Carbon Monoxide alarms..

jefaz07

C_Mababejive said:

jefaz07 said:

C_Mababejive said:

A lot of people have these now and im just wondering what people do if yours goes off?

Have you still got the instructions for your alarm to act as a guide?

If you ring the Gas Emergency service they are simply a make safe operation and will just cut your gas off and give you a legal disconnection notice on grounds of safety. You then have to get your own Engineer in to carry out tests and check everything.

What if they come and you pay them lots of money and they find nothing?

Things like wood burners and open fires are also a risk for CO. Maybe your immediate neighbour has one and its leaking fumes into your house?

So who would you call if it went off ? The fire brigade?

I’d call the Gas Emergency service. All this turn your own appliance advice is all well and good until it’s not coming from your property. Which happens a lot more than you’d think. 

The gas emergency service won’t cut your gas off either, depending on what’s wrong the switch on your boiler may just be turned off. 

But it’s part of the gas emergency procedures. If a Carbon Monoxide alarm is reported as going of then their only job is to make it safe by cutting the gas off and give a warning notice. That leaves you with no gas and having to find someone to come and check it. Not ideal when it’s freezing cold. 

It isn’t part of the procedure to cut the gas off. Depending on site conditions that dictates what you do, cutting the gas off is one of the possibilities but not the set procedure. 

Who said that if the alarm activates it’s your property and not next door/below? Or that it’s not a faulty alarm. Or even how much CO is present? 

All things a GDN would be able to determine.  

I would strongly advise anyone to ring the emergency number and have it checked 

And from your OP…if you call any emergency service, guess who they’re going to call in….

jefaz07

MattMattMattUK said:

C_Mababejive said:

A lot of people have these now and im just wondering what people do if yours goes off?

Have you still got the instructions for your alarm to act as a guide?

If you ring the Gas Emergency service they are simply a make safe operation and will just cut your gas off and give you a legal disconnection notice on grounds of safety. You then have to get your own Engineer in to carry out tests and check everything.

What if they come and you pay them lots of money and they find nothing?

Things like wood burners and open fires are also a risk for CO. Maybe your immediate neighbour has one and its leaking fumes into your house?

So who would you call if it went off ? The fire brigade?

I would not call the emergency services because it is not an emergency in that sense. I would get everyone else out of the property, open all windows and doors, turn off and then isolate all gas appliances and then call my gas engineer to visit and fix/replace whichever appliance was trying to suffocate me. 

So, you wouldn’t call the gas emergency service either? 

Again, this is poor advice in that you wouldn’t call the emergency line. 

Turning the gas off and ventilate is. 

Postik

It's a good question because (fortunately) mine have never gone off.

But I guess I would open all of the windows in the vicinity of the alarm.  And then try to deduce which appliance was causing it.  I'm assuming the carbon monoxide can only be produced through combustion - in other words the appliance has to be switched on.  So if it were coming from the boiler, I would turn it off at the mains.  And call a gas engineer during working hours.  I'm not sure isolating the gas supply would be required.

silvercar

I’ve had a CO alarm go off. I switched off the boiler at the mains, opened the windows and left the room with the CO alarm. Put the CO alarm outside to shut it up. Half an hour later brought the CO alarm back into the room to check if the CO had dispersed. It had. I then shut the windows.
 

Then came possibly a mistake, I went out without telling my OH what had happened. He came home, realised the house was cold and turned the boiler on. The CO alarm didn’t go off. So we carried on using the boiler as it appeared to be a random one off.

Two weeks later it happened again. As in it went off only once, but after a reset was fine. This time we called out the gas safe bod. Who adjusted a few things on the boiler and all was fine.

FreeBear

silvercar said: Two weeks later it happened again. As in it went off only once, but after a reset was fine. This time we called out the gas safe bod. Who adjusted a few things on the boiler and all was fine.

CO alarms have a working life of 5-7 years. Don't know what happens once they get old, but false alarms may be a symptom.

Thomas_Crown

QrizB said:

I have a combined smoke and CO alarm in the kitchen (the only room with any combustion appliances). The smoke alarm goes off whenever Mrs QrizB gets too enthusiastic with the stir-fry bit I don't think the CO alarm has ever gone off!

Smoke alarms are not supposed to be fitted in kitchens or bathrooms, due to false alarms from smoke when cooking in the kitchen and steam in the bathroom.

silvercar

FreeBear said:

silvercar said: Two weeks later it happened again. As in it went off only once, but after a reset was fine. This time we called out the gas safe bod. Who adjusted a few things on the boiler and all was fine.

