All over the radio lately, there have been commercials, sponsored by Kidde, manufacturer of smoke and CO detectors trying to use scare tactics to get you to buy new CO detectors.
"CO detectors are now required by law in most homes! Get yours now!"
Where are the CO detector police? Nobody's come to my house with a badge demanding to see my CO detector.
You probably can't sell the house without proper CO detection equipment in place, but I don't plan on selling any time soon... Who's making me put in CO detectors?
My buddies wife inherited a small cottage on the ocean in the PRNJ which they rent out during the summer. They got a letter from the local government entity just before winter that they devised a new revenue producing opportunity and a way to help their friends so they were requiring that everyone install CO alarms and fire extinguishers in a very specific fashion and that the installation had to be inspected for a fee each year. Initially by some government worker and later by one of a few of their friends who were specially qualified to do so. And in typical government efficiency my friend had to drive down to the ocean in January because the inspections were only being done then.
My question is whether a CO detector is needed in an all-electric house. Our house has no gas lines coming into the house. So the need for a CO detector i sounds like a mute point. Any ideas?
You could still have a fire place, wood burning stove, backup generator, lawn mower, weed whacker, gas powered tiller, snow blower, gassy grand father who eats beans, or other source of monoxide. But, the risk is a lot less.
If you go to sell a home, many areas will require an inspection that includes a functioning CO² detector. In the event of the worse case, insurance may, in some areas, not pay off.
The question is, why in the world would not not want functioning CO² protection? Old CO² units loose their sensitivity so they do need to be replaced from time to time.
Many years ago as a boy scout, I found out what can happen with CO² . It was only luck that saved myself and many others from serious harm. I have two working detectors in my home.
I'm not going to look it up, but are there other States besides NY that have Amanda's Law, or similar, regarding mandatory CO detectors? In NYS, if you do not have any appliances, heaters, or other CO producing equipment in the house, you are not required to have a CO detector.
You are totally right. I ment to write CO not CO² It is CO I worry about most. It would take a rather unususal set of conditions to build up a serious amount of CO²
Depends what "serious" means. CO2 is the natural product of complete combustion of virtually any fuel, except for mebbe hydrogen, whose only product is H2O, ergo it's attractiveness as a fuel.
CO is the dreaded product of incomplete combustion.
In an enclosed room, you can get pretty high concentrations of CO2 from, say, a gas stove. It's just that CO2 is not itself very toxic, save for perhaps the displacement of O2.
Human performance does suffer, however, as CO2 builds up.
Altho gas stoves are frowned upon as a method of room heating, millions proly do it, and I did it for years. Yer windows sure do fog up.... :)
Which points to the fact of how cleanly most stoves burn natural gas. Not to mention "ventless" gas heaters (which bowls me over that these are allowed), but which also supports the low CO risk of natural gas.
Having said that, ventless gas heaters are absolutely awful, imo. Used two in a shop, couldn't stand them. The heat was *great* (radiant-style), but the air quality was horrific -- proly no CO, but whatever it was, it was awful. And the water vapor was just prodigious, bad bad bad for a shop or a house.
Don't know why radiant gas heaters seem so much more miserable than a gas stove -- mebbe it has sumpn to do with the ceramic....
No doubt tho, that if heating with a stove or ventless gas heater, a CO detector is a good hedge, for peace of mind at the least.
Not saying they aren't a good idea anyway, I just object to the effing scare tactics, and that before effing CO detectors, proly more people died from lightning strikes than from household CO poisoning. I'm sure Trader4 will jump -- mebbe even pull his thumb out of his ass -- at the chance to prove this wrong.
AND, whether or not CO detectors are a good idea, the foisting of them on us by mandate, law, whatever is not Not NOT because anyone gives a flying f*ck about your or my well-being. It's just another big-bidness-municipal income-producing opportunity, with some yapping lip-service about the Pubic Good.
Same with seat belts/helmet laws -- the REAL motive behind seat belts et al is their utility in penalty-based revenue raising.
ALTHO.....
Truth be told, my CO detector shot up like crazy when I would bring the car into the basement garage.... wow..... Took a while for it to go down!
I think attached garages proly pose the greatest risk, and that would be solved by just mandating them to be detached, which is proly a good idea from several povs.
Funny, tho, a car brought into a basement garage can in fact heat the whole house!! Huge mc delta T, for the chemically-inclined.
Yup.... and when they shove THAT up our collective asses, guess how long it will take before they mandate sprinklers be put in *pre-existing homes*??? With the yearly inspections, fines, fees, you name it. goodgawd.....
It's a-comin, sheeple, it's a-comin..... yearly inspections for EVERY goddamm thing in yer house, including DIY repairs, innocuous modifications, etc. With a photographic record of every goddamm visit......
Beyond Orwell.....
Not to mention mishaps with the sprinklers themselves. Can you say, Water Damage, boyzngerlz???
Heh, and what to you wanna bet flood insurance won't cover it? On top of it all, you'll have to buy a separate Sprinkler Malfunction Insurance.....
The USFA continues with a perhaps persuasive statistic: "As the percent of homes in America that were 'protected' with smoke alarms increased from zero to more than 70%, the number of fire deaths in homes did not significantly decrease."
Go figger. CO extrapyoolation, inyone?? Trader4?????
There was another counter-intuitive ditty from the netherlands, where taking traffic lights OUT of a complicated intersection radically REDUCED accidents.... !!!
Heh, as Orwell juggernauts along, it appears his success is gratuitous -- altho still likely inevitable.
I think it is you who is doing the bending over. You're the one that apparently thinks big government and what's going on in Washington is just peachy keen ala healthcare. You don't like Reagan, who stood for the opposite. So, try making sure to take your medication and try to stay focused.
Your insurance company is one of them. They can refuse to pay if you violate their terms. Tther things come to mind too but insurance would top the list.
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