Carbon Monoxide Detector

Well, if you think I should. I'll saw a hole in the paneling, int he perfect place for the detector. Try to fish a wire down the wall, and find out it's got horizontal fire break. Go back to the store and buy a long installer bit, and try to drill through the firebreak. Find out my bit isn't long enough (4 foot) and go back and buy a six foot bit. Drill through the water copper, and have to take out a section of baseboard, and then paneling to fix the hole in the water copper. Light the wallboard on fire with the propane torch. Soften the flakeboard floor with the water that sprays, wehn I find out my soldering techinque wasn't doing very good. Lucky it did, put out the smouldering wall board. Nail the paneling back up, and find out I left the six foot drill bit in the bay, and now it's nailed in. No worries, got my hole. Try, in vain, to push a lenth of Romex up from the cellar to the outlet hole, with no success. Try, instead, from the top. Finally, it's about midnight and I got to be to work in the morning. Get home from work tomorrow, and find out that wife #6 has bought a battery monoxide detector, and put it over the outlet hole, and finished nailing up the panneling. She greets me with a pan of home baked brownies, and all my 7 wives and 32 children tell me what a good job I did.

Sorry about the choir. My 4th teenage daughter is going through a phase.

Kewl! Kidde is the brand that Home Depot had. We're in good company. Like smoke detectors, they are no longer functional after some years. Seems like the CO detector is good for 10 years, and the furnace is good for 20.

I was in Home Depot today, buying a couple parts. Walked past the smoke detectors. One from Kidde was under $20, and takes three AA cells. First set of batteries included. So, I bought it.

A normal installation, in other words. I don't see the problem.

IIRC, they are a little spendy, too.

Steve

I think most CO units either operate off of 120V AC or off a 9V battery, It is easy enuf to tell when buying. The Fire Dept is a great idea. I would like to get our local FD to provide testing for CO detectors the way that they do for smoke/fire alarms. But I don't know if you can buy a can of CO to use. Maybe just putting the unit near the exhaust of a car parked outside would work. I have one detector that is so sensitive that I wish it weren't. It kicks off if I open the fireplace doors with the damper partly closed for more than a few minutes. As long as the damper is open fairly wide, there is no problem. But, it is much safer that way so I guess I should be happy.

Reply: a lower than lethal dose may make you sleepy, or just put you into a sleep, and if the level rose after that, you'd be front page material. I, too, like the sensitive ones that give a constant readout.

Steve

I'll get right on it! (fire extinguisher optional)

The Nighthawk is a good one. It has battery backup and continuous display. You will need somewhere to plug in the adapter.

There's a stage with CO when you have headaches. I almost never get headaches so that would be a red flag. Those who get headaches anyhow, I guess they should go outside or drive to a store and see if the headache goes away. I wonder how long it would take to go away.

If more than one person in a family has symptoms, that's a big warning sign.

Monoxide has a LONG half life in the blood. I can't remember off hand, but it's more time than a trip to the store. Day, or two days, or something extended like that.

That's very wise thought. With colds and such, it's likely to be someone first, and the others later.

Is there anyplace in the house where surface mounted wire channel would not look weird? That's an easy way to add an outlet.

The whole house looks a bit strange, so wire mold is on topic any where.

I like my Nighthawks. I use one in the utility room, kitchen, attic, hallway. The one in the kitchen goes off the most and reminds us to use the exhaust fan while cooking. On occasion it gives a "10" reading, too low to set off the alarm. The Nighthawks chirp whenever we lose power (about 10 times a year), but they still operate on a 9V batt when there is no power.