October 17, 2011

“Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own.” Jean Toomer (1894-1967)

Who is responsible for the air you breathe?

COSA does not have an approval system for carbon monoxide alarms. There are many times at national conferences that we may put carbon monoxide alarms into sealed bags and test them with certified, known quantities of carbon monoxide. We and others in the industry often or always do these tests during public and private training programs to help raise awareness to how CO alarms work. It is always our recommendations to have at least one alarm in a building that is capable of alerting the occupants to levels as early as 10 PPM, and as soon as it reaches that level; NO waiting!

However, there are some fire departments around the country that begin evacuations at 10 PPM so perhaps the alarm set points should be 7 or 8 PPM for those locations. It is important that each homeowner or responsible building occupant know at what level their fire department evacuates for carbon monoxide levels found inside and take appropriate measures for alarm protection.

This live CO alarm demonstration is one used to help raise awareness to carbon monoxide alarm set points. People often bring their personal CO monitors with them or will bring their own CO alarm and ask them to be verified on the spot. Personal protection monitors need to be calibrated per manufacturer specifications; this is merely a verifiable spot test.

Home alarms… how do you know if they work? The test button has only to verify that there is enough electrical current to sound an audible alert, not that the sensor is working at all or to what % of drift or deviation from accuracy there may be from the tested-to-listing set point. We can test for home alarms in the field, but not too many people want to wait around for up to 4 hours to see if their alarm is going to go off at 100 PPM. (According to the U.L. 2034 listing, the alarm has to resist sounding for one full hour when the levels are over 70 PPM and under 150 PPM and must alarm before 4 hours have lapsed. This has been their U.L. Approval criteria for quite a few years.)

We encourage everyone to read the packaging on the outside of a new carbon monoxide alarm to find out when the alarm testing set points were set for. The U.L. 2034 listed alarms as stated have been tested at 70, 150 and 400 PPM. We must decide if this alarm will protect all who enter from the levels they should be protected from.

Tarrytown Firefighters Respond to Carbon Monoxide Scare
Patch.com By Krista Madsen
There was a carbon monoxide scare from a power washer at the Landmark Condominium complex at 18 N. Broadway, according to one of the Tarrytown firefighters dispatched to the scene, at about 12:30 pm this Saturday. ...

Carbon monoxide: Cold season's silent assailant
Santa Fe New Mexican.com
It could be the flu or food poisoning, but it also could be carbon-monoxide — CO — poisoning. People with old boilers, gas furnaces and gas stoves, in particular, should have their homes tested once a year, experts say. Every year, carbon-monoxide ...