Ovens and Carbon Monoxide

• Any appliance that uses an open flame produces carbon monoxide. In small amounts, carbon monoxide is not harmful to people or pets inside the home, but large amounts of carbon monoxide indoors can be harmful or even fatal to inhabitants of your home. Under normal usage, and so long as your oven is kept in proper maintenance, an oven will not produce enough carbon monoxide to endanger the people and animals in your home.
  
  

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

• Using the oven improperly, however, can produce a dangerous buildup of carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide poisoning is therefore the chief danger of using your oven to heat your home. To heat the home, the oven door is usually left open, meaning that carbon monoxide can easily escape the oven cavity and fill your home. Additionally, it takes quite some time for enough heat to escape the oven cavity to noticeably warm your home, and the longer an oven runs, the more carbon monoxide it will produce.
  
  

Other Hazards

• Carbon monoxide poisoning is not the only danger associated with using an oven to heat your home. Excess heat pouring out of the oven cavity presents a fire hazard for any open flame or flammable materials near the oven. If you leave the oven while the oven is running and the oven door is open, you may not even notice that something near the oven has caught fire.
  
  

Other Considerations

• It can be tempting to use an oven as an additional heat source for your home, either in the lack of a central heating system, to heat the home more quickly or for any other reason. But the risks associated with doing so far outweigh the comparatively low amount of heat that an oven can deliver. Rather than risk carbon monoxide poisoning or an indoor fire, use electric space heaters, fireplaces or other, safer heating alternative in lieu of using your oven.