165 Bay Street
Glens Falls, New York 12801
(518) 792-7114 (518) 583-3419
CARBON MONOXIDE :
Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning has been one of the more under-publicized household hazards until two recent events put it in the spotlight. One was the accidental death in September 1994 of tennis star Vitas Gerulaitas, who succumbed to CO while sleeping in a rented home. The other was an ordinance that went into effect October 1, 1994, in Chicago requiring CO detectors in all residences heated by any fossil fuel burning equipment. The Chicago law was in reaction to a tragedy that occurred in 1991 when a family of 10 was wiped out by CO poisoning from a faulty furnace installation.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that at least 250 people are killed each year from CO. The American Medical Association estimates it to be 1,500 people a year, with another 10,000 or more taking ill.
CO is tasteless, colorless and odorless. It is undetectable except by sophisticated gear. The main symptoms of CO poisoning, fatigue, headaches, dizzy spells and nausea, resemble those of the flu and many other common illnesses. Thus CO poisoning is easily misdiagnosed and people can succumb to it with very little physical discomfort, almost like falling asleep.
CO is given off by incomplete combustion of flammable fuels such as natural gas, oil, wood, coal or kerosene. Common household appliances such as furnaces, boilers, water heaters and stoves are all potential sources of CO gas. All of these products are designed with elaborate safeguards and under normal operating conditions all the CO produced from combustion will be harmlessly vented to the atmosphere.
Poor venting, due to leaks or blockages in the vent system is the most common cause of CO build-up in the home, followed by cracks or corrosion in a furnace's heat exchanger. Here are some danger signs and steps you can take to minimize the danger:
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Approved CO detectors are now available for around $50 or less. They are similar to smoke detectors in both appearance and installation. The best place to install a CO detector is near bedrooms. Don't install one in the boiler or furnace room the garage or the kitchen, where it may go off in reaction to temporary elevated levels of CO.
What do you do if the alarm sounds? Vacate the house quickly, opening doors and windows as you leave in order to provide ventilation. Then contact a local emergency service crew - usually the police or fire department - for advice. Depending on your community, they may have a CO measuring device on hand to take a reading inside your home in order to determine if it is safe to return.
Keep in mind that the act of ventilating your home may make it safe for immediate occupancy but won't correct whatever generated excess CO in the first place. As soon as possible you need a professional inspection of all possible CO sources. This should be someone equipped with CO measuring gear able to detect concentrations as small as 5-10 parts per million. The measurement test should be conducted over at least a 24-hour period.
It is possible for a CO alarm to be triggered by a single unusual incident that presents no lasting threat. However, if one ever goes off in your home, you won't rest easily until you take all the precautions possible to safeguard yourself and love ones.
HEATING SEASON TUNE-UPS:
According to a recent survey of homeowners across the country by Honeywell, Inc, about 55% of American homeowners have their heating and cooling equipment professionally serviced at least once a year.
They're the smart ones. An annual heating system "clean & check" tune-up is one of the best home maintenance investments you can make. (Oil-fired heating systems may require more frequent service, perhaps twice per year.)
Those homeowners who neglect annual maintenance may face the following:
An increase in utility costs. Fuel bills can rise as much as 10-15% as a result of inefficient equipment operation.
Accelerated equipment wear. Annual maintenance extends equipment life as much as 20 - 30%. This translates to an additional 5-10 years of usage for your furnace or boiler.
An increase in repair bills. Most service contractors will tell you that about 75% of all repairs they do would have been avoided with regular maintenance. Heating system repairs typically run into the hundreds of dollars.
Dangerous situations: Annual heating inspections can save your life and those of your loved ones. Small cracks in a heat exchanger or problems with the flue system could allow deadly carbon monoxide gas to seep into your home. Hundreds of people in the U.S. lose their lives each year in these tragedies. A trained service technician knows how to spot danger signs in the system.
