I have an old (probably 1940s) Wedgewood stove in my kitchen. A friend who supposedly knows about these things once said that the emissions from these old stoves are pretty bad. It’s got 5 pilots that are obviously burning all the time, the temperature inside the oven is 170 degrees even when it’s off, and it’s not vented. I never cared before but now have a baby in the apartment. Should I be concerned?
Bill
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I've often wondered the same. How much CO is in the air when we're cooking Thanksgiving dinner, running the stove and all burners for hours? To really answer your question you could get a CO detector and put it in the kitchen (near the floor) for a while and see if it goes off. Or, find someone with a gas sniffer who can tell you how many PPM there are.
Assuming the pilots are burning nice and blue, you're getting oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Any blue flame produces some--the nitrogen in the air is being burned (oxidized), along with the fuel.
NOx It's a respiratory irritant. Whether it's of concern, depends on how air tight the apartment is, and how big it is. In other words, how much the pollutant is diluted.
If the pilot gets gummed up, the pilot may burn yellow. That's incomplete combustion, and produces soot (unburned carbon from the fuel) and carbon monoxide. The yellow flame is the carbon glowing as it gets hot.
Either way, it's probably better not to expose a baby or child to those pollutants.
Cliff