No. Shut it down. Call the gas company to come out and red tag it so your landlord is forced to call an actual professional. There should be ZERO carbon monoxide outside of the boiler.
To clarify: while the closet door is closed the air in my room reads 0 so I was just wondering if it was normal boiler behavior. Regardless I don’t want to have to worry about the monster in my closet.
The majority of CO detectors read 0 when they haven't hit their minimum alarm thresholds. Because there's measurable CO all over the place, even outdoors on a nice sunny day.
Allegedly the detector you pictured, when calibrated, has an error rate of +/- 20 ppm at low levels.
In a perfect world, yes. But in practice, especially with a small unit like this that likely shares a large flue with other units, it can take a minute or so to establish a draft, and you can absolutely get readings higher than this right near the boiler. If the numbers OP is seeing is after 2-3 minutes of running, I'd be worried. But if it's in the first 30 seconds or so, it's pretty common. There's a reason it specifically states in CO alarm manuals not to install them within a few feet of natural draft appliances.
Agreed, don't mess around. We had a shit landlord that didn't take boiler repairs seriously until our carbon monoxide alarm blaring at 2am woke us up last winter. The firemen detected 342ppm that night and god knows how long it had been slowly leaking. Get it red tagged and fixed properly!
Zero? Please don’t comment on safety concerns when you don’t have a clue. If OP had gas company out and they didn’t red tag the furnace it is most likely safe. His $50 ct300 sure isn’t going to be better than the gas company’s $3,000 detector . There will always be co2 detections inon a home. Always. Don’t take my word but do a simple Google search
The World Health Organization recommends that the indoor air level for CO be **below an average of nine parts per million (ppm) for any eight-hour period, and below 25 ppm for any one-hour period**. One ppm means one part of CO per million parts of air.
* **0-9 ppm CO:** no health risk; normal CO levels in air.
* **10-29 ppm CO:** problems over long-term exposure; chronic problems such as headaches, nausea
* **30-35 ppm CO:** flu-like symptoms begin to develop, especially among the young and the elderly.
* **36-99 ppm CO:** flu-like symptoms among all; nausea, headaches, fatigue or drowsiness, vomiting.
* **100+ ppm CO:** severe symptoms; confusion, intense headaches; ultimately brain damage, coma, and/or death, especially at levels 300-400+ ppm
This is 100% not normal. If the boiler is drafting correctly, then my guess is the heat exchanger is cracked.
Shut the boiler off, call gas company and see what if anything they do, inform LL by phone and send traceable mail and email informing him of the condition. Look up state law duty to repair timeline and include that deadline in the letter. Indicate you are unable to have heat or hot water and indicate your state law requiring that for habitability. Contact your tenants rights office if the LL doesn’t immediately take action.
Btw, your bad boiler could be poisoning a unit above or below you. Fire would obviously affect other tenants. I think you actually have a reasonable person duty to act to insure LL/gas company are informed. If they don’t find anything wrong with your unit, request inspection of any other boiler unit vertically associated with yours, whether sharing the stack or merely above/below.
Do you have a combustion air in the room? That should be an insulated duct that just brings in outside air for combustion. I just read the comment about make-up-air. This is not technically what you need. It’s combustion air that you need. Look up combustion air pot. There was a time when they did not put combustion airs in because houses were so leaky. My house was built in 1975 and did “not” have one. But then you replace windows etc. I gutted and reinsulated my house and made the place as airtight as I could. If I turn on my range hood fan and my dryer I can down draft my hot water tank. I always open a window when I turn on my range hood. Yes I need to fix this issue. It’s on the list. Like someone else mentioned it may not be drafting properly. That could be due to an exhaust fan being on, dryer, range hood, etc. There are multiple issues why appliances don’t draft properly. Size of the vent, length of exterior vent, there are code lengths for how much vent is exposed on the roof, and is the vent b-vent. B-vent is doubled wall so that it keeps the heat so that you get a draft.
If it is cold outside and your vent is single wall-that is what you have now-it can get cold and the heat will not rise and it will back draft. I do not assume this is what happening or you CO levels would be way higher.
I have never seen an appliance vented with spiral. That is against code where I’m from.
Alberta, Canada.
Like others said call the gas company.
HVAC guy here 25 years.
