sask power

SaskPower is reminding customers of ways they can protect themselves from carbon monoxide in their homes and businesses.

Doug Hird, Senior Engineer of Gas Codes and Standards for SaskPower, said the issue in the summer is people using a lot of exhaust fans to remove the heat out of their house, and moving all that air out of the house without any thought of where the replacement air is coming from is their concern.

"Most of us still have natural draft water heaters that rely on just the heat from the flame in the water heater to properly vent the carbon monoxide out of the house," explained Hird. "It can do so as long as the pressure inside the house is about the same as the pressure outside the house. But when people are using a lot of exhaust fans and drawing down the pressure of inside the house, then that causes these style of heaters to back draft. The air moves down the vent in the opposite direction that it's supposed to and that's why the carbon monoxide spills into the house."

As long as people operating exhaust fans open a window or somehow let enough fresh air into the house to replace that air that they're exhausting, their water heater should function properly.

Hird added that the only way to properly protect yourself is to have a functioning carbon monoxide detector.

Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are dizziness, blurred vision and sickness.

Hird said that if you go outside and start to feel better right away and your symptoms cease, that is a good indicator that the air inside the building is poisoned.

 

Shandra Ward's full interview with Doug Hird: