Carbon monoxide is an odorless and tasteless gas that is impossible to detect without the use of carbon monoxide detectors. These units will set off a loud and high-pitched sound to alert everyone within the building to the presence of carbon monoxide. When the alert goes off, you can take the necessary steps to ensure everyone leaves the building and gets to safety. From there, be sure to contact your local authorities.

Carbon monoxide, or CO, is a dangerous gas that can occur when fuel is burnt off. Common household equipment such as furnaces, boilers, and generators can all produce carbon monoxide. Should a leak ever occur, you need to know right away in order to avoid serious damage.

Carbon monoxide is poisonous and can lead to serious illness and even death if it is inhaled for too long. Common symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure include headaches, dizziness, or even nausea. Installing carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home can help to minimize your exposure if a leak were to ever occur in your home.

Once you have carbon monoxide detectors properly installed throughout your building, there are a number of things you will need to do to ensure that your carbon monoxide detectors are working properly. Be sure to perform the following couple of checks:

• Test your carbon monoxide detectors to ensure that they are working properly. If you uncover a carbon monoxide detector that doesn’t work, replace the detector immediately.
• Take the time to replace your CO detector batteries at least once per year. It’s a smart idea to replace your CO detector and smoke detector batteries during daylight savings time every year.

Before you begin to install carbon monoxide detectors, be sure to consider where they should be installed to ensure complete coverage. Installing them outside of common areas and bedrooms will likely have the greatest impact, as those are the areas where your family will spend the majority of their time while home. 

You’ll want to make sure that you have a carbon monoxide detector on every floor of your home, especially in the basement as well. Ideally, you’ll also want to have one near the door entrance to your garage. 

Carbon monoxide doesn’t rise like smoke does. It instead mixes with the air, so for best detection, detectors should be installed between knee and eye level. Detectors may need to be installed higher up the wall at homes with small children so they are not tempted to remove the detector from the wall.