Location of CO detector (inside HVAC ducts?)

[Home Guy]

The instructions that come with residential CO detectors tell you to place them on the ceiling, outside each bedroom, and have at least one on each level of the house.

They say to not put them in the furnace room.

These locations are typically accessible to the average home owner. For ease of locating, changing batteries, etc.

I'm wondering why the best place to put one (from a CO detection POV) wouldn't be somewhere in the distribution ductwork of a forced air natural gas HVAC system (on the output side - not the return-air side).

In a home where your only source of CO is going to be your furnace (or your furnace room - if you consider your gas water heater is close to the furnace), and where the CO is going to reach the bedrooms via the HVAC ducting, then why not put the CO detector *in* the ductwork?

And if you have a natural-draft furnace, where a bird's nest or some other obstruction can cause a back-draft of combustion gas into the furnace area, then why wouldn't the furnace room be the best place to have the CO detector?

Isin't CO heavier than ambient air - so buildup would naturally be in the lower areas of the house (where the furnace is likely to be) vs the upper floors (where you are sleeping) ?

[Harry K]

Air does not get into the duct work in the 'furnace room" unless there is a leak there. or it is some ham handed installation.

Harry K

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm, I have one just outside furnace room door on the ceiling and another at the top of the stairs overhead and another above bedroom door entrance. All smoke, flame, CO gas detectors are daisy chained hard wired with some battery back up, not all.

[trader4]

And that CO could come not only from a faulty furnace, but also from a gas oven, fireplace, some dummy heating the place with a charcoal stove, running a generator, etc. And even if it's source is the furnace, it could be a leak in the chimney system upstairs in the house. Really simple concepts.

[George]

"home guy" is the smartest person in North America and says he speaks for Canada so you think he would know the very simple reason why in practice you never put smoke or CO detectors near a fuel burning device..

[Home Guy]

Dave, your computer's clock is wrong.

[Home Guy]

You're the dumb ass.

I'm considering MY GOD DAMN HOUSE you fool. A house that has 3 gas appliances - two of which are in the same room - a location that the maker of the CO detector says is NOT a good place to mount the detector.

You really need to take your head out of your ass.

There is no second floor where the chimney is.

They may be dinosaurs - but I'll take my functional 35-year-old furnace THAT DOESN'T HAVE ANY GOD DAM ELECTRONICS any day. Reliable as hell. I dial down the flame output to match heat-output with home heat-loss so the heat exchanger is operating more efficiently than if the flame output was set to max.

Shows how dumb you are.

The maker of the detector says to have one outside each bedroom. Mine came as a two-pack (two in the same package). For $10 (or $5 each). Including 2 AA batteries for each one.

So you do agree that it is beneficial to place the detector near the potential source of a CO leak, and that the ergonomics and number of sources is something that each individual home owner must deal with themselves, but with detectors costing $5 to $10 each these days, the possibility of placing one detector at each source-point is good advice.

Right?

[trader4]

No, we've voted. Just take a look at your approval rating. About 90% of the folks here think you're the village idiot, under whatever new posting name you're trying to hide behind.

"They say to not put them in the furnace room. These locations are typically accessible to the average home owner. For ease of locating, changing batteries, etc. I'm wondering why the best place to put one (from a CO detection POV) wouldn't be somewhere in the distribution ductwork of a forced air natural gas HVAC system (on the output side - not the return-air side). "

That sure doesn't sound like it's specific to YOUR house.

 A house that has 3 gas

Again, your post was clearly advocating this as a general procedure. Now you want to try to weasel away.

I see, but the USA is supposed to be where all the dumb asses are. We're saving hundreds a year in fuel costs, while you send it up the flue. Of course if an American had such a dinosaur furnace, why it would be the perfect example of incompetence.

So, you still think it's a good idea to put it in the HVAC duct?

Did that break your budget?

No I don't fool. For all the reasons I and others have already given you.

[Harry K]

Or my wood stove. I was woke at 0 dark thirty one frosty night by my CO detector screaming at me. Found that powdery creasote had plugged the bird screen on top of the chimney.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Or run a chainsaw while standing under one in a basement. Yes, I did, cutting a beam during a remodel.

Harry K

[Harry K]

So why the hell don't you go argue with the manufacturere and show him how a dumbass like you knows more about where to stick them than they do? I'd pay to see it.

Harry K

[David L. Martel]

Looks like I screwed up when I reset for Daylight Savings Time.

Thanks, Dave M.

[Attila Iskander]

If you're running Windows, the OS should do that automatically.

[HeyBub]

And just WHERE was your CO detector? In the furnace room? In the garage (if you left your car running, well, there you are)? Perhaps in the mail-box out near the street?

Or was it in your bedroom?

[David L. Martel]

Home Guy,

The important function of these alarms is to inform consumers that the living space has dangerous levels of CO.

Dave M.

[hrhofmann]

Iseally, you would have one close to the bedrooms so you would hear it when it goes off, and maybe a second one somewhere closer to the possible source(s) of fire or CO2. I have three, one in the basement close to the furnace room and my workshop, one in the family room where we have a woodburning fireplace drop-in unit with glass doors, and one outside the 3 upstairs bedrooms. Only the family room goes off when I have a fire and forget to open the damper fully when adding firewood. I normally keep the fireplace damper about 1/2 open as the wood burns a little slower, and using smoke I determined that even 1/2 open, there was suction from the family room into the fireplace itself.

I think the manufacturers want the units installed near the bedrooms as that is the most likely place where there could be problems and no one would realize it. CO2 makes people sleepy/drowsy, so if they are awake, they would notice a problem and hopefully have enuf sense to get out, If it were a fire, again if they were awake, they probably would figure out there was a problem. But asleep, either one would be potentially fatal.

[Harry K]

WTH??? In the hallway outside the bedroom. Where the hell did you think it would be?

Harry K

[PaxPerPoten]

On 3/13/2013 10:01 AM, Home Guy wrote:> " [e-mail]" wrote

I have a helluva an idea for you....

Why don't you go to a CO detector web site and get the

information you seek ...direct from the horses mouth?

And delete Home Repair from our NG.

[PaxPerPoten]

It was apparently too busy sending your personal information to Microshaft.

>

[HeyBub]

He DID get information directly from the manufacturer; he just chose to question the information provided.