Not so long ago a customer of mine mentioned she’d get headaches as the weather go colder. As soon as it did, she’d turn her furnace on they would begin. What she thought were just headaches from allergies, was something much more dangerous. It all made sense. There was a crack in her furnace’s heat exchanger that had been leaking CO (Carbon Monoxide) for what I suspected many years.
Thankfully nothing major other than her headaches did not turn out to be a tragedy. Unfortunately accidental carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning causes approximately 2100 deaths in the United States per year, but the use of CO detectors could potentially prevent many of these deaths…but in this occasion the CO detectors in my customer’s did not go off. Part of it may have been that there were only CO detectors near their bedrooms but not in the basement where the unit was in.
It is important to do have your unit be diagnosed at least once a year to make sure everything is working properly. Doing a yearly tune up not only can extend the life of your unit but in this instance it can impact your livelihood if a major issue goes unnoticed.