Pete C. wrote:
Robert Gammon wrote:

Carbon monoxide deaths related to natural gas furnaces at 28 per year, I
wonder what the break down is with age of the furnace.

Used to be we had pilot lights. Pilot lights came equipped with
thermometer that kept the gas off unless the pilot was on. Point of
use failure causing death was then attributable to a thermometer failure
that allowed gas to flow with out a pilot. This was the design in
place 30 years ago, I do not know what preceeded it. I had gas valves
fail, but then it just got cold, no excess gas flowed. I had a
termometer fail, but again it just got cold, no excess gas flowed

Now we have hot surface igniters, much like gas ovens do. No pilot,
but the hot surface MUST reach a proscribed temperature, measured by a
thermometer before the gas will flow. I had an igniter fail in a
stove. Stove stayed cold, no excess gas flowed. Replace the igniter
and all works well.

Natural gas has been safely piped to millions of homes nationwide for
decades. The risk of injury or death due to natural gas incidents is
far far lower than the risks you take every day to drive your car, ride
in an airplane, eat out at a fast food restaurant........


Note that what you just mentioned pilots and igniters relates to gas
explosions (and possible resulting deaths), not CO.

CO deaths are a result of poor combustion adjustment combined with flue
leakage, both of which have a higher probability with a gas furnace due
to:

1) People believing that a gas furnace does not require annual
inspections / service. This creates a greater probability of the furnace
falling into disrepair and the poor adjustment and leakage forming.

2) The fact that while CO has no small and is therefore not detectable
by humans, the other combustion byproducts produced by a burner
sufficiently out of adjustment that it produces significant CO are much
more human detectable with oil than with nat. gas.

People can and do die from CO poisoning from both gas and oil
appliances, but gas is a greater risk both from it's characteristics and
from the larger number of potential appliances (ever hear of an oil
stove or dryer?).

When you look at deaths due to non CO cause i.e. fires and explosions,
gas is by far the greater risk as there is essentially no such thing as
an oil explosion and oil spills rarely find a suitable ignition source
unlike gas leaks.

And I'm quite aware that the risk of death from either gas or oil is
vastly lower than that from driving a car. I'm not so sure about the
airplane though as there are more gas explosions each year in the US
than plane crashes. The total deaths numbers will be higher with each
airplane crash of course being in the 100+ range per incident vs. 1 or
2.

Pete C.

And i think that the biggest single risk with gas furnaces is the lack
of annual inspections. The heat exchanger walls rust thru, then
combustion products fill the house, and CO death results. I expect that
THIS is the SINGLE largest cause of gas heat deaths in the US. Worker
leaving a rag in the flue is a very low probability event.

The issue for lots of folks is that replacing the furnace is the
solution to a heat exchanger leak and that is HORRIBLY expensive. Many
simply do not have the money to make it happen, so they die of CO poisoning.

My parents had an oil burner most of their lives. I remember the smell.

Natural gas or Propane for me.