Your Furnace: The Hardest Working Appliance you own

Out of all of the appliances in your home, your furnace works the hardest. During the cold winter months, your furnace can turn off and on nearly 9000 times. Because of how much you rely on your furnace and how hard it works, it absolutely needs a safety check on an annual basis.

Carbon Monoxide testing is not something to be taken lightly. Findings from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which recently analyzed CO poisonings from 1992 to 1996, found that the furnace issues made up almost 74% of poisonings that were attributed to appliances and other products.

Low levels of CO, such as those below 10%, are barely noticeable in your home. You won’t have symptoms, and you won’t be able to detect any scent in the air. However, just because you don’t feel sick does not mean that the CO is harmless. Hospital research has shown that extended exposure to continual low levels of carbon monoxide has been linked to brain damage.

The subjects showed symptoms such as changes in behavior and inability to remember short term thoughts. Unfortunately the study had no reference point for how long the subjects were exposed for brain damage to occur, as they were unaware of when they were first exposed to CO.

When you reach a CO level of above 10%, the person exposed will have flu-like symptoms tiredness, fatigue, difficulty breathing, headache and coughing. A good measure of whether or not it’s the flu is finding that your pet exhibits symptoms, as there is no way for your pet to get the flu. Any CO level above 20% is considered lethal, so it is imperative that you get your heating system checked on a regular basis.

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