It's clear how a water heater works and obviously gas has to be burning to create carbon monoxide but that is not the issue for me. Surely you would heat water in the morning when you needed it and not leave it heating all night.
Perhaps it's a water heater for the whole building, which is on all the time, and all the other condos were empty.
Seems strange to go to bed and leave a water heater on all night.
I've looked at water heaters in Mexican hardware stores. They look as if they're designed to be left on all the time. Depending upon the type, either the flow of gas is increased when: a faucet is opened and the water starts to flow through the tank, or: the temp of the stored water drops.
obviously gas has to be burning to create carbon monoxide
I didn't read any news articles that mentioned carbon monoxide; I read "toxic gases" and a "gas leak."
The only toxic gas a gas water heater can produce is carbon monoxide. If the cause was a different toxic gas then it couldn't have been the water heater.
Carbon monoxide has no odour whereas the smell of a gas leak is obvious.
Came across a facebook page (in Spanish) maintained by Fiscalía General del Estado de Quintana Roo at which there's a report about this and where photos have been added. The photos illustrate what the investigators were looking at/for.
https://www.facebook.com/FGEQuintanaRoo/posts/1964358203855282
LW
Seems strange to go to bed and leave a water heater on all night.
Water heaters are on 24/7 in Canada. They turn themselves off at a certain temperature, that you set. These are not new inventions.
Oh I see you're talking about heaters that maintain a permanent storage of hot water at a certain temperature. Those are quite old fashioned with "hot water on demand" heaters being the popular choice.
If that's the case though I'd have thought with the high heat in Tulum they wouldn't need to switch on so often to maintain the temperature. Dreadful whatever the cause.
Oh I see you're talking about heaters that maintain a permanent storage of hot water at a certain temperature. Those are quite old fashioned with "hot water on demand" heaters being the popular choice.
I don't think I'm wrong when I say that water heaters with storage tanks are what the vast majority of homes and apartments in Mexico and the USA are equipped with.; that they're the popular choice.
If that's the case though I'd have thought with the high heat in Tulum they wouldn't need to switch on so often to maintain the temperature.
Outdoor air temperature and the temperature indoor an air conditioned apartment are very different. Also, too, many tourists from NOB are accustomed to really hot water when bathing ... and want nothing less when traveling.
When I'm in Acapulco, for example (where it can get really hot for long periods), I rent an apartment from friends. Water is fed from building-top storage tanks, and the water in those tanks sit in the Sun throughout the day and gets very warm. Although the apartment has a storage tank type hot water heater ... I never turn it on. The water has always been warm enough to use out of the tap.
LW
I have seen "on-demand," also called "tankless" water heaters in Mexican hardware stores. Not common in Canada. But my point is that if they are gas-fed, they typically also have a pilot light, so the same hazard as tank hot water heaters.
By the way, I turn my electric-powered tank hot water heater on when I need it, 20 minutes or so is enough to heat the water in the tank, and then turn it off to save energy. But I know from talking to others that this is too much trouble for most consumers here.
