CO is odorless, colorless and tasteless; there-fore,
in order to detect its presence, technicians
should perform combustion tests (Figure 4) and
look for symptoms such as:
• Loose, corroded or disconnected vent-
ing system connections
6 National Oilheat Research Alliance
• Excessive moisture on the inside of
windows or walls
• Visible smoke in the living space
• Customer complaints about odors or
smoke in the building
• Carbon Monoxide alarm going off
• Soot on the unit
• Burner rumbling
• Soot streaks around the inspection port
• A sooted-up cad cell and/or drawer
assembly
• Coking at the nozzle or burner head
(after drip). Figure 5
Confined vs. Unconfined Space
When installing new
equipment, or trouble-shooting
existing equip-ment,
a determination
needs to be made whether
the equipment is installed
in a confined or uncon-fined
space, as defined in
NFPA 31.
The 2011 edition of
NFPA 31 (Figure 6) provides the following
definitions:
Figure 6
NFPA 31 cover.
Figure 5: Coking of oilburner nozzle.
Figure 4: Technician performs a smoke test with com-bustion
analysis results below.