Maintenance of home whether small or big must involve the aspect of safety on the use of gas. No matter you employ it for heat, cooking, or hot water, knowing how to secure your family from the dangerous results. Stem from gas installation and covering your family from carbon monoxide poisoning is crucial. This guide is aimed to explain the major measures to keep your home gas secure.
Why Gas Safety is Important
Gas is one of the most efficient and cheaper ways through which energy can be produced. However, if not handled properly, it can pose serious dangers, including:
- Carbon monoxide poisoning: A colourless and tasteless gas which is lethal.
- Gas leaks: Leading to fires or/and explosion.
- Faulty appliances: Inducing health complications resulting from inefficient combustion.
These risks can however be greatly reduced provided that constant checks on the equipment. And machines are made together with proper maintenance.
Smoke Alarms
Smoke detector is crucial for avoiding additional casualties in cases of fire outbreaks. However, position a smoke alarm wasn’t present until.
Make sure that those alarms are working properly. Every single one of them must be tested weekly using the test button on the alarm/ And replace any smoke alarm at least once every ten years.
Depending on the manufacturer and model of the smoke alarm, change the batteries must be done annually. However, this should be replaced immediately if the low battery warning signal sounds.
11% of respondents said that they tested their smoke and carbon monoxide alarms weekly. While 25. 9% said they tested it monthly.
Smoke Alarm placement can be described in terms of effectivity. It is recommended to put the alarms in any place where there is danger of fire and in every floor of the house. The smoke alarms should be mounted on the ceiling or for the wall, it should be mounted high to increase the smoke.
Do not locate the alarms in the bathrooms/ kitchens; you should have a heat alarm in the kitchen. Because the smoke that comes out in the two is likely to harm the working of the smoke alarm. Do not place them near doors, fans and windows. So that the draughts will not blow the smoke out of reach of the detectors.
However, Long-life or ten-year sealed battery models mean less frequent change of the battery. Make sure the smoke alarms have the contemporary British Standards or the European Community (CE) symbol. Connect all smoke alarms, if possible, so they all go off if one detects smoke to alert everyone in the property.
Carbon Monoxide Alarms
If you cannot see, smell, or taste the highly poisonous fumes, then carbon monoxide is invisible and deadly. And it is for this reason it is referred to as the silent killer.
On average, 60 people die from carbon monoxide poisoning in England and wales annually. Still, a failure of a carbon monoxide detector can notify a leak so that you can act and avoid the danger of suffocating to death.
26.5% of the Brits said they do not have a carbon monoxide alarm in their current home.
If your home is heated by a fuel burning boiler, fire or stove, you should also have carbon monoxide alarm in every room where fuel is burnt. If a home is fully powered by electricity then they do not require this detector.
In any room where a fuel burning appliance is installed, install alarms which are type tested to, and carry the British or European approval mark, to BS EN50291. Landlords are
in any part of a room in a dwelling which is used for residential purposes where solid fuel is burned.
To make sure the alarms remind you of a carbon monoxide leak, maintain the detectors functional by checking them at least once a week.
And in the survey conducted only one-fourth of the people said that they move around checking the carbon monoxide detectors monthly. Unfortunately, 12.3% said that they had never tested the alarms and another 7.8% could not indicate the location of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Practices
Practice | Percentage of Respondents |
Test alarms weekly | 11% |
Test alarms monthly | 25.90% |
Do not own a carbon monoxide alarm | 26.50% |
Never tested alarms | 12.30% |
Check detector functionality monthly | 25% |
What are the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning?
It is also important that you or someone in the household know the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, which closely resemble common sicknesses such as flu, food poisoning or plain fatigue. Carbon monoxide poisoning does not produce a high temperature, as the flu does, for example.
Carbon monoxide exposure can lead to symptoms including:
- Tension headaches
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Breathlessness
- Tiredness and confusion
- Stomach pain
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Gas Appliances
A qualified Gas Safe engineer should also inspect all the gas installation appliances in your property. And do bi-yearly or yearly in order to help them function safely and efficiently. Some of these appliances can produce lethal gas, fire and explosion and carbon monoxide poisoning when they are faulty.
Regarding the respondents who had never had their gas appliances safety check in the previous one year. 15.1% said COVID because they do not wish people to enter their homes again. 11.1% of the respondents felt they did not need to do these safety checks while 8.8% could not afford to do a yearly gas safety check.
Other measures to use in enhancing the quality of gas appliances are to ensure that the appliance in use is right for the apply i.e not using an oven to heat a room.Nots covering or blocking the vents or chimneys.
Gases can leak and produce stench or, basically, an obvious sign of gas leakage. Yet, chemical content of profiles can trigger physical effects such as dizziness, nausea, and headaches.
