Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Do you heat your home during the winter with a furnace or boiler? Furnaces and boilers are great, but they come with a hidden danger – the risk of carbon monoxide! Carbon monoxide is a colorless, tasteless, odorless gas that is produced every time you burn fuel to create heat. Usually this carbon monoxide is vented harmlessly outside through a flue or chimney. Sometimes, however, it can leak into your house…and the consequences can be fatal.

Because it is so dangerous, carbon monoxide is sometimes referred to as “the silent killer”. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to keep your family protected – installing a carbon monoxide detector!

Since carbon monoxide detectors are so crucial to protecting your family from the deadly effects of carbon monoxide, it’s important that you carefully consider all the different aspects associated with your carbon monoxide detector.

Types of Carbon Monoxide Detectors

There are three main types of carbon monoxide detectors, and they will all provide you with pretty much the same level of protection:

• Electrolytic sensor carbon monoxide detectors – these carbon monoxide detectors use sensors to detect even low levels of carbon monoxide. We usually recommend that people install this type of carbon monoxide detector, because it will be able to detect low levels of carbon monoxide that others can’t.
• Colorimetric sensor carbon monoxide detectors – these carbon monoxide detectors use a strip of color changing chemicals to determine the level of carbon monoxide in your home. When a colorimetric carbon monoxide detector goes off, you have to wait for the colors to change back before the detector resets (this can sometimes take up to 48 hours).
• Metal oxide carbon monoxide detectors – these carbon monoxide detectors heat up in the presence of carbon monoxide and can detect other poisonous gasses such as bleach and silicone.

When you install a carbon monoxide detector, you can choose between battery operated, hardwired or a combination. We usually suggest going with the combo – we’ll need to install it, but it will work during a power outage (unlike the standard hardwired) and you won’t have to change the batteries very often (unlike the battery powered).

Where to Install a Carbon Monoxide Detector

It’s generally a good idea to install more than one carbon monoxide monitor in your home. For best results, have one outside every sleeping area and one above the garage (carbon monoxide can leak out of your car’s exhaust). For best results, make sure your carbon monoxide detectors are at least 15 ft away from any fuel burning appliances – this will prevent a lot of false alarms.

Other Carbon Monoxide Detector Special Features

• Power lights – blink to show that the detector is working properly.
• Low battery signal – an alarm or a chirping noise will alert you when it’s time to replace the batteries.
• Battery drawer – allows you to easily replace the batteries without removing the carbon monoxide detector from the wall.
• Test / Silence button – allows you to test your carbon monoxide detector at the touch of a button and silence it in the event of a false alarm.
• Visual Alarms – perfect for the hearing impaired, these use flashing lights to alert you of danger.
• Combination smoke alarm / carbon monoxide detector - save space by combining the two main alarms you need in your house.

Installing a carbon monoxide detector in your Maryland or Washington, DC home is the only way to protect your family from the danger of carbon monoxide. If you want to install a carbon monoxide detector, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today!