Equipping your home with a carbon monoxide detector may be one of the most important choices a homeowner can make. Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer for a reason. When combined with blood, carbon monoxide reduces the ability for your blood to carry oxygen. Between 1999 and 2010 alone, carbon monoxide poisoning caused 5,149 deaths in the United States. That averages out to around 460 deaths per year. Purchasing a carbon monoxide detector today will prevent your family from becoming another statistic.
What is Carbon Monoxide and How Can it Affect your Home?
Installing a carbon monoxide detector in your home is crucial to your family’s safety. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas. Naturally toxic by nature, carbon monoxide can seep into your home in unnoticed. Since this gas is not only invisible, but also impossible to taste or smell, it can kill you before you are ever aware of its presence.
Carbon Monoxide Detectors Detect Deadly Gas Leaking into your Home
There are many avenues through which it is possible to expose your family to this toxic gas, and carbon monoxide detectors are the most effective first line of defense. Just a few examples of avenues through which carbon monoxide may seep in include:
- Exhaust from your vehicle through an attached garage
- Gas stoves
- Out of date and malfunctioning boilers or furnaces
- Unvented kerosene or gas powered heaters
- Tobacco smoke
- Generators powered by gas
- Leaking chimneys with improperly sized or poorly installed flues
Different levels of concentration and individual health can impact how carbon monoxide affects individuals. For example, low concentrations will cause fatigue in healthier people, while that same concentration may result in chest pain for those with heart disease. At moderate levels of concentration, decreased brain function, impaired vision, and even angina can occur. The most dangerous high concentration levels of carbon monoxide present themselves through dizziness, confusion, nausea, impaired vision and coordination, and symptoms resembling the flu that only occur while at home. In cases of extremely high concentration, carbon monoxide poisoning is fatal. Purchasing a carbon monoxide detector will help eliminate the many health risks posed by this gas.
While there are costly infrared radiation absorption and electrochemical types of carbon monoxide detectors on the market, a basic carbon monoxide detector is a necessary and less expensive first step in protection. Carbon monoxide detectors can be purchased and installed through your local HVAC company.
Protect your Family from Carbon Monoxide Dangers
At Galmiche & Sons, your family’s safety is important to us. When selecting your carbon monoxide detector, there is no better option in the St. Louis area than our heating and cooling specialists. Our family has been the go-to for St. Louis heating & air conditioning since 1950. We have grown side by side with the advancing technology of carbon monoxide detection units, but our specialties don’t stop there. Galmiche & Sons can turn your home heating and air conditioning system into a well-oiled machine, providing year round safety and comfort to your family. Contact us today and our specialists will provide you with a quote for your HVAC system and new carbon monoxide detector.
