It wasn’t for me! It was for the party we’re having this weekend! 
Just wanted to drop in and say that I’m glad you’re all OK.
I refuse to let myself imagine what kind of nightmare it could’ve been.
A coworker at a previous job (a nurse) told me about her encounter with carbon monoxide and no detector. There was some problem unbeknownst to her with something leaking CO into a vent that went into a bedroom in her condo. At the time, her teenage daughter was living with her (and had the bedroom in question), and her college-age son was home on winter break for a couple weeks. She and her daughter worked. Her son was home, and developed cold or mild flu-like symptoms. She and her daughter also felt vaguely run-down. She started wondering about it, and since she was with a HMO, she called her primary care physician to ask if they should come in, bring her son to a walk-in appointment, or what. He said no, you just have colds, I’m not going to give you a referral for the walk-in clinic.
Her daughter went into the bedroom and closed the door because she was feeling tired and wanted to nap during the day undisturbed by her brother and mother. A while later (a couple hours, perhaps?), her daughter staggered out of the bedroom and managed to say she wasn’t feeling well, before collapsing. My ex-coworker called 911 and reported what had happened; the operator told her to open all of the windows in the condo, and get her family outside. The fire department came, ended up smashing a window that couldn’t be opened, and put huge blower fans in the windows. Meanwhile all 3 of them were rushed to hospitals, with the daughter being sent to a hospital more specialized for this sort of thing. They all ended up being fine but it could easily not have been that way for her daughter, because she’d unknowingly shut herself in the room that was receiving all of the CO. Her son showed worse symptoms initially because he was in the condo all day while home on break, while she and her daughter were out working much of the day.
Oh, and you bet she had a discussion with her primary care physician about not second-guessing her professional opinions on their health.
Sure, that’s what they all say!
Anyway, I am so glad to hear you and yours are well. What a horror it would have been. I don’t have one of those detectors, but your story is enough to get me off of my butt and to the store tomorrow. I have gas heating too, and a gas stove.
Is it necessary to have a CO detector in an apartment with no gas fittings?
From what I’ve read on the topic, any combustion method could potentially be a source of carbon monoxide. A similarly-fueled furnace/water heater/dryer, an attached garage (potentially allowing car exhaust fumes in - though I expect this is more risky in a house-style unit), things like that could be risks that some people might not think about. If none of these conditions exist, then I suspect but am not sure that one would not be needed. (IANAExpert, etc., etc.)
Ours went off last week in the middle of the night. We have one right outside our bedrooms and it scared the crap out of me. My husband went to check on it and it was just alarming because the battery was low. Apparently ours does not want you to be without a working detector for even a minute, even though the battery is just a back-up as it plugs into the wall. I asked him if he was really really sure it was just a low battery, and he said yes, it says Lo Batt right on the display and the CO level still reads zero. Ok, I said, but if we all die in our sleep I will blame you.
You can test it just by pressing the test button on the front. Ours gets tested every so often by our curious toddler, the scenario plays out like this:
Toddler: dooo de dooo…hello, what’s this lit up thing with a button? ( Presses button.)
Alarm: BEEEEP! BEEEEP!! BEEEEEEEP!!
Toddler: Cries.
a few weeks later, repeat. At least I know it is working!
We found out that our furnace was a likely CO hazard nearly a year after we moved in. Our place is so drafty that we didn’t notice!
Yeah, we got a CO detector after the offending furnace parts were replaced.
Y’all just shamed me into hanging my 2 smoke and 1 CO detector just now. We moved in to the new homestead in July, and they got lost in the mess of remodeling and move-in; I just found them again 2 weeks ago.
And to top it all, I’m a volunteer FF myself, so I should know better…
If you don’t have a fireplace or wood stove, then probably not. Of course, the Canuck fire codes may be different than ours.
I have no gas service in my house, but I do have a wood stove, so I have CO just for that.
Previous house, the CO worked as intended after a damned starling built a nest in the furnace flue and the furnace clicked on. The resulting fire was spectacular, and he smell of roast bird took a while to dissapate even after the house was cleaned. :mad:
OK. I have electric heat and appliances (like most Canadian, or at least Quebec homes, AFAIK - it was real embarrassing when I went travelling and didn’t know how to turn on a gas stove in the youth hostel) and no fireplace or car, so I’m not sure where CO would come from.
Natural Gas is most common in the West, being as (I have to use this phrase again, I loves it so) we have all Hell for a basement.
New Jersey law now requires that CO detectors, in addition to smoke detectors, be installed in any residential building before any type of Certificate of Occupancy is issued.
It’s a good law, and I image other states have it on their books.
Here’s some ifo. that people w/ children should read. Apparently it’s the latest thing in home alarms: Directory A - B
Many factors can cause elevated CO (not CO[sub]2[/sub]) levels in a dwelling.
Any appliance which burns wood, pellets, oil, natural gas or LP is a potential source of CO.
When chimneys become blocked or their internal integrity breached, CO can enter the dwelling, instead of venting to the exterior.
Other appliances can cause poor or reverse drafting of fuel-burning equipment. Example: someone is taking a shower, and the bathroom vent fan is running, the clothes dryer is running, and dinner is on the stove with the range hood running. All three appliances are drawing air from the inside and trying to push it outside. The air has to be made up somewhere, as the house won’t deflate like a balloon, so where will it enter? If no doors or windows are open, the air will likely come down the chimney, and if the water heater happened to be operating, negative pressure will overcome natural draft and the CO goes along.
The problem has grown with newer, tighter building construction, as people desire more efficient fans to eliminate bathroom moisture and “gourmet” kitchens with range hoods that would suck golf balls through garden hoses.
Anyway, CO detectors are a great idea, and replace your batteries next weekend when you set your clocks back. If your smoke detector is 10 years old, replace it. Be safe.
And thanks to danceswithcats, who calmed my sorry ass down while I was stuck outside of my gas-filled house with my family the other night.
Something which I neglected to mention: another potential source of CO exists in occupancies heated with forced air, fueled by oil, natural gas, or LP. These furnaces contain a component called a heat exchanger, and it’s function is to keep combustion air separated from air being circulated through the ductwork.
If the heat exchanger develops a crack, flue gas and it’s CO will be mixing with the heating air coming from the registers. Although it’s technically possible for a fairly new furnace to exhibit this fault, I’ve only seen it in older (30 y.o. +) furnaces. Checking the heat exchanger is part of annual preventive maintenance and cleaning as performed by a heating appliance technician.