Thumpernet.Net

Current Mood: This is important!

While away this week for training, I received a phone call from Sarah saying my carbon monoxide detector was beeping every few minutes and that the green light on the front is flashing.  It turns out this unit is at the end of it’s life and is signaling to say “Replace Me Already”.

In this case the detector   is a hard-wired unit that goes back to my security panel.

However, this got me thinking about carbon monoxide detectors.

First things first – a small science lesson is just screaming to get out here …
Carbon MONOxide is abbreviated as “CO”.  Remember, MONO means “one”.
Other common places you may have seen or heard of mono is before the days of stereo sound.  Indeed mono means 1 channel.  In this case it usually meant the left channel.  Another is “Mono-A-Mono” … The “A” is pronounced as “E”.  It’s Spanish and roughly translates to hand to hand or fist to fist or man to man.
And to finish the lesson, CO2 is carbon DIoxide .. di meaning 2.
The lesson is, don’t go to the store asking for a CO2 detector.  You might get the sniff test from the employee who will gleefully tell you you’re still breathing.

OK, back on track….

As I said earlier, the unit I have has reached the end of it’s usable life and has some sort of circuitry to know that .. counting hours, days … I have no idea.  But smart the little bugger is.  This turned out to be a huge ordeal because since it’s wired to my panel, the only way to shut it up is to cut the power wire to it (no screwdriver to be found to unscrew the terminal – Oh well).  This however has bigger ramifications.  The alarm panel then detected the CO detector was no longer “there”. Luckily I had counted on this and had Sarah bypass the zone ahead of time.  After finally figuring out how to change the zone type in the alarm panel to “auxiliary” instead of “gas”, and the alarm panel phoning home to the alarm company, we finally got it to shut up.

I suppose I could have skipped all the boring details about the troubles we had in getting the alarm panel to behave again, but this may be a lesson some of you will remember and take note of one day if you have a hard-wired CO detector of your own.

The REALLY important lesson to be learned here, however, is that these CO detectors have a limited life.  If you have one in your house and it’s more than say 6 years old, it’s time to trash it and get a new one.  If you have an old hard-wired model connected to your alarm system, either replace it, or call your alarm provider and get them to do it.  The unit I have is good for 6 years according to the manufacturer.  I’d say I’ve gotten every bit of 6 years, if not longer out of it.

I don’t think there’s any magic to buying a detector.  Just get one.  Place it near your bedrooms.  Do NOT place it near a stove of any sort including a fireplace, gas insert, furnace, gas hot water heater, or other sources of flame.  This may very well cause false alarms.  Also, do not place them in direct air movement such as a fan or air duct.  This may blow CO away.  The weight of CO is pretty much the same as oxygen, so placement near the floor or higher up is not really of any concern. I have mine placed up over a door, just because it was convenient for running the alarm system wires.  This may not be the ideal spot, however.

If it’s a battery model, replace the batteries twice a year – just like your smoke detector.  Here is a link to an AC powered with battery backup model.  I’d say that’s a very smart choice.   http://www.detectorsandalarms.com/kiddekn-cob-lcb-acarbonmonoxidealarmdirectplugwbatterybackup.aspx I am in no way affiliated with the website, or the manufacturer.  Search Google for “AC carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup”  Some of the models are as cheap as about $17.  There are also models with smoke and CO detection in 1 unit.  There’s a smart idea.

Rremember CO is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and SILENT killer.  Without a detector, you will never know you have a problem until it’s too late.

“The Centers for Disease Control estimates that carbon monoxide poisoning claims nearly 500 lives, and causes more than 15,000 visits to hospital emergency departments annually” (http://www.emedicinehealth.com/carbon_monoxide_poisoning/article_em.htm).  This link has LOTS more information including symptoms of poisoning.

As a side note, if you want to discuss alarm panels and CO detector installs, let me know.  I installed my entire system myself so I have a vast amount of knowledge including how to build your own End Of Line relay/resistor packs which are required on hard-wired smoke and CO detectors.

As Sergeant Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say, “Hey, let’s be careful out there.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2QApwtE8zQ)

-Ryan