Is a gas heating stove as bad as a gas cooktop?
October 30, 2024 6:42 AM Subscribe
I live in a very small house primarily heated by this gas stove, which runs on natural gas (not propane). Is this is as bad for my health as a gas cookstove? It's vented directly to the outdoors. If I should be worried, is there a reasonable way to test for pollutants? I've always assumed it's probably no worse than a gas furnace but now I'm a little concerned.
I would get a battery operated carbon monoxide detector for the room the "gas stove" is in, to detect malfunction. Otherwise it's not comparable to a gas cooktop, which dumps its combustion gasses right where you are using it and presumably breathing.
Do you have a smoke detector in the same room?
posted by the Real Dan at 7:57 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]
Do you have a smoke detector in the same room?
posted by the Real Dan at 7:57 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I have a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector but I guess I am wondering if the other byproducts (benzene etc.) would be harmful at lower levels, where there might not be enough CO to set off a detector, but I have no idea how those things correlate. I also wonder about things that might mess up the flow of exhaust, like the super windy days we get.
posted by HotToddy at 8:31 AM on October 30
posted by HotToddy at 8:31 AM on October 30
You could get a VOC detector. The ones that are reasonable price won't show you which VOC but will show you total VOCs. I would recommend one, but I haven't used any of the commercially available ones just hacked something together with a Raspberry Pi & sensor.
posted by gregr at 9:26 AM on October 30
posted by gregr at 9:26 AM on October 30
I guess I am wondering if the other byproducts (benzene etc.) would be harmful at lower levels
A flued gas fire isn't going to add detectable amounts of benzene to your living space. For a start, the flue takes the combustion products outside as everybody else has said. For seconds, benzene is a product of partial combustion. Gas cooktops can make it when partially combusted fuel/air mixtures get cooled by contact with pots and pans (sooty marks left under the saucepans are the tell for this), but the interior of a gas firebox is going to be designed to promote complete combustion for best efficiency. Any benzene it makes along the way will just burn.
Even with a gas cooktop, benzene is only a minor pollutant compared to the nitrogen oxides that are made when anything gets burnt in air.
I also wonder about things that might mess up the flow of exhaust, like the super windy days we get.
If the flames inside your stove are not visibly being bashed about by gusts, the flue is extracting the exhaust gases as it should.
There will be certain wind conditions that swirl the exhaust stream from the flue back down to ground level, and if you go outside when that's happening, you'll occasionally smell them. If you're not smelling that same smell inside your house, you're not copping anywhere near the dose of combustion products you'd get from a gas cooktop or oven.
posted by flabdablet at 9:31 AM on October 30 [2 favorites]
A flued gas fire isn't going to add detectable amounts of benzene to your living space. For a start, the flue takes the combustion products outside as everybody else has said. For seconds, benzene is a product of partial combustion. Gas cooktops can make it when partially combusted fuel/air mixtures get cooled by contact with pots and pans (sooty marks left under the saucepans are the tell for this), but the interior of a gas firebox is going to be designed to promote complete combustion for best efficiency. Any benzene it makes along the way will just burn.
Even with a gas cooktop, benzene is only a minor pollutant compared to the nitrogen oxides that are made when anything gets burnt in air.
I also wonder about things that might mess up the flow of exhaust, like the super windy days we get.
If the flames inside your stove are not visibly being bashed about by gusts, the flue is extracting the exhaust gases as it should.
There will be certain wind conditions that swirl the exhaust stream from the flue back down to ground level, and if you go outside when that's happening, you'll occasionally smell them. If you're not smelling that same smell inside your house, you're not copping anywhere near the dose of combustion products you'd get from a gas cooktop or oven.
posted by flabdablet at 9:31 AM on October 30 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Okay, thank you all for putting my mind at ease!
posted by HotToddy at 11:22 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]
posted by HotToddy at 11:22 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]
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posted by pullayup at 7:01 AM on October 30 [3 favorites]