CO Detectors

[fyrmnk]

Of the hundreds of legitimate CO calls I've run over the past 20 years, we've never found CO showing significant level differences in different levels of a home, it acts as Jim said and pretty evenly mixes with the air with just the natural air movement in the home from the HVAC. We always recommend a CO detector outside of sleeping areas regardless of what level it's on. That's so it should alarm and wake them if a problem arises before it makes them sick or dead. Especially important in multi-occupancies where a problem in another unit or a suicide in a garage will eventually migrate to the other units.

We still use the Nighthawk with digital readout I mentioned above in our fire stations and many of us in our own homes. Some of the newer ones that have combo natural gas detection have shown some faults more than than the others, but they've been very reliable. The monitors we carry show pretty consistent readings with the ones with digital readout.

Of all the calls I've ran where there was a detector, 90+% alarmed prior to anyone becoming ill. For one's reporting any symptoms, our ambulances do a breath check with a COHb detector to check them. If someone's going to be transported, we do send them to a place with a hyperbaric and let them know the highest reading we've obtained.

[mlparham]

The 2012 IRC, currently used in Georgia, requires CO detectors in bedrooms. It also requires that if any permit is pulled for any work in the home that hard wired CO detectors be added to bedrooms. The Georgia amendments do not require a CO detector if finished spaces must be disturbed for installation.