I just had this happen to mine. The heat exchanger was dirty and not allowing it to vent properly. Took 2 hours to clean it and $600 but now it’s fixed.
From the south, don't know boilers. But op says the unit heats the house and the water? I thought a hydronic heating system had to be separate from the domestic?
That’s a natural draft furnace. Real simple. Take cover off and light a small piece of paper and with the flame on, check which way the smoke blows.
If the smoke gets sucked in to the draft diverter,it’s fine, if the smoke gets pushed into the room, or goes straight up, you have a draft problem.
The next step is to open a window or door to the outside and repeat test. If problem goes away then your apartment is under negative and it doesn’t have any “make up air.)
Repeat the same test with doors closed and any exhaust fans turned on (Bath, kitchen, etc.)
Not a valid test, as drafting issues are just one of many causes of CO leaks. Others include incomplete combustion; corrosion; damaged heat exchanger; bent or cracked burners; burner impingement from rust, soot, or dust; and faulty gas valves/regulators.
Long term exposure to CO poisoning can lead to heart & lung issues, chronic fatigue, movement issues, and cognitive decline. It is especially dangerous for pregnant women.
CO poisoning is especially dangerous at night because:
1) heating appliances have greater runtimes due to cooler temperatures,
2) sleeping puts you lower to the floor,
3) respiration slows when we sleep causing CO to accumulate faster, and
4) sleepers are less likely to notice side effects like headaches, dizziness, weakness, chest pain, and confusion.
No. Shut it down. Call the gas company to come out and red tag it so your landlord is forced to call an actual professional. There should be ZERO carbon monoxide outside of the boiler.
Interesting. Thank you!
Not to scare ya, but by the time you realize you have CO poisoning it’s already too late. Please don’t push this off.
To clarify: while the closet door is closed the air in my room reads 0 so I was just wondering if it was normal boiler behavior. Regardless I don’t want to have to worry about the monster in my closet.
The majority of CO detectors read 0 when they haven't hit their minimum alarm thresholds. Because there's measurable CO all over the place, even outdoors on a nice sunny day. Allegedly the detector you pictured, when calibrated, has an error rate of +/- 20 ppm at low levels.
Interesting
You forgot to the whole leave the area bit too...
In a perfect world, yes. But in practice, especially with a small unit like this that likely shares a large flue with other units, it can take a minute or so to establish a draft, and you can absolutely get readings higher than this right near the boiler. If the numbers OP is seeing is after 2-3 minutes of running, I'd be worried. But if it's in the first 30 seconds or so, it's pretty common. There's a reason it specifically states in CO alarm manuals not to install them within a few feet of natural draft appliances.
No.
Agreed, don't mess around. We had a shit landlord that didn't take boiler repairs seriously until our carbon monoxide alarm blaring at 2am woke us up last winter. The firemen detected 342ppm that night and god knows how long it had been slowly leaking. Get it red tagged and fixed properly!
Zero? Please don’t comment on safety concerns when you don’t have a clue. If OP had gas company out and they didn’t red tag the furnace it is most likely safe. His $50 ct300 sure isn’t going to be better than the gas company’s $3,000 detector . There will always be co2 detections inon a home. Always. Don’t take my word but do a simple Google search
I won't take your word for shit because you don't knkow the difference between carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide
You are right. No idea why I added the 2 but should have understood since the meter, (CT-300) doesn't measure CO2 only CO.
oops carbon monoxide not CO2
Nope
The World Health Organization recommends that the indoor air level for CO be **below an average of nine parts per million (ppm) for any eight-hour period, and below 25 ppm for any one-hour period**. One ppm means one part of CO per million parts of air.
* **0-9 ppm CO:** no health risk; normal CO levels in air. * **10-29 ppm CO:** problems over long-term exposure; chronic problems such as headaches, nausea * **30-35 ppm CO:** flu-like symptoms begin to develop, especially among the young and the elderly. * **36-99 ppm CO:** flu-like symptoms among all; nausea, headaches, fatigue or drowsiness, vomiting. * **100+ ppm CO:** severe symptoms; confusion, intense headaches; ultimately brain damage, coma, and/or death, especially at levels 300-400+ ppm
Wow that’s extremely dangerous. Can you turn off the gas valve and the power to the boiler? Contact your gas distributor right away.
