CO Carbon Monoxide Detectors
CO Carbon Monoxide Detectors are recommended to have in your home and you can buy a plug in 120V model with 9 volt battery backup.
Business and commercial CO detectors are tied into fire alarm systems.
CO2 Carbon Dioxide detectors are different than CO Carbon Monoxide detectors see below:
CO detectors are required in K-12 Schools in Utah as per R710 Utah Fire Code and these are system detectors. System detectors do not plug in nor do they have a 9 volt battery backup, they tie to a fire alarm system and often the system ties to the air handler units to shut off the air flow. In Utah Schools the Fire Marshal’s office requires a blue strobe light in the office and sometimes in hallways.
CO detectors are installed wherever you have gas burning fuel items such as Bunson burners in labs, water heaters, gas fire places or heaters etc…The CO detectors are installed in the rooms with those items and sometimes in high traffic areas outside those areas when required.
It used to be that they would be installed on the wall around 5 feet up although now often they are mounted on the ceiling in a similar fashion to smoke detectors.
There are different types, you can buy a CO detector that has to be calibrated and has replaceable parts inside the detector and it has to be tested periodically and adjusted with special equipment. The Parts per million are listed on the detector and these types are quite a bit more expensive.
Our Simplex CO bases do not require field calibration and they also should be tested every year during the required fire alarm inspection when the panel is tested. We either install a smoke head or a heat head with these CO detectors. Our system CO detectors can be programmed to set off a sounder with a temporal 4 code in a pattern of 4 instead of 3 which is for fire.
Carbon Monoxide can’t be smelled nor can you see it and it can kill in minutes. Faulty equipment such as stoves or fire places or furnaces can vehicles or even generators operated indoors can all generate CO gas and CO kills hundreds of people each year in the US and thousands of people go to the hospital because of CO gas poisoning.
CO2
CO2 Detectors are Carbon DIOXIDE which are very different and quite a bit more expensive. Often people will refer to carbon Monoxide detectors as CO2 and this is incorrect. CO2 gas detection ensures safety in industrial, commercial and residential environments. Carbon Dioxide is naturally occurring and can be hazardous at high concentrations which can lead to headaches, dizziness, respiratory issues and sometimes suffocation.
Businesses that do brewing, process food, agriculture and laboratories that have closed spaces need these detectors to prevent buildup of the gas and they help to keep in compliance with safety standards. CO2 Detectors measure the presence of CO2 molecules in the air with infrared light.
Often in buildings that store large amounts of CO2 the detectors will be installed to notify occupants of dangerous levels of CO2 gas which is CARBON DIOXIDE.
Contact Larry Love at Johnson Controls Fire Protection 801 898 6003 Larry.Love@JCI.com for additional information or to submit corrections to this blog. Larry is a NICET level 2 tech in Fire Alarm and currently is with Johnson Controls Fire Protection in the Salt Lake City Office in Utah.
Call Shandie a local JCI contact in Salt Lake City
Johnson Controls Fire Protection local service contact Shandie Gorney Shandie.a.gorney@jci.com call her cell 801 214 5668 Shandie can also get you pricing for UL listed Monitoring as well as a quote and paperwork for your fire sprinkler and fire alarm test and inspection tags and reports. JCI also does fire extinguisher testing and certifications.
Jackson.Jones@jci.com cell 801 403 3461 call Jackson for service proposals
Matt Bingham Matthew.bingham@jci.com cell 801 419 1379 New Construction and owner direct systems.
Larry Love Larry.Love@jci.com 801 898 6003 also does new construction bids as well as owner direct systems and upgrades.