No fossil fuel - carbon monoxide alarm needed?

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ritelec

ritelec

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Jersey
In Jersey. (And I guess elsewhere)?

If a condo (or house) is ALL electric, would carbon monoxide detectors be required ?

Thank you.
 
N.J. Stat. Ann. § 55:13B-6.1 – Rooming and Boarding Houses

Requires every unit of a rooming or boarding house be equipped with one or more carbon monoxide sensor devices unless it is determined that no potential carbon monoxide hazard exists for that unit.

Taken from National Counsel of State legislatures.


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Ok. This is a condo. No garage.
No chance of CO. unless someone hooked up a hose to a car and dragged it to the third floor.

:- /


Thank you both for the info. Appreciated.
 
170810-2355 EDT

Most homes contain a lot of organic materials. Organic materials contain carbon. Thus, burning of organic materials may produce CO and/or CO2.

How do most CO detectors work, and are they selective to only CO? A heated resistive component (a thermistor for example) can detect CO or any combustable gas.

I don't know what commercial detectors use.

.
 
Commercial detectors have a finite lifetime from opening the package, which suggests that there is a specific chemical reagent that reacts with CO.

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gar said:
170810-2355 EDT

Most homes contain a lot of organic materials. Organic materials contain carbon. Thus, burning of organic materials may produce CO and/or CO2.

How do most CO detectors work, and are they selective to only CO? A heated resistive component (a thermistor for example) can detect CO or any combustable gas.

I don't know what commercial detectors use.

.
Click to expand...
But those organic materials are not pure carbon - they will give off other gases and particles if they burn and a smoke alarm will detect that. The primary reason for CO detectors is to detect malfunction in ventilation of gas burning appliances where they don't give off other particles during the combustion process. If you don't have such appliances there is not much need to detect this gas.

Car in the garage - if you don't have ventilation you are going to set off such detectors frequently I would think. I also think opening the overhead door is going to provide sufficient ventilation - bottom line don't run the car with the door closed. If you were trying to kill yourself by running the car in a closed garage then you will just be upset when the CO alarm interrupts your process:ashamed1:
 
kwired said:
But those organic materials are not pure carbon - they will give off other gases and particles if they burn and a smoke alarm will detect that. The primary reason for CO detectors is to detect malfunction in ventilation of gas burning appliances where they don't give off other particles during the combustion process. If you don't have such appliances there is not much need to detect this gas.

Car in the garage - if you don't have ventilation you are going to set off such detectors frequently I would think. I also think opening the overhead door is going to provide sufficient ventilation - bottom line don't run the car with the door closed. If you were trying to kill yourself by running the car in a closed garage then you will just be upset when the CO alarm interrupts your process:ashamed1:
Click to expand...

Modern cars emit very little CO.
In Illinois, every home with either an attached garage or a nat gas connection is required to have CO detectors - no grandfathering exception.
I never hear about nuisance alarms from normal garage use.
 
170811-1606 EDT

An interesting product and datasheet. https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/1/4/3/CCS811_Datasheet-DS000459.pdf
I did not find a discussion about the theory of operation, but it appears to be based upon a heated element and a resistance change. In other words a temperature rise greater than what would occur from just self heating of the sensing element.

In other searches I found that, based on qualitative experiments, some commercial residential CO alarms do not work. None of those websites discussed any absolute reference for the measurements. Also, some devices had time constants so long before an alarm that you could be dead first.

.
 
gar said:
170811-1606 EDT

An interesting product and datasheet. https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/1/4/3/CCS811_Datasheet-DS000459.pdf
I did not find a discussion about the theory of operation, but it appears to be based upon a heated element and a resistance change. In other words a temperature rise greater than what would occur from just self heating of the sensing element.

In other searches I found that, based on qualitative experiments, some commercial residential CO alarms do not work. None of those websites discussed any absolute reference for the measurements. Also, some devices had time constants so long before an alarm that you could be dead first.

.
Click to expand...

Fine for a generic air quality monitor which detects volatiles and CO2.
What is used in safety applications is a specific CO detector, as described here.

All chemically based in one form or another, with a sensor having a limited life and not replaceable.
 
ritelec said:
Ok. This is a condo. No garage.
No chance of CO. unless someone hooked up a hose to a car and dragged it to the third floor.

:- /


Thank you both for the info. Appreciated.
Click to expand...

No CO detector would be required in the case you describe.

That said, who has the money to burn for heating a condo in NJ in the winter with electric?!? When I first got out of school and worked in northern NJ, my peak electric bill was usually in Jan/Feb and it was $200. In 1979. With being out of the apartment 12-18 hours a day and leaving it at 55°F.
 
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