Carbon Monoxide detector went off (level 123) post tub refinishing.?

Linda

My apt. management had my tub refinished when I was not at home. I returned home to horrendously strong odor, my cat hiding under the couch. Doesn't seem worker vented the spray to the outside. I was home the first time the tub was refinished and know that a vent hose went out the window and the smell was strong, but not intolerable. This time it was terrible with deposits on towels, etc. - required washing. It took 3-4 hours for the 123 level on the detector to slowly return to zero with doors and windows open and several days for the smell to pretty much dissipate. I am worried about the health hazard me and my cat were exposed to. My cat was exposed possibly for 2-3 hours. She has coughed and I am worried about long term effects. I am assuming the detector went off because of low oxygen level. Is this right? Linda

Answer
it went off because of high CO levels what are the levels now?
if over 44 you should call the fire dept.
call your vet about the cat but there isnt anything they can do for it anyway.
as for you you may need to be tested, and should call your physician, or
your local hospital, CO DOES NOT leave the body, as im aware.
so there are side effects you may experience, and as i said you should be
advised by your medical counsel.

carbon monoxide?

April

the oven gives off this burnt smell while on... could it be carbon monoxide? how long after you smell it will it affect you, does it happen right away or does it take hours

Answer
You can't smell carbon monoxide. You burned something in the past and it's coming back to haunt you.

Carbon monoxide in a concentration of 1500ppm will kill you in about 5 minutes. If you have a CO detector, they go off at 100.

However, the effects of CO are cumulative. What it does is replace the oxygen in the hemoglobin. The bond is about 200 times stronger than oxygen's bond, so you can't rid your body of it without medical attention. The doctors stick people in hyperbaric chambers (pressurized with pure oxygen) and leave you in there until your oxygen level comes back up to normal levels.

I wouldn't worry about CO that much with what you're describing, but I would clean out that oven. If it's self-cleaning, that's the best. Also, you should have a CO detector in your home with a digital display. Once it gets to 35ppm, OSHA says that it's too dangerous to work there.

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carbon monoxide?

April

the oven gives off this burnt smell while on... could it be carbon monoxide? how long after you smell it will it affect you, does it happen right away or does it take hours

Answer
You can't smell carbon monoxide. You burned something in the past and it's coming back to haunt you.

Carbon monoxide in a concentration of 1500ppm will kill you in about 5 minutes. If you have a CO detector, they go off at 100.

However, the effects of CO are cumulative. What it does is replace the oxygen in the hemoglobin. The bond is about 200 times stronger than oxygen's bond, so you can't rid your body of it without medical attention. The doctors stick people in hyperbaric chambers (pressurized with pure oxygen) and leave you in there until your oxygen level comes back up to normal levels.

I wouldn't worry about CO that much with what you're describing, but I would clean out that oven. If it's self-cleaning, that's the best. Also, you should have a CO detector in your home with a digital display. Once it gets to 35ppm, OSHA says that it's too dangerous to work there.

Carbon Monoxide Detector upstairs, i live downstairs?

Donavon

i have a gas heater i put in my room last night. im worried im gonna get carbon monoxide poisoning. we have a detector, but its all the way upstairs, and i live downstairs. if its coming from my heater in my room, wouldnt it effect me before it reached the detector upstairs?

Answer
Carbon monoxide is heavier than air. The detector should be placed near ground level on the lowest occupied floor of the house. It's good to have one per floor, but if you only have one, it should be at the lowest occupied level because that is where the highest concentrations of gas will pool -- and you want the earliest warning possible. It should be near the floor for the same reason. If the heater is in your room, the detector should be in the room or the adjacent hallway. There are combination smoke/CO detectors but smoke detectors need to be near the ceiling and CO detectors need to be near the floor. Combination detectors are most appropriate for staircase landings, etc. in between floors of larger houses.
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Why does my Carbon Monoxide detector keep going off?

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Stephen T

We have a brand new First Alert smoke/carbon monoxide detector. One day it was going off when I came home for lunch. I called the fire dept. and they came and did a test and said my levels were normal for the basement. A few weeks ago it started going off again so I opened a window. We felt no symptoms. This morning it went off yet again.

Is my device faulty? What could be the problems. Every time it has gone off I have replaced the batteries just in case the signal meant low battery.

