What do you do when your carbon monoxide detector alarms?

When a CO detector alarms, an investigative process must begin. Like smoke and fire, carbon monoxide is very dangerous and can be deadly. Unlike smoke or fire, it is odorless and colorless and the reason for the alarm can be difficult to pinpoint. Most CO detectors only tell you that carbon monoxide is present but not how much or for how long.

Last week I spoke with a customer whose carbon monoxide detector had interrupted her sleep in the early morning. She wanted to get to the reason why it was alarming. Her furnace was new and there was no gas water heater in the structure. Her detector was about four years old, one of the inexpensive types that can be purchased almost anywhere. It tells you something may be happening but doesn't give you enough information to decide if you have an extreme emergency and need to evacuate immediately or just open windows and start investigating the situation.

After a bit of conversation we dropped off one of our CO Experts detectors. This unit detects both low and high levels of CO, giving you more information, more time and more ability to resolve a dangerous CO situation. The low level alarm shows a digital readout at 5PPM, beeps at 10PPM and escalates the alarm as the reading level climbs. The number tells you the how much CO is present in the building at that time.

To answer the first question, here are some guidelines:

At 10PPM to 24 PPM ..... Call your HVAC service company

AT 25PPM to 49PPM .....Open windows and call your HVAC service company

At 50PPM to 70PPM .....Immediately open doors & windows, call HVAC service, watch monitor closely, if CO continues to rise, call 911 and exit at once.

Above 70PPM............Exit the home immediately and call 911 and HVAC service from another location. Do not re-enter until you are told by a professional that it is safe to do so.

If your carbon monoxide detector doesn't give you a CO level, the safest choice is to exit the building immediately and call for assistance.

A thank you note came in just a few days ago from our customer. As we suspected, the sensor on her previous detector just needed to be cleared with some fresh air. She also told us how much safer she felt with the new CO Experts detector. We know she is safer with a detector that records low levels of carbon monoxide and gives her enough information to protect herself.