by Tricia
My husband just got back from a late night trip to Walmart. I haven’t been feeling well lately and I have had a headache for the past few days. Headaches by themselves aren’t too unusual. It was unusual to have it for three days in a row. My husband made the connection first – my headaches coincided with when we turned out heat on (which that date was confirmed thanks to this blog!). We both immediately thought about carbon monoxide poisoning so we checked the internet. Headaches can be a symptom of low level carbon monoxide poisoning.
The more we thought about it, the more it made sense. I work upstairs all day and carbon monoxide rises. I could have the most exposure. My son is out of the house for a good portion of the day and my husband is usually downstairs in the draftiest room in the house. They both seem okay, although my husband developed a headache earlier today.
We have a carbon monoxide detector in our home and it seems fine. But, we just found out that they should be replaced every few years. We didn’t realize that. Our detector is about 6 years old. So my husband headed out to Walmart to buy two carbon monoxide detectors (one for each level of our home). While we were waiting for him to come home, we turned our heat off and opened doors and windows to let fresh air in.
After he got home, we got the new detectors up and running. All is well. I think we’ll still keep the furnace off for the night, just in case. We’ll fire it back up in the morning and monitor the level tomorrow. One of the detectors he bought has a digital readout. I have a feeling it will be okay, and this was just a scare.
If you have an older carbon monoxide detector in your home, read through the manual. Make sure it isn’t too old. I feel a bit embarrassed about sharing this story, since we should have read the manual. But it’s a good reminder for everyone so I decided to blog about it.
