Not only Money saved - Carbon Monovide Detector may have saved our lives!!

foreign_correspondent

Just feel I should post this on here; I am currently living in the netherlands, but on a recent visit home I heard on the news about the very sad case of the british family on holiday (in corfu?) who were poisoned by carbon monoxide.
Having just rented out my own house in england to tenants, and duly paid out for gas safety checks etc, I began to wonder if this was the case in the flat I was renting in NL.

I decided I would buy an Carbon Monoxide alarm to be on the safe side, as the gas fire looks relatively old. I looked on here, and bought one for less than £20 from Wilko's. I installed it a few weeks ago, in the living room. We have used the gas fire on many occasions since, and the alarm has not sounded, so I figured the fire was probably fine.

However, on friday evening my OH and I came in after popping down to the shops. A few minutes after our return, the CO monitor went off!! I grabbed it and read the instructions which were basically, open the windows, get out and call the gas supplier. OH said 'oh stop over-reacting, what levels do those things go off at anyway?' - so I told him to get outside and help me call the gas supplier!

The Gas supplier (eneco) sent out a technician with a CO monitor - he put the fire on and said 'no, its fine, maybe your monitor is faulty' - I said 'I think not, its new' - he then went and tested the geyser in the ikitchen, which looks relatively new - the monitor went up to 600 ppm in less than a minute of the appliance being switched on - a level which is life threatening after 2-3 hours!!

We had been sleeping in the room next to this for several weeks, and I have often been in the small kitchen, cooking and cleaning, with the geyser on.
I think we are very fortunate to have bought an alarm, and I would strongly recommend anyone with gas appliances t do the same. A word of caution from my experience though - we had installed it in the same room as the gas fire as it looked to be quite old and cronky, and not even worried about the small innoculous looking geyser in the kitchen - so the CO had to pass through 2 rooms before it reached the alarm and sounded it.

Had we been asleep in the room nect to the kitchen, with the door shut, it may well have affected us before sounding the monitor - so I would strongly advise fitting one in every room with an appliance!!

The monitor I have I would recommend model Ei 204EN, was less than £20 from wilko, also seen it online, and surprisingly, made in britain! I believe it saved my life - £20 well spent!

Also, I would like your advice - does anyone know anything about dutch law? I understand we rent our appliances from the gas suppier (Eneco) - so i dont know whose responsibility it is to ensure they are safe, Eneco's, the landlords, or the tenants? I feel I should give someone a telling off but dont know who!!

sallywl

Glad to hear you werent hurt by the CO, and that you £20 was well spent

Sorry to be stupid but whats a geyser!!!

tawnyowls

Eeek! How lucky were you. I bet you'll thank whoever from that day for the rest of your life.

I've got one of these wired into the mains of our house, but I think I might just buy another one to be sure.

I would have thought it should be landlord's responsibility, but it might be different under Dutch law. You should speak to your letting agent, or if you don't have one, ring one up and ask.

foreign_correspondent

thanks, I feel lucky to be alive to be honest!

Sally - a geyser is either an 'arfur daley' sort of chap, (sorry!! couldnt resist) or (in our case) a small wall mounted gas water heater that heats the water as it passes through it. It provides hot water for our shower and kitchen. I guess its pretty much the same as a small combi boiler?

hope that makes sense! Anyway, most of the time it only has a small pilot light on, looks quite new and clean, and I didnt think it was at all likely to be faulty or to create so much carbon monoxide!

foreign_correspondent

hi,

Just a follow up, wondering if anyone can advise... apparently the geyser is leased from the gas company (eneco) who have agreed to replace it.... on the 6th december!!

I have argued that I am unhappy with this, as their faulty geyser almost killed us, and we are now unable to use it and have NO hot water at all, for pot washing, showers etc!

I asked them if it was their responsibility to do safety checks on their appliances, they said they had tried to contact the owner in the summer to arrange one but no luck. (the building we live in was only bought by our landlord recently, just before we moved in, so i think they may have tried to contact the last owner)

Surely they should have arranged one with us when we became customers and started our new account with them?

Does anyone know where we stand with this, and who we could contact for help! I really feel the gas company is being unfairn and should make the boiler safe and useable asap. However, being foreign over here, and not knowing the laws, I dont know where to start!

thanks
x