Re: [AirstreamList] security

["Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer" <geraldj@xxxxxxxx>]

Well, I have another SOB camper that's parked at my farm, where I use it
for naps, and meals while working on projects there. One fall I wanted
to watch the custom operator combine the place and did a bunch of field
walking picking a bushel or more of poorly shelled ears of corn which I
hand shelled. To be there early, I decided (ahead of time) to sleep over
and it was cool enough to need heat. I first installed new CO and smoke
detectors. This SOB is rotting at the walls and while I've not checked,
I think the furnace has become disconnected from the vents or the heat
exchanger has rusted through. Anyway about 4 AM the CO detector went
off. I had the classic CO headache and metallic taste and abandoned the
camper turning off the furnace and drove home (about 8 miles). It was
good that there was not traffic because I needed both lanes of two lane
roads. I won't try that furnace again. I'll probably turn that SOB into
a cargo trailer in the next year or two.

CO is particularly vicious stuff, its effects are not often noticed, but
it displaces oxygen from the blood leading to asphyxiation. Generally it
kills at least one family in Iowa every blizzard. I've had a furnace
stack plug and try to get me during a blizzard, and had a VW beetle with
leaking heater that fed me CO on one occasion (or more) that lead to a
collision from bad judgement. And just a couple years ago I detected CO
from the house furnace and made the landlord replace it or I'd have let
the house freeze. My next house won't have combustion appliances.
Electric heat to supplement solar won't be cheap, but saving the cost of
the furnace should pay for about ten years of electric heat bills.

Gerald J.