Hvac School - For Techs, By Techs

David Richardson from NCI returns to the podcast to talk about why CO (carbon monoxide) doesn't leak and what it does instead. CO is a highly dangerous gas that is colorless and odorless, and we can keep ourselves safe by staying aware of it with personal low-level CO monitors. However, CO doesn't leak; it spills, especially via backdrafting, a blocked flue, or updrafting. Whenever the flue gas comes back inside the structure unintentionally, there is room for a potential CO problem. With proper testing, we can determine the cause of that spillage and make the best choice to stop it from happening. When there is an excessive draft, there's often turbulence in the draft hoods, which leads to spillage. Spillage commonly happens at the draft hood, but it can also happen near the burner compartment of a gas appliance. Smoke tests won't detect that, but CO testing will. However, we need to look for rising CO levels over the run cycle of the equipment. If you test CO levels in the ducts, you're only seeing how the