I thought I'd relate our experience this evening concerning our carbon monoxide detectors. A boring topic I know but one I think is important.
We live in MA where they are now required, but we have a place in Maine where they aren't. But given we have a wood stove and an oil furnace I definitely wanted them so we put at least one on each level.
This evening just after I finally had managed to get our daughter to sleep and my son was getting ready to go to bed I heard our basement detector. When I went down there it read 72 ppm, and it was flashing that we needed to get outside now. Now that detector has been there for 4 years so DH was inclined to think it was starting to fail. I wasn't so sure but I put a new battery in it and put it back in the basement. All was quiet for 5 minutes then it went off again.
I couldn't ignore it this time so I called 911 for the first (and hopefully last) time. While I was on the phone with them a second alarm went off, this one on the main level. Obviously something really is wrong so we all went outside. Luckily one of our neighbors is one if the volunteer firefighters and he was here in mere minutes, followed by the others. They waited for the truck and the sensor before entering the house.
Immediately upon entering the sensors went off. Our detectors were right - there WAS carbon monoxide. It read 72 ppm, just like our basement detector had said. They determined our furnace had malfunctioned. They opened all the doors and windows and ran fans to air out the house. Luckily it's springtime and it isn't too cold.
Anyway, if you live in a state that doesn't require carbon monoxide detectors and you have a wood stove or oil burner, please consider getting one if you don't have them already. Even if it turns out to be a false alarm it's worth it. If we hadn't had them we would have gone to bed not knowing anything was wrong. Who knows how high the level could have gone. Our kids could have gone to sleep, to never wake up again.
-Cindy in MA
We live in MA where they are now required, but we have a place in Maine where they aren't. But given we have a wood stove and an oil furnace I definitely wanted them so we put at least one on each level.
This evening just after I finally had managed to get our daughter to sleep and my son was getting ready to go to bed I heard our basement detector. When I went down there it read 72 ppm, and it was flashing that we needed to get outside now. Now that detector has been there for 4 years so DH was inclined to think it was starting to fail. I wasn't so sure but I put a new battery in it and put it back in the basement. All was quiet for 5 minutes then it went off again.
I couldn't ignore it this time so I called 911 for the first (and hopefully last) time. While I was on the phone with them a second alarm went off, this one on the main level. Obviously something really is wrong so we all went outside. Luckily one of our neighbors is one if the volunteer firefighters and he was here in mere minutes, followed by the others. They waited for the truck and the sensor before entering the house.
Immediately upon entering the sensors went off. Our detectors were right - there WAS carbon monoxide. It read 72 ppm, just like our basement detector had said. They determined our furnace had malfunctioned. They opened all the doors and windows and ran fans to air out the house. Luckily it's springtime and it isn't too cold.
Anyway, if you live in a state that doesn't require carbon monoxide detectors and you have a wood stove or oil burner, please consider getting one if you don't have them already. Even if it turns out to be a false alarm it's worth it. If we hadn't had them we would have gone to bed not knowing anything was wrong. Who knows how high the level could have gone. Our kids could have gone to sleep, to never wake up again.
-Cindy in MA
