Carbon Monoxide Detector Location

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Bill Lee/Virginia

Senior Member
I am very respectful and frightened of Carbon Monoxide. I do not know if Carbon Monoxide fumes mix with the air, fall to the floor or rise towards the ceiling. I have cross ventilation in my garage that is attached to the house. I have 3 Carbon Monoxide detectors located in my home. One, a battery powered detector located 12 inches above the garage floor. A second 110 volt detector located on the 1st level 24 inches above the floor. The third battery powered detector is located at floor level on the 2nd level. All 3 detectors are operationally tested every 2/3 months.

My questions are: 1. How are Carbon Monoxide fumes mixed with the air?

2. Are the Carbon Monoxide detectors properly located in my home and garage to protect my family and pets (4 parrots and a cat)?

Bill Lee/Virginia Peninsula
 
Carbon monoxide is slightly less dense than air.

Install as directed by the manufacturer.
 
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CO mixes with air and is slightly lighter. place at nose level near sleeping quarters, near any source of combustion and not behind furniture. go online and read all you can find. I had a combustion chamber in a furnace crack and fortunately only got headache before smelling combustion products in the house.

"I took the batteries out of the CO monitor because it was going off and giving me a headache" is the old joke
 
I was in the HVAC business for over 30 years and I've seen a lot of things.��
I received a carbon monoxide call one day (cuz of neglect to his furnace ) and as I pull into the driveway there the customer waving his carbon monoxide detector out a open window yelling that this dam beeping thing will not shut off!!! He's lucky he wasn't laying on the floor passed out!!
So please do the smart thing get out of house or garage and call your local F.D.
Sorry I didn't want to change this thread.
 
You need to check with your local code enforcement people. We just had one installed about 18 inches from the floor next to our gas furnace. In our area there needs to be one in every room as I recall. (WA state) I just checked and WA has laws governing placement of sensors. One required just out side of any sleeping quarters (bedroom) It's 4 pages and part of the Washington state Administrative code. (WAC).
 
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we burn an antique baseburner coal stove in house. 3 carbon monoxide detectors in 1 level house.1 near stove,1 outside bedroom,3rd on my nightstand.you can never be too careful.my coal forum recomends, change every 5 years
 
The parrots concern me. All birds are extremely sensitive to CO. That is why miners used to take canaries into tunnels. If there is a sudden high CO level the detector will trigger within 15 minutes, maybe soon enough. If it is low level (20 ppm) it may take an hour for some detectors to trigger. The parrots will succumb long before many residential CO detectors reach their minimum time weighted low threshold trigger point.

If it were me I'd put a door closer on the service door to the house and make sure it is never propped open. Get a detector with an external alarm trigger output for inside the garage and wire it to signal the overhead vehicle door to open as well as trigger the other detectors in your house.

Not trying to be an alarmist, but I know personally of two CO deaths. One caused by the driver falling asleep in a running vehicle, the other by a pet dragging a blanket against a hot water heater and blocking the air intake. The incomplete combustion from the blocked heater did not produce sufficient waste heat to initiate a proper chimney draft.
 
Place detectors at 54 to 60" height. The gas CO IS lighter slightly than air, and rises, especially with heat on in the winter months. If you mount detectors low, you will be dead before the alarm goes off.
 
My neighbors sister had a keyless automobile and one night forgot to hit the ON/OFF button. She closed the garage door and went to bed. Never woke up the next day!
 
just like smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors will save you life, this comes from a 50 year fire and rescue person. I have seen it both ways, alarm goes off and people leave house and are OK, and too often the opposite. I have too many toys in the garage to not wake up and enjoy them, by not doing something I have control of. Install them and check/change the batteries often, some of the cheapest insurance you can buy. And BTW when we respond to an alert we usually detect and find a CO problem that could have been life threatening. Especially important now when everyone is closing windows because of cold temps
 
Only slightly related, but be sure to have an effective fire alarm. Not like this.
 

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Just installed 3 new ones today - combination smoke & co - my old ones came to the end of their 6-yr life. The new ones are 10 yrs. Go to shopkidde.com and you can all the installation details you need. They say the ceiling is the best place. Check it out.
 
One big concern not noted above is inter- connected garage/house HVAC. Totally not good. Garage should be completely isolated from the house with well sealed doors, walls, etc. Latest building codes in our area demand totally sealed drywall in all attached garages and NO inter-connection of HVAC has been the rule for forty or more years.
 
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