CO alarms have a working life of 5-7 years. Don't know what happens once they get old, but false alarms may be a symptom.

Wasn’t a false alarm as the gas engineer managed to find the problem and one of the alarms was brand new. 

Mutton_Geoff

jefaz07 said:

C_Mababejive said:

A lot of people have these now and im just wondering what people do if yours goes off?

Have you still got the instructions for your alarm to act as a guide?

If you ring the Gas Emergency service they are simply a make safe operation and will just cut your gas off and give you a legal disconnection notice on grounds of safety. You then have to get your own Engineer in to carry out tests and check everything.

What if they come and you pay them lots of money and they find nothing?

Things like wood burners and open fires are also a risk for CO. Maybe your immediate neighbour has one and its leaking fumes into your house?

So who would you call if it went off ? The fire brigade?

I’d call the Gas Emergency service. All this turn your own appliance advice is all well and good until it’s not coming from your property. Which happens a lot more than you’d think. 

The gas emergency service won’t cut your gas off either, depending on what’s wrong the switch on your boiler may just be turned off. 

Gas doesn't trigger a CO alarm, only CO does which is a by product of combustion. The gas emergency service would only switch off the supply (which you can do yourself). You will be better off identifying potential sources of CO in your house and having an action plan how to deal with an alarm.

What would you do while you wait for the "emergency services" to arrive? Sit in your nice warm house? A plan is vital.

C_Mababejive

Some varying views...

Lets look at CO alarms work. Well the first thing to ensure is that the alarm you buy is from a reputable manufacturer and has the relevant British standard markings. 

Also the newer ones have a sealed for life battery so that eliminates any issues with whether or not the batteries are working properly.

They also have a limited lifespan. 

If yours has replaceable batteries,you could well have a 20 year old alarm with fresh batteries that will be useless as the sensor element will have long since died.

The alarm may well still beep when you press the test button as the button is only to test the beeper, not the sensor itself.

Alarms sample the air and if there is low level CO, it logs it and repeats that process. If it doesnt see the low level read go away over a period of time then it alarms.

It will also alarm much faster for higher level exposures.

The Gas Emergency service does not work on,test or service any apparatus or appliance. If your alarm goes off and you call them, they will cut your gas off and issue you with an "immediately Dangerous" prohibition notice.

jefaz07

Mutton_Geoff said:

jefaz07 said:

C_Mababejive said:

A lot of people have these now and im just wondering what people do if yours goes off?

Have you still got the instructions for your alarm to act as a guide?

If you ring the Gas Emergency service they are simply a make safe operation and will just cut your gas off and give you a legal disconnection notice on grounds of safety. You then have to get your own Engineer in to carry out tests and check everything.

What if they come and you pay them lots of money and they find nothing?

Things like wood burners and open fires are also a risk for CO. Maybe your immediate neighbour has one and its leaking fumes into your house?

So who would you call if it went off ? The fire brigade?

I’d call the Gas Emergency service. All this turn your own appliance advice is all well and good until it’s not coming from your property. Which happens a lot more than you’d think. 

The gas emergency service won’t cut your gas off either, depending on what’s wrong the switch on your boiler may just be turned off. 

Gas doesn't trigger a CO alarm, only CO does which is a by product of combustion. The gas emergency service would only switch off the supply (which you can do yourself). You will be better off identifying potential sources of CO in your house and having an action plan how to deal with an alarm.

What would you do while you wait for the "emergency services" to arrive? Sit in your nice warm house? A plan is vital.

I’m well aware of how CO is produced and what triggers an alarm. Are you aware of how many CO alarm activation jobs are from other properties where turning off your supply won’t make a blind bit of difference. 

Anything from charcoal ovens in Indian takeaways to a house fire in a kitchen to name just a few I have attended. Both occasions forced entry had to be made and hospital visits on both jobs. 

The chap from the fire we had to drag out and administer CPR in the street. A man’s life was saved because some rang the ‘emergency service’ because of an alarm activation. 

Unfortunately I have seen too many fatalities due to CO so I’d encourage anyone, if an alarm goes off, call it in!!

So the ‘emergency service’ will attend within an hour, often a lot less. They well then identify where the CO is coming from, and if it is not your property break into the property it is coming from and sort it out. Something turning your gas off will not solve!