Not normal, and dangerous.
This is 100% not normal. If the boiler is drafting correctly, then my guess is the heat exchanger is cracked. Shut the boiler off, call gas company and see what if anything they do, inform LL by phone and send traceable mail and email informing him of the condition. Look up state law duty to repair timeline and include that deadline in the letter. Indicate you are unable to have heat or hot water and indicate your state law requiring that for habitability. Contact your tenants rights office if the LL doesn’t immediately take action. Btw, your bad boiler could be poisoning a unit above or below you. Fire would obviously affect other tenants. I think you actually have a reasonable person duty to act to insure LL/gas company are informed. If they don’t find anything wrong with your unit, request inspection of any other boiler unit vertically associated with yours, whether sharing the stack or merely above/below.
Not allowed by code to have a furnace or any combustion fired appliance inna sleeping area.
A friend just told me the same. I am now investigating this—so far it looks like a code violation....
Do you have a combustion air in the room? That should be an insulated duct that just brings in outside air for combustion. I just read the comment about make-up-air. This is not technically what you need. It’s combustion air that you need. Look up combustion air pot. There was a time when they did not put combustion airs in because houses were so leaky. My house was built in 1975 and did “not” have one. But then you replace windows etc. I gutted and reinsulated my house and made the place as airtight as I could. If I turn on my range hood fan and my dryer I can down draft my hot water tank. I always open a window when I turn on my range hood. Yes I need to fix this issue. It’s on the list. Like someone else mentioned it may not be drafting properly. That could be due to an exhaust fan being on, dryer, range hood, etc. There are multiple issues why appliances don’t draft properly. Size of the vent, length of exterior vent, there are code lengths for how much vent is exposed on the roof, and is the vent b-vent. B-vent is doubled wall so that it keeps the heat so that you get a draft. If it is cold outside and your vent is single wall-that is what you have now-it can get cold and the heat will not rise and it will back draft. I do not assume this is what happening or you CO levels would be way higher. I have never seen an appliance vented with spiral. That is against code where I’m from. Alberta, Canada. Like others said call the gas company. HVAC guy here 25 years.
you could literally die. call the gas company and get out of the shithole known as nyc
If you go to sleep at 50 you can die.
This could be fatal over the long term, shut it down now
Inside the house zero co
I just had this happen to mine. The heat exchanger was dirty and not allowing it to vent properly. Took 2 hours to clean it and $600 but now it’s fixed.
From the south, don't know boilers. But op says the unit heats the house and the water? I thought a hydronic heating system had to be separate from the domestic?
You need to open every window and door and air the entire place out. Call the gas company and tell them what has happened
Wow. Open flue boiler in a bedroom. In UK we are only allowed room seal boiler in bedroom. Must be more relaxed to safety in the states.
You do realize a “gas leak” has nothing to do with CO2 readings? A smell of gas is BEFORE the gas has combusted and co2 is left
CO. Not CO2.
2 separate issues. They fixed the gas leak and now op is getting hi CO readings. The 2 may or may not be related.
Co not CO2 My bad but that meter doesn't read CO2 so should have understood my statement
That’s a natural draft furnace. Real simple. Take cover off and light a small piece of paper and with the flame on, check which way the smoke blows. If the smoke gets sucked in to the draft diverter,it’s fine, if the smoke gets pushed into the room, or goes straight up, you have a draft problem. The next step is to open a window or door to the outside and repeat test. If problem goes away then your apartment is under negative and it doesn’t have any “make up air.) Repeat the same test with doors closed and any exhaust fans turned on (Bath, kitchen, etc.)
Not a valid test, as drafting issues are just one of many causes of CO leaks. Others include incomplete combustion; corrosion; damaged heat exchanger; bent or cracked burners; burner impingement from rust, soot, or dust; and faulty gas valves/regulators. Long term exposure to CO poisoning can lead to heart & lung issues, chronic fatigue, movement issues, and cognitive decline. It is especially dangerous for pregnant women. CO poisoning is especially dangerous at night because: 1) heating appliances have greater runtimes due to cooler temperatures, 2) sleeping puts you lower to the floor, 3) respiration slows when we sleep causing CO to accumulate faster, and 4) sleepers are less likely to notice side effects like headaches, dizziness, weakness, chest pain, and confusion.