On Fri, 9 Feb 2007 15:21:15 -0500, "Zephyr" Someguy@an email
address.com wrote:

Hey folks,

I just finished talking with a co worker who is recovering from a carbon
monoxide scare. she had been sick for the past while and found out recently
when they checked out her basement and found CO at 700 ppm. She had been
sleeping with the door and window closed and it was making her perpetually
ill. Here's the scary part, she said she had these 1/2 smoke 1/2 CO
alarms in her house. even though the basement was at 700 ppm. (which
according to the specs on my kidde alarm should make it sound in 4 minutes)
none of her alarms sounded. ( I don't know what brand she had)

This made me question my own alarm. I tested it, and it seems to function
correctly.
however, I'm not sure where it should be placed. Reading online some say
that the detectors should be placed on the ceiling, because the CO is mixed
in with the warm furnace air that rises. However, the person who checked
out my co workers house said that the CO generally falls, and so the
detectors should be lower to the ground.

what do you all think?

A molecule of carbon monoxide weighs 28. C=12 and 0=16.

70%+ (78?)of the air is nitrogen and a molecule of that weighs 28.
N=114x2.

So they weight the same.

02 weighs 32 (2x16) so that is a bit heavier than the the other two.
So I would think that if anything CO would rise, but slowly.

The instructions that came with my CO detector said iirc that heightt
was not important. I suppose I would still avoid corners, out of the
air flow, so the very top or bottom of the wall is a bad idea.

My CO detector is plugged in at the only unused receptacle, which is
about 12 inches above the floor and it once went off at 3 in the
morning, and I awoke with a headache. Definitely CO.

This is the alarm I have
http://www.kidde.com/utcfs/ws-384/As...O5%20sheet.pdf

No offense but I eschew pdf files.

They sell bags of CO with which to test the detector. Flat foil bags
a couple inches square. I think I bought one at a hamfest, or got it
free somewhere, and iirc when it followed the directions (and opened
it near my detector) the detector went off.

Dave