Low Level Carbon Monoxide Detector Test

Low Level Carbon Monoxide Detector Test

In homes with fuel burning appliances or a car parked in an attached garage, a carbon monoxide detector is an important safety device that can help protect people from the toxic gas. However, CO poisoning can occur at lower levels than those required by most standard CO detectors to trigger an alarm.

Many homeowners have low level carbon monoxide detector health problems attributed to low levels of CO exposure, including headaches, fatigue, nausea, and dizziness. These symptoms are often misdiagnosed as flu, chronic fatigue syndrome, or other common ailments and can lead to prolonged exposure and more severe health consequences.

Current CO detectors are designed to alert when carbon monoxide concentrations reach a certain threshold of 70 parts per million (ppm) in a short period of time. While these levels pose a danger to the majority of healthy, working-age adults, they can be life-threatening for infants and children, the elderly, cancer patients, and those with heart conditions.

Why You Need a Low-Level Carbon Monoxide Detector for Enhanced Safety

The purpose of this study was to test a variety of newly purchased, UL-listed CO detectors for their ability to warn at CO levels significantly below the minimum requirement set by the Underwriters Laboratory 2034 Standard. Each detector was simultaneously exposed to a slowly increasing amount of CO from indoor burning of charcoal briquets and displayed the measured CO levels on their display. Also, each detector was tested for its ability to activate the preset CO alarm in response to varying levels of CO.

The results indicate that most of the detectors tested performed as intended, with all reporting similar levels of CO and all activating their preset alarms in response to varying amounts of carbon monoxide. However, some of the older detectors were surprisingly susceptible to failure at these very low levels of exposure, and disproportionately accounted for a significant percentage of the unsafe units tested (see black bars in Figure 2).

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