Do I Need a Carbon Monoxide Detector?
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That’s a very good question, and my answer as a retired Gas Safe Registered engineer would always be: yes.
Here’s what I always told my customers — if you have a gas appliance installed in any room of your property, it’s advisable to fit a carbon monoxide detector in that room. Yes, modern gas appliances are built to far higher safety standards than in the past, but they can still develop problems nobody foresees.
As an example: if you cook with a gas appliance in the kitchen, fit a detector there. If your central heating boiler is in a cupboard on the landing, fit one there too.
Occasionally, a customer would say “isn’t that a bit over the top?” My answer was always the same: do you value yourself and your family’s life? I know that sounds a little blunt, but in reality, that’s genuinely what’s at stake. Sometimes you have to be direct for people to understand what could happen — and for a few pounds, a detector could save a life.
Over all my years in the trade, I only ever had one customer ask me to leave their property because they assumed I was just trying to sell them detectors — which was never the case. I’d only ever point people toward what to buy from their local hardware shop, nothing more.
Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer — you can’t see it, and you can’t smell it.
Signs you might be affected, without realising it:
- Headaches — have you noticed these more often than usual?
- Feeling dizzy, or a bit nauseous
- Symptoms that seem to appear specifically when a gas appliance is running — a boiler, a wall heater, anything gas-powered
It’s worth genuinely thinking back: do you only feel this way when a particular appliance is on?
If you believe this could be happening to you:
- Turn off every gas appliance immediately — don’t leave anything running, even if you’re mid-way through cooking dinner
- Isolate the gas meter if you’re able to
- Open as many windows and doors as possible to get fresh air moving through the property
- Get yourself and your family outside, into fresh air
- If anyone has severe symptoms — confusion, difficulty breathing, or has collapsed — call 999 immediately and ask for an ambulance. For less severe suspected exposure, call NHS 111 for advice.
- Call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 — this is the number to report a suspected gas or carbon monoxide problem, regardless of who supplies your gas. They’ll normally attend within the hour to safely disconnect your gas supply at the meter.
Once the gas supply’s been disconnected, you’ll be advised to contact a local Gas Safe registered engineer to diagnose and fix the actual fault before it’s reconnected.
What causes this, in my experience
Over my 50-plus years in the trade, I found that gas appliances not serviced regularly will eventually cause problems — most commonly, blocked flues on wall heaters and boilers.
Some of the causes I found blocking flues over the years:
- A neighbour building a shed or wall directly in front of the flue outlet
- Plants completely covering the flue outdoors — unless you knew it was there, you’d never spot it
- On one memorable job, a small bird had built a nest inside a boiler’s flue pipe, and the gas supply had already been disconnected as a safety precaution. The engineer who’d attended told the customer this happens quite often — birds apparently use the warmth to keep their eggs cosy. I couldn’t tell you if that’s strictly true, but the customer found it funny telling me about it, and so did I.
On disconnection during an emergency callout
Whichever service attends a suspected gas emergency, they’ll always disconnect the supply at the meter as standard practice — this protects them from liability for anything that might happen if they’d left it connected, and you’ll then be pointed toward a local Gas Safe registered engineer to fix the actual fault.
A hard truth from my years in this trade
The majority of people simply weren’t bothered about what could happen — most believed nothing would ever happen to them. As we all know, sometimes it does.
Modern detectors have moved on a lot
Today’s carbon monoxide detectors can connect to your home alarm system, or send an alert straight to your phone. One I always recommended to customers who already had a Nest thermostat installed was the Nest Protect, since it connects through the same app.
I’ve also put together a Carbon Monoxide Checklist you can download and keep handy — covering the warning signs and exactly what to do if you suspect a problem.
