This evening a Union Gas tech came by and alerted me that he detected high levels of CO from the exhaust vent of my furnace. He explained that anything above 250 ppm is cause to have the appliance shut down as a safety issue. We went around the side and he measured the CO levels as I watched. His meter when so high it errored out, and there was a distinct odour that I hadn't smelt before. Due to this measurement, he was forced to issue an "A" tag and have the furnace turned off.
I asked him why he was even in the neighbourhood doing that. He explained that the odour was noticed by passers by on the street. One of these people called Union Gas, to they came out looking for the source. They identified my neighbour's house as a source, but while going around to the rear yard in between our houses, he noticed the same smell from my vent and took the measurements.
The tech speculated on the reasons, but mainly was saying the Carrier furnaces installed by Mattamy in 2003 (when my house was built) had issues with failures of the secondary heat exchanger, but it could also be something less dire as well. Nothing for certain from him as expected, so I have another A/C tech coming out tomorrow to check things out in more detail.
If it was anyone other than Union Gas, I'd think it was a scam (actually asked the tech this explicitly a couple of times!!).
Has anyone else in the neighbourhood had this experience? Any advice or thing to consider... I know the furnace is old, so it might be better just to replace it.
At least it's not -20 C this weekend... so there is that.
Cheers, Dean.
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