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What's the life of a carbon monoxide detector?

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What's the life of a carbon monoxide detector? Mitch 04-28-2008
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Posted by ransley on April 28, 2008, 3:51 pm
On Apr 28, 12:38=A0pm, Mitch@_._ wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:43:24 GMT, Mitch@_._ wrote:
> >So I'm paranoid. =A0I'm going to go get a new CO detector.
>
> Came home with a new detector. =A0No alrams.
> But I'm curious, what are sources of CO in a home?

You have to let it operate 24 hours, a animal in a chimney, bad flue
pipes, bad furnace, defective heating cause it.

Posted by Phisherman on April 28, 2008, 3:55 pm
On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:38:52 GMT, Mitch@_._ wrote:

>On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:43:24 GMT, Mitch@_._ wrote:
>
>
>>So I'm paranoid. I'm going to go get a new CO detector.
>
>Came home with a new detector. No alrams.
>But I'm curious, what are sources of CO in a home?


Anything that has an internal combustion engine, gas appliances, or
anything that burns. There is a small amount of CO present in the air
and it is in equilibrium with carbon dioxide. Pouring water on hot
coals will produce a lot of CO.

Posted by SteveB on April 28, 2008, 6:13 pm

> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:43:24 GMT, Mitch@_._ wrote:
>
>
>>So I'm paranoid. I'm going to go get a new CO detector.
>
> Came home with a new detector. No alrams.
> But I'm curious, what are sources of CO in a home?

Hope you didn't screw up already. Did you buy one with the digital display
or not?

Lets say the threshold limit is 400 parts per million, or whatever it is for
CO.

Lets say you have a concentration of 389ppm. It's not going to alert. But
wouldn't you want to know if there was ANY CO around so you could find the
source before it got to bad levels. That's the problems with most of those
detectors. They usually go off after you're passed out. Even the properly
working ones with digital readouts will give you readings from traffic, a
car entering or leaving your garage, a wood stove that's perfectly vented,
and other things. But you do want to know what the level is before it
reaches the critical stage.

Steve



Posted by Pete C. on April 28, 2008, 5:00 pm

SteveB wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:43:24 GMT, Mitch@_._ wrote:
> >
> >
> >>So I'm paranoid. I'm going to go get a new CO detector.
> >
> > Came home with a new detector. No alrams.
> > But I'm curious, what are sources of CO in a home?
>
> Hope you didn't screw up already. Did you buy one with the digital display
> or not?
>
> Lets say the threshold limit is 400 parts per million, or whatever it is for
> CO.
>
> Lets say you have a concentration of 389ppm. It's not going to alert. But
> wouldn't you want to know if there was ANY CO around so you could find the
> source before it got to bad levels. That's the problems with most of those
> detectors. They usually go off after you're passed out. Even the properly
> working ones with digital readouts will give you readings from traffic, a
> car entering or leaving your garage, a wood stove that's perfectly vented,
> and other things. But you do want to know what the level is before it
> reaches the critical stage.
>
> Steve

You're not entirely correct. A CO detector with a digital display is
preferable for tracking intermittent sources and general peace of mind.
It is not true however that a detector is not going to alert for a CO
reading slightly under a threshold. CO detectors use a time weighted
alarm model and will alarm very fast for really high levels and with
more of a delay for lower levels. The threshold where they really won't
alarm at all is very low. The paperwork that comes with the detectors
generally lists the threshold levels and times, or you can find it on
the manufacturers sites.

Posted by Jerry on April 28, 2008, 5:10 pm

>
> Lets say the threshold limit is 400 parts per million, or whatever it is f=
or
> CO.
>

Good guess! The following is from the FirstAlert website:

Current UL Standard 2034 limits for CO alarms to sound are:
=95 30ppm for 30 days
=95 150ppm for 10-50 minutes
=95 70ppm for 60-240 minutes
=95 400ppm for 4-15 minutes

Any alarm that meets the UL standard needs to alarm at the above
cumulative levels.

As far as checking things out, I would think the Fire Department would
respond to a call to check for CO.

Jerry

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