PEP BB homesteading.sand.little.monoxide - Install a CO Detector

I have put this off far too long. As a firefighter, I should know better.

When installing your detector please remember two things - your insurance or local building code may have ideas on the best place to install it which may not be the best place to detect CO levels.

Our local building code has words about where the CO detector is to be installed.  To keep our insurance valid, we had to install the CO detectors near the ceiling.  When we talked with the inspector about this, he said, yeh, it's stupid because CO sinks!  If you have CO at ceiling level, you're dead.  So we have two detectors at each location.  One where the building code requires it, and one at knee height so that we can survive to claim the insurance.  

Yep! I have mine installed at the floor next to my woodstove. Pretty sure there's some more elsewhere in my house, too. But, that's the most important one--I want to know ASAP if my woodstove is making too much CO2!

VERY IMPORTANT!!!

It seems that there is some confusion about the difference between carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The differences between them are more than just the number of oxygen molecules.

CO2 will fill a basement. One important case study of this was a restaurant that had a CO2 leak with their soda fountain.

CO is lighter than air, and is best detected at the ceiling level or a few inches below it. The best location will vary depending on the air flow in the space. A vent, for example, might blow air in such a way as to effectively form a screen in front of the detector. CO is the product of incomplete combustion. A RMH should produce no CO, but will produce steam and CO2.

A quick internet search shows that this is an extremely common misunderstanding. Even the red cross got it wrong!

I am certified in HAZ-MAT ops by two certifying agencies, but I don't ask you to simply believe me. Please investigate this yourself!

I did find this to be a pretty good explanation https://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/1209952-co-and-co2-what-s-the-difference)

I hope this is helpful to some of y'all.

wow!  The city was right!  That's... that doesn't normally happen.  Looks like the inspector got caught in the myth.

Oh well, we have extra CO detectors now.  Not a bad thing since we heat with wood in the winter.  

Here is my submission for the Homesteading - Sand - Install a Carbon Monoxide Detector BB.

I purchased and installed a Kiddie CO Alarm that plugs into an outlet and has a back up battery.  I chose to buy and install a unit low to the ground because my understanding is that CO pools at the ground so having a unit low provides a quicker or earlier alarm than from a ceiling mounted unit.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided:
   - a before picture of the location for the carbon monoxide detector
   - a progress picture of the installation
   - an after picture of the location for the carbon monoxide detector

Installing CO detector in the classroom at basecamp

Installed a carbon monoxide detector.

I installed a Carbon Monoxide detector

The smoke detector in the basement was expired and needed to be replaced. It is a hardwired detector, so I replaced it with a hardwired smoke/CO detector that has a battery backup as well. (I replaced upstairs that I am submitting for the smoke detector detector BB.)

I got a smoke detector/carbon monoxide combo for a bedroom in my house.  It was installed today!

Here is my BB submission

Before


During



After

Installed (and tested) carbon monoxide detector in the kitchen (under the cabinets/above the counter)

*just wanted to mention I honestly didn't realize quite how dirty my kitchen walls were until i took these pictures for this BB...could washing walls be an oddball BB? maybe 1/2 point? i'm going to clean them regardless, just figured i'd ask

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide:
  - a before picture of the location for the carbon monoxide detector
  - a progress picture of the installation
  - an after picture of the location for the carbon monoxide detector

My house has a strange arrangement for the ventilation of the basement boiler. It involves piping coming up through the basement, into my laundry room on the first floor, and then into a brick chimney that emits my oil boiler fumes above the roof. This BB gave me the push to get a CO detector in the room in case of escaped gases.

I placed it at shoulder height because that is breathing height in this particular room. Bedrooms I would do knee height because that tends to be how high you are laying down. I never understood the ceiling line instruction.

We bought a smoke detector that also serves as a carbon monoxide detector.

After reading the installation menu carefully we decided to place it in the room where the stove is but not too close.
We'll only need one alarm as we don't have doors but arches separating rooms.

I installed two CO detectors today, One in the Garage and another in the guest bedroom.  I work with Garage doors and have contacted Chamberlin a few times to have a CO detector built into the garage door operator and when it detects an unsafe level, it will send an alert to your phone and raise the garage door.

PS. Dont forget to pull the battery tail out.