Carbon Monoxide in Your Home
The importance of indoor air quality in a home is becoming more and more of a priority for Wisconsin homeowners, as they learn more about the ways that air pollutants and contaminants concentrated in the air they breathe inside can affect the health and wellbeing of themselves and their family.
One of the most dangerous indoor air pollutants is carbon monoxide, or CO. Luckily, with combustion safety testing services from Wisconsin Home Improvement, you can protect yourself inside your Milwaukee metro area house and help create a healthy home environment.
Where Does Carbon Monoxide Inside a Home Come From?
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, tasteless, and odorless gas created by the incomplete combustion of fuel (wood, natural gas, oil, etc.). CO can be found in the fumes that come from a number of appliances in your home, such as:
Furnaces
Water heaters
Gas stoves
Boilers
Even the vehicle exhaust that collects in a closed garage attached to your home can create a dangerous CO situation for you and your family.
The appliances in your home, when operating correctly, do not pose a health risk—combustion furnaces, for example, use a flue pipe to vent CO outside. But when your appliances aren’t working properly, carbon monoxide can leak into your home at dangerous levels.
What Are the Health Effects of Carbon Monoxide Exposure?
Even low concentrations of carbon monoxide can be harmful, causing fatigue and chest pains in people with heart conditions. But as the level of CO in the air rises, so do the health risks. Serious symptoms and side effects of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
Impaired vision and coordination
Reduced brain function
Headaches, dizziness, nausea, and confusion
In severe cases, carbon monoxide poisoning can be fatal—an average of 430 people in the United States die every year from accidental CO exposure.
Schedule Combustion Safety Testing for Your Home Today
Combustion safety testing by an experienced professional home contractor like Wisconsin Home Improvement can help ensure that the appliances in your house are safe to be around, and are not leaking carbon monoxide into the air during everyday operation.
CO is just one of the types of indoor air pollutants we test for during our comprehensive home performance audits, which also provide a detailed analysis of your home’s energy use. Audits reveal the degree to which heat and air are moving in and out of your home, which can negatively affect your comfort levels, raise your utility costs, and contribute to poor indoor air quality.
The concept of healthy homes and the indoor safety and comfort of our family, neighbors, and customers has been a priority for WHI since we first opened our business. Read more about the additional safety precautions we’re taking during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reach out to our offices if you have any questions about our services.
Keep your home healthy and free of carbon monoxide with combustion safety testing from Wisconsin Home Improvement. Call 262.345.9922 or contact us today to schedule your home performance audit this spring.
Worried about the harmful air inside your home?
Our team has indoor air quality solutions for your family.
Save up to 73% off insulation, air sealing & ventilation packages while incentives are still available!