In general, incomplete fuel combustion and high flue gas temperatures are the main causes of low heating efficiency. A competent service technician will perform a variety of tests to measure the combustion efficiency of your system both before and after tuning it up. The service technician should also clean and check (replacing if necessary) the burner, combustion chamber, heat exchanger surfaces, oil line filter and flue pipe. Pumps and fans should be lubricated if necessary. With boilers, the technician should take time to remove sediment from boiler and steam lines, as well as checking the fan thermostat on warm air systems. Otherwise the fan may operate longer than necessary thus wasting energy.
Modern heating equipment is very sophisticated. The well-equipped service technician has an array of electronic measuring devices and tools to properly service these units.
While heating inspections can be done at any time, early fall is the most popular time for most home owners to schedule these visits. To avoid the rush, many homeowners have their fall heating inspection done as part of an annual maintenance agreement offered by Jack Hall Plumbing and Heating, Inc. Typically maintenance agreement customers receive priority in scheduling and discount pricing for any repairs not covered by the agreement. A maintenance agreement also is a good way to ensure you don't forget about scheduling regular heating system maintenance.
While service is important, beyond a certain point even the best maintenance cannot save an antiquated system. In fact, efficiency improvements over the last couple of decades have been so dramatic that if your boiler or furnace is more than 20 years old, it's quite possible that it would make economic sense to replace your present system even if it is still operating well. Ask a trusted contractor to do an energy audit of your home to see what kind of savings can be achieved by equipment replacement, and how many years it would take to pay back the initial cost of the new equipment.
Also ask us about low-cost energy efficiency improvements that can be obtained from devices such as automatic flue dampers and clock setback thermostats. The latter presets the temperature at different times of day so you can keep the house cooler when unoccupied. Setback thermostats typically pay for themselves in fuel savings within one or two years.
THINGS EVERY HOMEOWNER SHOULD KNOW: | Furnace filters should ideally be changed four times a year and certainly at least twice a year. |
| Household water pressure typically starts out at 40-60 pounds per square inch. That's enough to cause weak piping joints to burst. |
| Never store flammables in the vicinity of a furnace, boiler or water heater, especially one with a standing pilot light. This is easy to overlook, because basements and utility rooms are often used as storage areas. Also, some substances prone to combustion aren't obvious fire hazards, such as swimming pool chemicals and many household cleaners. To be on the safe side, if it's a substance you would not ingest, keep it away from combustion appliances. |
| Just one working smoke alarm can reduce your chances of dying in a home fire by almost 50%. Get in the habit of changing all alarm batteries once a year on your birthday or some other memorable date you will not forget. |
| Studies have shown that duct leaks account for as much as one third of residential heating and cooling consumption. Have a trained technician inspect your ducts. |
| It takes only 1/2 second to scald someone in 150°F water, 1 second in 140°F water, and 4 minutes in 120°F water, according to the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association. Modern water heaters are factory-set at 120°F, but many older models deliver much higher temperature water. |
| The most common household injuries occur from falls, which are blamed for more than 8,000 U.S. deaths a year. Bathtub and shower stall slips account for more than 160,000 documented injuries each year. Non-slip bath mats and grab bars are important safety measures for any house. |
| One of the easiest ways to extend the life of your water heater is periodic replacement of sacrificial anode rods. These are made of magnesium or aluminum and are intended to corrode, so that the water heater tank doesn't. The anode rod starts out about 3/4-inch in diameter, but within three years is typically reduced to 1/4 inch or less. Next time you have a plumbing or heating service technician to your home, ask them to check out your water heater anode rods. |
| More and more homes have carbon monoxide detectors. Unfortunately, many of them are improperly installed in the vicinity of CO-emitting appliances. You should install them near bedrooms. The biggest risk from CO occurs when people are sleeping. |
| Ground-fault circuit interrupters are simple, inexpensive devices that can be obtained at any hardware store. They should be installed in bathroom outlets and any other outlets located near water. |
| Any water heater without a working temperature and pressure relief valve is a time bomb waiting to explode. Make sure to have your water heater serviced by a trained technician. |
| An automatic setback thermostat is one of the best investments any homeowner can make. These devices can be programmed to modulate your household temperature for maximum comfort when occupants are present, but conserve energy when everyone is away at school and/or work. |
All of us in the home service business know that there's no such thing as a non-emergency call. To a homeowner with no heat in winter, no air conditioning in summer, a plugged toilet, broken pipes, no hot water or an unwanted wading pool in the basement, it is always an emergency. Especially when the breakdown occurs at exactly the wrong time. As it always does.
