For the last few days ive been getting very dizzy… i figured it was my tallness and the altitude etc…
but then i started to feel sick and so did helen… and jack this evening was saying he felt dizzy.
so i call transco.
they come out to us and condem our boiler as immediatly dangerous and cut us off completely.
tomorrow i obviously call the guys out to come fix it.
all i can say is lucky it diddnt get more serrious…
cos as you all know carbon monoxide poisening kill’s
so please guys take it from me cos i have had a bit of a scare… get your boilers and gas equipment checked regulary and get a Carbon monoxide tester.
and DO NOT get TFW to have a look at it.
But anyways were all good but it gave me a scare.
Andy.
There are some pointers to look out for. Way back in days when my job was to visit lots of people in their own homes, often in sub-standard accommodation, if someone had been told they had ME, (f’rinstance), I’d look out for yellow staining around gas fires - showed really well on 70’s style stone fireplaces.
Same on kitchen gas powered water heaters over the sink, on the outside of central heating flues, around the windows of the flame of central heating boilers - often in the kitchen also. There’s this vague sooty stink in the background too.
Andy Mate - there are effects of long term exposure too - snappiness, bad temper, tiredness, irrational thinking. What happens is carbon monoxide substitutes oxygen in the haemoglobin in the blood, reducing oxygen to the brain. It builds up over weeks.
Hope that helps? Thank god anyways - close call…
Dray
PS Don’t we have a resident fireman who’ll knows a bit about this?
Bump. Thought this was important. Near death experience - and then some.
edit
Ummm. Had a couple who became very ill for weeks. Couldn’t afford to replace their heating. I had to ship in portable heaters for them. They ended up cuddling up on a settee with a babs under coats and a quilt in winter for a week. Bad situation. Guess this has struck a chord. Sorry.
[QUOTE=andylamb;399127]
and DO NOT get TFW to have a look at it.
But anyways were all good but it gave me a scare.
Andy.[/QUOTE]
Glad to hear you got it sorted out before you paid a high price.
Now I’m not coming over all seasonal cos I have shares in a smoke alarm company but buying a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide alarm as a surprise christmas gift for somebody could save a life.
If they already have both then Maplin sell 10 year smoke alarm batteries to make them work longer.
Good to hear that you are all ok. Must say it’s something i have been wary of for years, once came back home from a big pub session when the parents were away years back and i’d left the old gas grill on from tea time, couldn’t understand why i was feeling dizzy, eyes were watering etc until a mate pointed out the grill burning a funny colour. Been wary ever since as i would have just fell asleep in the chair in the kitchen like normal!
For now got a CO tester in the kitchen and also get the boiler and kitchen gas appliances serviced and certified evey year by a Corgi plumber.
[QUOTE=sirgaz;399160]Damn mate, close call. Arn’t the council meant to check the thing once a year?
Glad you’re all ok and as said above get a co alarm, well worth it.[/QUOTE]
they are supposed to but havent.
they were also supposed to do somthing with the flue but never turend up.
EON are comming out asap to fix it.
and ill be going out today to pick up a tester.
must say were all frozen this morning but thats better than the alternative.
with the stress we have had lately i put down the tiredness and everything else down to that.
but when the kid’s started to complain it hit home that somthing was up and the only thing i could think of was that boiler.
anyways thanks for the concern people it is much apreciated
For me, i would want answers from the council also, may be worthwhile speaking to someone at the Citizens Advice or on even a solicitor, not from the point of view of sueing them, but how many other families might be in the same predicament you are in with the council not meeting the required safety measures (you can bet your arse if it was a privately owned house being rented out and something like this happened the council would be onto the owner like a sack of shit and have all sorts of penalties they would impose!)
[QUOTE=andylamb;399166]they are supposed to but havent.
they were also supposed to do somthing with the flue but never turend up.
EON are comming out asap to fix it.
and ill be going out today to pick up a tester.
must say were all frozen this morning but thats better than the alternative.
with the stress we have had lately i put down the tiredness and everything else down to that.
but when the kid’s started to complain it hit home that somthing was up and the only thing i could think of was that boiler.
anyways thanks for the concern people it is much apreciated
/me goes to turn on all the pc’s for some heat.[/QUOTE]
Lucky escape there Andy. Lucky you spotted it soon. Will have affected you lot before Jack because your older etc.
CO alarms are expensive (£25+ when I was at Homebase I believe) and are NOT proven to work. CO detectors (the black dot thingys) ARE cheap and DO work.
Part of my degree resolves around gases given off in combustion so I know a fair bit about the dangers of CO as CO is the product of incomplete combustion. The CO alarms are an alarmist sale. There 50/50 as to whether they currently work properly.
I don’t know about council houses but I know for a fact that all student houses (by law) should have enclosed boilers where it’s pretty much impossible for CO to escape into the house if it is being produced. This was brought in in 1998 IIRC. If needs be I’ll dig through my notes and arm you with whatever the act was.
Well D if we end up in hospital and we have taken the steps to try and protect ourselves with the CO alarms or that black dot thingy or even both wether or not they work.
we can then go to the council and take action.
also the black dot doesnt make a sound.
wich is not very good if were in our bed’s and i know you know your stuff there m8 but a black dot wont wake us up if were being poisend in our sleep.
so i want to take every procaution even if there is a 50/50 chance that the alarm wont work.
at least i will know i have taken the steps to try and counter act it.
as for wallis… do you mean taking it to the papers?
i would say no… becuase they now know that we have had transco/gas networks
out and have condemmed the boiler. so they know they now cant put a foot wrong or they will get into alot of trouble.
so if they do slip up again and dont do what they are supposed to do in future i will then go to the relevent media.
as for the enclosed boilers thing i dont think that has to be the case here as long as the boiler or gas appliance is regualry checked and to be proven in good safe working order.
i dont think it has to be enclosed.
perhapse uni’s/college’s are diffrent.
but im sure with council/housing associations it is as i say above.
anyways thanks guys…
/me still waiting on the engineers and freezing my ass off
The black spot would seem adequate for a gradual production of CO, like in this case. But what’s the chances of a fault producing loads of CO in a short time to need the alarm?
Probably quite slim if you have windows open during the day etc.
or if you have good ventelation in your home.
but i think it would still be good as a precautionary measure.
Why to notify the Fire Service I don’t know as they cant really do much.
I’ve not done much research into the production of CO in a boiler but in a large fire, it wont produce really produce >200PPM unless it’s very oxygen starved.
Cheers D ill bm that.
the engineer came around tonight and he was happy everything was fine.
he said if you feel there is a problem go to the doctor and have tests done etc.
I then asked what the posibility was of contracting an sti from a gas boiler was and he left.
but that was it.
ill get a dot and see what we got
Having previously worked for Transco, (on the Admin side of things), you had a lucky escape. One thing I would advise everyone to do is to get boilers serviced at least once a year. The number of fatalities reported due to people not getting boilers serviced whilst I was at Transco was scary!.
