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Carbon monoxide detector attached to wall of home
January 08, 2024

Where To Place Carbon Monoxide Detectors In Your Omaha House

Property owners must defend against various risks like fire, burglary, and flooding. But what about a danger that you are unable to see or smell? Carbon monoxide poses unique challenges as you might never know it’s there. Even so, using CO detectors can effectively safeguard you and your household. Find out more about this potentially lethal gas and where to place carbon monoxide detectors in your Omaha home.

What Is Carbon Monoxide?

Known as the silent killer due to its absence of color, odor, or taste, carbon monoxide is a common gas produced by the incomplete combustion of fuels. Any appliance that utilizes fuels like an oven or furnace may produce carbon monoxide. Although you normally won’t have problems, complications can present when equipment is not frequently serviced or properly vented. These missteps could result in a build-up of the potentially lethal gas in your home. Generators and heating appliances are commonly culpable for CO poisoning.

When in contact with minute levels of CO, you could suffer from dizziness, headaches, fatigue nausea, or vomiting. Prolonged exposure to elevated concentrations can result in cardiorespiratory failure, and potentially death.

Tips For Where To Place Omaha Carbon Monoxide Detectors

If your home doesn’t have a carbon monoxide detector, get one now. If possible, you should have one on each floor, including basements. Here are some tips on where to place carbon monoxide detectors in Omaha:

  • Install them on every level, specifically in places where you use fuel-burning appliances, like water heaters, furnaces, gas dryers, and fireplaces.
  • Always use one within 10 feet of sleeping areas. If you only install one CO detector, this is where it should go.
  • Position them approximately 10 to 20 feet from sources of CO.
  • Do not position them directly above or beside fuel-burning appliances, as a small degree of carbon monoxide could be released when they kick on and trigger a false alarm.
  • Attach them to walls about five feet off the floor so they may sample air where inhabitants are breathing it.
  • Avoid putting them in dead-air zones and next to doors or windows.
  • Install one in areas above garages.

Check your CO detectors often and maintain them per manufacturer instructions. You will usually have to replace them within five or six years. You should also ensure any fuel-utilizing appliances are in in proper working shape and appropriately vented.