Gas Stove Users - A Tip From My Heating Guy
Decorating By chocomama Updated 17 Nov 2006 , 7:04pm by doleta
If you have a gas stove and are doing a lot of baking at one time, my furnace guy recommends opening a window. Gas stoves put out carbon monoxide and having one on for a long period of time probably won't make you sick, but it may make you sleepy, esp. during the winter when your windows are likely to be closed. The same goes when cooking during the holidays. It's not just the turkey that makes you tired! 
(just joshing) 
That's why when we remodel we're putting in a powerful exhaust fan that vents to the outside!
Chocomama if your stove (oven) is putting off enough carbon monoxide to make you sleepy there is a problem with it. Get a carbon monoxide detector and the reading will tell you what you need to know. We have used gas all my life growing up and never had that problem but being that my best friends is an appliance repairman I do know that it is not something that should happen if the unit is working properly.
Right, and he reminded me to get a carbon monoxide detector, as well. My stove is only 2 years old, but when we moved in we found that it wasn't installed properly and we had a gas leak. We knew that b/c of the smell but you can't smell carbon monoxide. He told me to watch the levels on the detector when cooking a lot to make sure that everything is OK.
I just found this about using gas burners and I'm looking for more about oven use...
http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=6275443 {The Energy Citations Database (ECD) is designed and developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI)}
"It always has been assumed that only a small amount of CO will be produced by a gas stove when mixture of air and gas are well adjusted and that that small amount will be dissipated by the home`s ventilation and by a combination of a fan and hood over the stove.^However, preparation of meals may substantially increase CO.^The immediate air supply may be progressively diminished when more than one burner is used and air supply may be partially cut off by vessels placed over the gas flame.^The purpose of this investigation was to determine the amount of CO that may be expected to be produced during normal cooking.^The experiment measured CO levels, using multiple burners with and without cooking vessels, and the rate of dissipation of the accumulated gas under various conditions of ventilation.^An increase in CO occurred when using 1 to 4 covered and uncovered burners.^The rate of increase is sharply linear for the period of cooking and depends on the number of burners used.^Placing a pan over the flame substantially increases the rate of CO production."
Wow Chocomama. I'm glad my daughter gave us a CO2 detector. We have it in our kitchen.
FYI (I'm a nurse) one of the symptoms of CO2 poisoning is flu-like symptoms.
It's the last thing people think of...hence the reason for so many deaths. Kinda scary.
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