That's why Jack Hall Plumbing and Heating, Inc. emphasizes speed of service. It's our goal to get to every customer as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that's not always possible. So like soldiers on a battlefield, all homeowners need to know some elementary first aid to stop the bleeding and stabilize the wounded until more thorough help can arrive. Here are some of the things you can do in the event of...
Furnace or boiler failure:
Is there any experience more chilling than waking up in the middle of winter and seeing your breath? Besides being cold, it usually costs more to get a service technician out in the middle of the night. Also, repairs can often take a day or two, which puts your pipes in jeopardy of freezing.
There are a couple of things you can do that might forestall the need for a service call. First, check to see if the heating system's electrical switch is in the on position. This looks just like a light switch and can usually be found somewhere in the vicinity of the boiler or furnace. Next check the fuse or circuit breaker to the heating system's electrical line. If the fuse is blown, replace it, or else flick the circuit breaker back to the on position.
Once you're assured that the power is on, check the thermostat to make sure nobody turned the dial way down. If it's a programmable unit, make sure the thermostat is programmed correctly. Finally, take a look outside to make sure there's not a general power outage in your neighborhood.
If none of these electrical flukes bear out, you have a more serious problem. Then call a professional. If you are lucky, a service technician will be out there before too many hours pass. Sometimes, though, it may take a day or two to fix your system. Depending on how severe the weather is, you need to decide whether to seek other shelter or tough it out with extra blankets and space heaters. Whatever you do, don't try to generate heat by turning on your cooking stove. Appliances are not intended for space heating and are dangerous when used for that purpose.
Frozen pipes:
Water pipes can burst from a household accident, long-term corrosion or, most commonly, freezing. Most freezes occur in crawl spaces or areas such as exterior walls or basements, where cold air enters through cracks. Even though the room temperature might be well above freezing, a constant thin stream of cold air is all it takes to freeze a pipe.
The first damage control step you need to take is to turn off the water shutoff valve leading into the house. Usually this is located near a wall where the municipal water line enters your house.
Next time you use a plumber, ask him to hang tags on your household lines to identify water and gas shutoffs.
Gas leaks:
Water leaks are a nuisance. Gas leaks can be deadly. Marked shutoff valves can be of critical importance.
A faint gas odor may indicate nothing more than a burned out pilot light to an appliance. Check the water heater or any other appliances in the vicinity to see if the pilot is out. (An absence of hot water is another big hint.)
A more powerful odor spells big danger. Turn off the shutoff valve by the gas meter to your house. Turn off all appliances, open windows and vacate the house before you call for service.
The most common cause of a major gas leak is knocking open a gas valve, or even damaging the pipe, while moving furniture. Be careful.
Overflowing toilet:
Naturally, you want to have a plunger handy to remove any clogs caused by toilet paper or other lightweight debris. If you can't stop the water from flowing, it probably indicates a stuck outlet valve. Lift the lid off the toilet tank and check to see why the tank ball or plug is not covering the round opening at the bottom of the tank. Push the ball or plug into the opening.
If the plug won't move, don't force it. Lifting the float arm will shut off the flow. Stretch a ruler or other long object across the top of the tank and position the float arm across it to keep it up in place. Then call the plumber.
If all else fails, turn off the shutoff valve to the toilet. It is usually located either behind the tank or underneath it.