Sometimes I turn the oven up to like 450° and leave the door open to warm up the kitchen.

That's a good way to wake up dead.

Dr. Venkman wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:Sometimes I turn the oven up to like 450° and leave the door open to warm up the kitchen.

NO!!

"A gas oven or range top should never be used for heating," he said. "A fire could start and poisonous carbon monoxide fumes could fill the home. Any fuel-burning heating equipment (fireplaces, furnaces, water heaters, space or portable heaters), generators and chimneys can produce carbon monoxide."

According to information from the National Fire Protection Association, there is an increased risk of dying in a home fire during the winter season. December, January and February are generally the deadliest months for fire.

i did this too last night - i turned the oven off before i went to bed, but while i was awake i sat next to it with its door open, heat up to 500 degrees. how exactly does the fire start from this? weird drafts? careless dangling of scarves and body parts? seemed safe to me, but that's never a good indicator of actual safety...

hench wrote:currently 55 degrees. not too bad given that it's 8 degrees outside (windchill of -5).

Funny - this was my Girlfriend and I yesterday as well. Although the temperature was about 25 with wind of about 25mph (and a drafty fucking house), we woke up to a balmy 57. Turns out we were out of oil - since the fuckwhit landlord decided to lock the door to the oil tank (it sits in a little shed on the side of the house), and not give us the key. After a bit of crowbar action, we were able to fill and get the much needed heat. Last nite it dropped down into the teens with the winds about the same as the night before, it would have been not so fun.

My CO detector (I think) has gone off twice in the last few days. Both times when I was taking a shower.

I know steam is basically water droplets, and steam sometimes sets off smoke detectors. Does it do the same to CO detectors?

After it went off the first time a few days ago (only for about 10 seconds or so) I opened the windows, and replaced the battery because I thought perhaps it needed to be changed.

This morning, while I was in the shower, it went off again, for a longer period of time.

I couldn't climb up to see if it was the CO detector or the smoke alarm that is over my bedroom door. In any case, this has never happened to me in the 10 years I have lived in this place, and in the (I guess) 4 years I have had a CO alarm.

This might be a stupid question, but if I have steam-heat radiators, could they be part of the problem?

burun wrote:My CO detector (I think) has gone off twice in the last few days. Both times when I was taking a shower.

I know steam is basically water droplets, and steam sometimes sets off smoke detectors. Does it do the same to CO detectors?

After it went off the first time a few days ago (only for about 10 seconds or so) I opened the windows, and replaced the battery because I thought perhaps it needed to be changed.

This morning, while I was in the shower, it went off again, for a longer period of time.

I couldn't climb up to see if it was the CO detector or the smoke alarm that is over my bedroom door. In any case, this has never happened to me in the 10 years I have lived in this place, and in the (I guess) 4 years I have had a CO alarm.

This might be a stupid question, but if I have steam-heat radiators, could they be part of the problem?

Nah, your radiator's shouldn't have anything to do with it. Not sure what it could be, but if it happens only when you shower, it could be the steam, I guess. My advice: stop showering.
Maybe your CO detector is shot. Try replacing it and see if it stops.

My second year of university if you aren't an American or college if you are American, I went to school in Stevens Point. My roommate was an ex-beauty pageant girly girl and listened to shitty music and had a boyfriend who was always around, so I mostly stayed at my friends Matt and Chris' upstairs house apartment with our friend Jeff, who also hated living in the dorms.

Matt decided that, in order to save money, the heat would not be turned on during the winter. At all.

The only thing that heated the upstairs was the heat rising from the neighbour's apartment. Chris had an electric blanket and I'm pretty certain the only reason he and I briefly dated was out of my desire to not freeze to death in an unheated slum in Northern Central Wisconsin. Before that, I would sleep on one of the couches under many layers of blankets with Jeff on the other couch, and we'd usually wake up shivering and able to see our own breath in the air.

They made it the entire winter without heat in Wisconsin, apart from about 15 minutes when our friend Sean "accidentally" bumped against the thermostat while visiting. I left Point after the Fall semester and returned to Green Bay, where I miraculously recovered from my pneumonia and upper respiratory infection with the addition of heat and normalcy.

burun wrote:My CO detector (I think) has gone off twice in the last few days. Both times when I was taking a shower.

You could have a malfunctioning water heater, which would explain why it goes off hen showering. Where is the CO detector? Closer to the bathroom or the water heater?

I live in an apartment, so the water heater is downstairs, in the basement.

I am on the third floor.

Ah yes, didn't know you were living in the penthouse. Steam can set off a smoke detector but not CO. If it is actually your CO detector, I 'm stumped

Not rich enough for the penthouse yet.

I am sort of worried/sort of not worried. I don't feel differently than I usually do, the pilot lights on my oven are lit, etc.

On the other hand I would be totally unsurprised if there was some kind of noxious stuff venting into my apartment somehow.

If it happens again, I'm going to have someone from the FD come and check, or whatever you are supposed to do.