustion of the natural gas. It would only be emitted while you were cooking and would only tend to cause an issue if it builds up over time. It's probably not been an issue since the CO alarm hasn't gone off.

The problem with it is that it's colourless and odourless, unlike natural gas which has chemicals called mercaptans included which have a smell and allow you to detect a leak. Some symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include dizziness, headaches, and tiredness (and possibly death for high risk groups and/or high concentrations). Adequate ventilation should help and opening a window when cooking is always a good idea for this kind of setup.

bawn79

Thanks Michael - puts my mind at ease a bit.

Gumbo

The CO alarm will only go off when certain concentrations are built up in the air. So a particular parts per million mixture over a certain amount of time and it will trigger.