Just the other day I found this! The flue from the furnace and the water heater loose and feeding possibly dead gas into the garage and by the service door to the house!

There are two kinds of dangerous gas that can leak into your home. One you can smell, and one you can’t smell.

You probably know that if you “smell gas” you should immediately shut down your furnace, heater, or cook stove and call for help. This is the gas that is delivered to your home from the gas company through the pipeline or from your propane tank. There is a special chemical put into these gases to make them smell like rotten eggs so you will be sure and notice if there is a leak. If this gas were to build up in your home, it could explode and destroy your home.

The other dangerous gas is actually produced inside your home. It is produced as a result of incomplete burning of carbon-containing fuels including coal, wood, charcoal, natural gas, and fuel oil. It is produced by incomplete combustion or poor ventilation of fuel-burning appliances such as oil or gas furnaces, gas cooking appliances, water heaters, fireplaces, or wood stoves. This gas is the same toxic gas that comes out of the tail pipe of your car if you leave it in a closed garage with the engine running. It is called carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that interferes with the delivery of oxygen in the blood to the rest of the body. Even though carbon monoxide will not explode, it can be dangerous (even deadly) to you and your family.

Two common sources of carbon monoxide in homes are the gas furnace heat exchanger and the gas hot water heater. As homes have been built to be more energy efficient, the have fewer places where fresh air can leak into the home. In order for fuel-burning equipment to operate correctly and safely, it much have a source of fresh air for complete combustion. If the fresh air is not available, the equipment will pull the combustion gases back into the house rather than exhausting them up the flue. Carbon monoxide can also be emitted by combustion sources such as unvented kerosene and gas space heaters, fireplaces, gas stoves, wood stoves, automobile exhaust from attached garages, and tobacco smoke.

Check out our video on youtube on Carbon Monoxide!