Episode Details

The Silent Killers in Your Home | Episode 586

Good morning. It’s 45 degrees, I’m dragging butt, and today we’re talking about something that quietly kills a lot of people every year.

Carbon dioxide. Smoke. Ventilation. The invisible stuff.

This isn’t sexy prepping. This is boring, basic, “why are we even talking about this?” prepping.

Because a $20 device can literally save your life.

Carbon Dioxide: The Cheap Life Insurance You’re Ignoring

I was scrolling headlines this morning and saw another story about deaths from carbon dioxide poisoning. It happens every single year. A lot.

And here’s the stupid part — a CO₂ detector costs like twenty bucks.

Even if you don’t run a propane heater, even if you think your house is “fine,” they’re cheap enough that not owning one is just negligence.

Modern homes are airtight. That’s great for energy efficiency. It’s not great if something is off-gassing inside.

We run:

• A Mr. Buddy propane backup heater

• On-demand propane hot water

Both can introduce CO₂ into the air.

Under normal conditions? Fine.

Crank the flame too high? It absolutely spikes. We’ve set ours off before. We’ve seen it climb toward 150 parts per million. The alarm goes off, we crack windows, levels drop.

If we didn’t have the monitor? We’d have no clue.

That’s the scary part. Without a detector, you literally do not know.

Backup Heat Means Backup Monitoring

If you’re running any kind of propane heater — especially in winter — this is not optional.

Yes, some heaters have built-in shutoff sensors. The Mr. Buddy claims it will shut itself off if CO₂ gets too high.

Cool.

I still want my own monitor.

That’s a belt-and-suspenders situation. Redundancy matters when the failure mode is “you don’t wake up.”

Also: crack a window. It feels counterintuitive when you’re trying to heat a space, but fresh air matters.

Smoke Detectors: The Highest ROI Device in Your House

Listen Now