Answer
I would try a different unit (or even different brand) and see if the results are the same. You might even try getting separate smoke/CO detectors and try different locations. And if it goes off again, I would have the fire department come and check more than the basement (and they should use two detectors to make sure THEIR readings are accurate). There's a whole myriad of factors involved here; I wouldn't rest until I was sure I wasn't in any danger. People die from CO poisoning every day. I've found a couple of websites that might help:

How do carbon monoxide detectors work?

kyorge6293

I am trying to create a detector to see how much carbon monoxide is in a room. I am looking to find an specific average throughout a day, not just if the carbon monoxide level is too high.
By the way, I am doing a project on Indoor Air Pollution.
Thanks in Advance.

Answer
Most Carbon Monoxide detectors determine the amount of CO present in the air by using an electrolytic sensor. If the value is high, the alarm sounds.

There are digital CO detectors available which will read you the level on an LED number display. You can write down the numbers on the display at predetermined intervals and average them after 24 hours has passed. Most houses should read 0 all of the time. I've only seen mine say something other than 0 when I was working on the car in the garage and had it running for a couple minutes (with the garage door open although still allowed enough into the house to cause it to display, but not alarm). Take a look just past halfway down this page and you will see a couple models with a digital readout on them:

http://www.firstalert.com/CarbonMonoxideAlarmsCatalog.aspx

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Is there a certain threshold before a carbon monoxide alarm will sound?

carbon monoxide detectors levels image

sarah

I've noticed my kittie carbon monoxide detector register several times but no alarm ever sounded, is this normal. first time it was 35. i figured the levels might be too low. today it registered over 100 and it never sounded off an alarm. There is no 1800 number i can call them to ask.

Answer
The alarm points on carbon monoxide detectors are not a simple alarm level (as in smoke detectors) but are a concentration-time function. At lower concentrations (eg 100 parts per million) the detector will not sound an alarm for many tens of minutes. At 400 parts per million (PPM), the alarm will sound within a few minutes. This concentration-time function is intended to mimic the uptake of carbon monoxide in the body while also preventing false alarms due to relatively common sources of carbon monoxide such as cigarette smoke.

From WIKI

Can I use radon detector gas to get the reading for carbon monoxide level?

westofrest

We have a radon detector that was used to test the radon level in the basement. Can we use it to get an accurate reading for carbon monoxide level instead of using a carbon monoxide detector? Thank you.

Answer
I don't think so. There is a carbon monoxide circular device that is aliken to the fire alarm circular device you attach to the ceiling in your home. They say this cm device should be placed by your windows as well as in your garage and bedroom. I heard they are about $20 each at Home Depot. In my humble opinion you don't need to know the "levels" what you need to know is when it's there and to leave promptly upon hearing the alarm. Btw, radon can be present in rooms that rarely have the windows open as it gets trapped. So as I understand it, it's around, just don't harness it.

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should a person be concerned about a peak level of 34 on a carbon monoxide detector?

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juliablue

while conducting a routine test on my carbon monoxide detectors, one of them had a peak level of 34 and the other 11. Should I be concerned?

Answer
check with local fire and see if they can calibrate or check with a known good meter, if its right then yes normal safe levels are less than 10.

Is it normal for a carbon monoxide detector to read 0 ppm?

dfjkdfj

Sorry for posting a second time, but the first question did not get any good answers. Is it normal for a carbon monoxide detector to read 0 PPM? I have one that shows the highest level over the past 24 hours, and whenever I check it always reads 0 PPM. Is this normal? I would think there might be one or two PPM in the house, considering the lowest level it would bother sensitive people is 30 PPM.

Answer
Actually in the 0 to 29 ppm level CO detectors are not allowed to display the actual CO level, and are required to display zero in that range according to CO alarm standards developed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL2034) in collaboration with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. (The display and alarm specifications of UL2034 are matched in a Canadian standard, CSA 6.19-01)

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should a person be concerned about a peak level of 34 on a carbon monoxide detector?

carbon monoxide detectors levels image

juliablue

while conducting a routine test on my carbon monoxide detectors, one of them had a peak level of 34 and the other 11. Should I be concerned?

Answer
check with local fire and see if they can calibrate or check with a known good meter, if its right then yes normal safe levels are less than 10.

Is it normal for a carbon monoxide detector to read 0 ppm?

dfjkdfj

Sorry for posting a second time, but the first question did not get any good answers. Is it normal for a carbon monoxide detector to read 0 PPM? I have one that shows the highest level over the past 24 hours, and whenever I check it always reads 0 PPM. Is this normal? I would think there might be one or two PPM in the house, considering the lowest level it would bother sensitive people is 30 PPM.

Answer
Actually in the 0 to 29 ppm level CO detectors are not allowed to display the actual CO level, and are required to display zero in that range according to CO alarm standards developed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL2034) in collaboration with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. (The display and alarm specifications of UL2034 are matched in a Canadian standard, CSA 6.19-01)

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