From: "HeatMan" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house alt.home.repair
Subject: Re: bought co detector, now where to put it?
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:22:28 -0400


"George E. Cawthon"  wrote in message
news:SxTWg.48849$QZ1.5260@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> HeatMan wrote:
> > Best place to put it would be back on the shelf at the store.
> >
> > "ap"  wrote in message
> > news:1160411953.891835.72240@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> >> Hello,
> >> After shopping around much, purchased a nighthawk digital for $33 from
> >> wal-mart.
> >> These are expensive and I'm wondering if the best placement would
> >> be high in the hallway near the bedrooms. There are 3 bedrooms that are
> >> occupied.
> >>
> >> Is this a good idea?
> >>
> >> Should it be directly under a vent?
> >>
> >> Thanks much!
> >>
> >
> > For what it's worth, that Nighthawk won't alarm or even go off until CO
has
> > reached danger levels.  As I recall, they won't alarm until CO reaches
50PPM
> > for an eight hour period.  That's not good enough for me, but it's good
> > enough to satisfy UL2034.
> >
> > The card sitting in front of me tell me that (supposedly) 9PPM is
acceptable
> > in a living space.  50PPM is the max concentration over an 8 hour
period.
> > 400PPM will give you frontal headaches in 1 to 2 hours and life
threatening
> > after 3 hours.  800PPM will cause nausea and convulsions, death within 2
> > hours, etc, etc.
> >
> > A lot of people don't like the low level alarms, but that's what I
recommend
> > to customers.  Your money is better spent on having your heating system
> > checked on an annual basis.
> >
> > You can read more about this at http://www.coexperts.com/
> >
> > Here's an interesting post on a BB I read.
> >  http://forums.invision.net/Thread.cfm?CFApp=2&Thread_ID=40217&mc=4
> >
> > Flame away.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> Your statement of effect is essentially the same
> as in my Nighthawk book.  The book also says that
> the minimum for an alarm is 70ppm within 60 to 240
> minutes.  The display won't show anything below
> 29ppm unless you press the peak level button and
> then it will show 11 to 29ppm.  In English that
> means it can't detect anything under 11 ppm.
>
Okay.  Most of what I said was from memory, at least I was close.
>
> That's good enough for me.  Hell a model that
> wouldn't detect 500ppm would be ok if just seeing
> satisfied my wife.  Diligent maintenance of gas
> appliance is far more important that having a CO
> detector.  Mine hasn't gone off (except for a low
> battery alarm) in 4 years and I don't expect that
> it will ever go off before the detector fails.
> I'll just keep watching my furnace and water
> heater for any changes in operation--noise,
> visual, etc.

That's not a good way to check your system(s).  Get a trained HVAC expert to
go over your system with a recently calibrated CO detector.  I use a
Bacarach Fyrite Pro 125.