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Carbon monoxide detectors

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  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    When we had our new extension built, we had to have fire alarms wired in,  we had some indoor fireworks at Christmas,   Straight underneath the thing,  they were really smoking, we had to open the windows and doors, nothing from the alarm,  I set fire to a tea towel, nothing. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • salarsalar Posts: 11
    The first thing you need to do is get the people who installed your alarms to replace them immediately as they are evidently faulty.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited October 2023
    I bought the alarms myself - nobody to blame. They have been fine for five to ten years, or at least no false alarms. Then I get three going off. The gas guy is here again.

    They found a small gas leak - on the second inspection.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited October 2023
    All sorts of morals to the story in here, I suppose. 
    -Don't ever turn off your CO monitor assuming it's a false alarm. 
    -If you have any concerns at all, call a gas guy in to check. 
    -Check the expiry on your alarm. 
    -Have monitors in various rooms.

    Tonight the one in my bedroom (upstairs, with no burning appliance in it) picked up the gas leak and the one by the boiler and gas meter did not. I only had the monitor in the bedroom because I was fiddling with the alarm this morning after it had gone off in the kitchen. 

    No hot water for me for a bit, then. Boo. But good to find there was in fact a problem. Yeay. I am not poisoned; or not much, at least.  B)

    Btw, there was no smell of gas; no way to know there was a leak with out the monitors and gas peeps to check.
  • Oh my goodness, what a saga @Fire! Do you keep windows open generally? Hopefully that would mitigate against worse problems (before you detected the gas). I cannot remember if it was  just gas or electricity or both, but a few years ago, my street was cut off for nearly a day after a suspected/actual leak somewhere.  Then the street was cut off for a few hours for the week as work continued in a property.
    Sorry to witness the demise of the forum. 😥😥😥😡😡😡I am Spartacus 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited October 2023
    The doors and windows have been open for much of the day, but the alarm went off upstairs even so (far from the leak), when doors and windows were shut for a few hours. The monitors must be pretty sensitive.

    I keep the windows pretty much open from May to now time. I have just started with my central heating, so I close the windows to keep the heat in.

    Thinking about it, I suppose there could have been a small leak all summer, but I wouldn't have know as the windows were always open. Who knows?
  • We just bought and installed 2 alarms yesterday. Thank you for reminding me to jot the date down.
    Southampton 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Can you get types of monitors that set off an alarm after ten years, to let you know they are expiring and they cannot be reset.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497

    I have a carbon monoxide alarm on the wall opposite my bedroom door and when I leave my bedroom in the middle of the night to answer the call of duty it quite often flashes I wonder if it is taking photos of me in my jimjams.
    Only if you flash back.



    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I thought carbon monoxide came from appliances that weren't burning gas properly, not from "raw" unburnt natural gas leaking (that's hydrocarbons isn't it? methane, ethane, propane). Maybe I misunderstand. Or maybe some CO detectors pick up hydrocarbons as well.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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