bajachris
Nomad
Posts: 196
Registered: 3-29-2009
Location: San Diego, San Juanico, San Andres
Member Is Offline
Mood: Love Baja
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Don't forget your Carbon Monoxide alarm!
I still hear about people perishing from being overcome with carbon monoxide. Many of us in Baja operate our refrigerators with propane and these may
be vented within or near the house. We may use propane to heat the house or cook our food. We may be using generators (gasoline powered equipment).
Propane, like natural gas can generate carbon monoxide as a product of incomplete combustion. Always install a carbon monoxide meter in your home,
garage or any other place you occupy if you use natural gas, propane or a generator. Replace the batteries every 6 months or per manufacturers
recommendations. It just may save your life! Install smoke detectors too! Signs of CO overexposure are headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea,
visual disturbances, changes in personality and losss of consciousness or death. Symptoms can occur within minutes. We had spider webs in our
propane refrigerator flame which greatly increase CO levels in our house. Luckily our CO meter went off in the middle of the night and saved our
lives.
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Terry28
Senior Nomad
Posts: 824
Registered: 8-25-2007
Location: S.Calif mtns.
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Mood: Thirsty
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Good point Chris, these can and have saved lives......your case in point.
Mexico!! Where two can live as cheaply as one.....but it costs twice as much.....
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bajachris
Nomad
Posts: 196
Registered: 3-29-2009
Location: San Diego, San Juanico, San Andres
Member Is Offline
Mood: Love Baja
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There was an elderly couple at Bahia Los Angeles a few years ago who had their space heater in the house and died overnight. CO is odorless and
colorless.
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bajalearner
Senior Nomad
Posts: 670
Registered: 8-24-2010
Location: Tijuana
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Mood: in search of more
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Thanks for the reminder, I need to get one.
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DavidE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3814
Registered: 12-1-2003
Location: Baja California México
Member Is Offline
Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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It may be noteworthy to understand
For some peculiar reason our lungs, when offered a choice between O2 and CO, choose carbon monoxide about ten times faster. It is absorbed into the
body so much easier it is a trap that can be misleading when PPM CO are known.
It does not hurt to test out a CO detector. With a gas refrigerator hold the instrument about a foot away from the hot gas plume exhaust on top of the
refrigerator. It should sound. If not take it out to your car, start the car, and hold the instrument about a foot distant from the end of the exhaust
pipe.
If it did not sound then, there is a problem with the machine despite what the test button may show.
It takes a good 15-30 minutes of airing out the tester to clear it of CO when a test is conducted on it. I have one in the kitchen and another in the
bedroom. I was awakened by a shrill pitch one afternoon. My idiot neighbor had moved a Yamaha outboard upwind and stuck it in an oil drum of water.
The wind carried the CO in and fired-off the alarm. I removed it from the wall, took it and and shoved it under his nose. His IQ is somewhere between
30 - 50 when it comes to common sense.
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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EnsenadaDr
Banned
Posts: 5027
Registered: 9-12-2011
Location: Baja California
Member Is Offline
Mood: Move on. It is just a chapter in the past, but don't close the book- just turn the page
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Good point David!! And thanks for the thread!! | Quote: | Originally posted by DavidE
It may be noteworthy to understand
For some peculiar reason our lungs, when offered a choice between O2 and CO, choose carbon monoxide about ten times faster. It is absorbed into the
body so much easier it is a trap that can be misleading when PPM CO are known.
It does not hurt to test out a CO detector. With a gas refrigerator hold the instrument about a foot away from the hot gas plume exhaust on top of the
refrigerator. It should sound. If not take it out to your car, start the car, and hold the instrument about a foot distant from the end of the exhaust
pipe.
If it did not sound then, there is a problem with the machine despite what the test button may show.
It takes a good 15-30 minutes of airing out the tester to clear it of CO when a test is conducted on it. I have one in the kitchen and another in the
bedroom. I was awakened by a shrill pitch one afternoon. My idiot neighbor had moved a Yamaha outboard upwind and stuck it in an oil drum of water.
The wind carried the CO in and fired-off the alarm. I removed it from the wall, took it and and shoved it under his nose. His IQ is somewhere between
30 - 50 when it comes to common sense. |
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sancho
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2524
Registered: 10-6-2004
Location: OC So Cal
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DavidE
It does not hurt to test out a CO detector
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DE, are the $20 detectors as effective as some I've heard
in the $200 range?
thanks for your time
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