carbon monoxide

indie armada

this week we sold out of all out carbon monoxide detectors in one day.
i woud imagine this is due to the news coverage of that poor girl in cork.
is there no regulation in place that insists on having a detector in place where there is an internal ofch/gfch burner. how safe are these units and what would cause them to start spitting out carbon monoxide.
ive seen where people have them built into wardrobes and like myself have them in a press in the kitchen but i have a detector and tbh most people ive said it to dont even know you can get a detector for co. is this down to poor representation by the bodies who are responsible for the supply of info to the public, and if they exist, who are they.

Prenderb

Bord Gáis (IIRC) run television adverts reasonably regularly.

I for one don't know of any regulation requiring a carbon monoxide detector, but the building regulations that are here do require vents in rooms to allow ventilation of (amongst other things) carbon monoxide.

Carbon Monoxide is a by-product of combustion, so wherever you have combustion (boilers included) it is generated in larger or smaller proportions depending on many factors - fuel, oxygen availability, efficiency of burn and so on.

indie armada

we were chattin about it today in work and i was under the impression that unlike natural gas which has a scent introduced to it, co is a by-product and there is no way of introducing a scent to it as it exhausts from the burner. i know on most instructions for co detectors that they have to be a certain distance from the burner, but is there no way manufacturers could fit something to the unit that could warn or shut down the burner in the event of a co leak.

yoshytoshy

This has always been the most important part of gas installations and has been for years.

Installations are inspected when serviced , co detectors are only ever an addition to a safe installation ,they don't make installations safe.

indie armada

yoshytoshy wrote: »

This has always been the most important part of gas installations and has been for years.

Installations are inspected when serviced , co detectors are only ever an addition to a safe installation ,they don't make installations safe.

i agree with ye there, like smoke alarms dont stop your house goin on fire, they just warn ye when it happens. what i cant understand is what could make a safe installation suddenly become unsafe and potentially kill somebody, or is it the case that when this happens the installation was never safe to begin with.

yoshytoshy

indie armada wrote: »

i agree with ye there, like smoke alarms dont stop your house goin on fire, they just warn ye when it happens. what i cant understand is what could make a safe installation suddenly become unsafe and potentially kill somebody, or is it the case that when this happens the installation was never safe to begin with.

It's impossible to say without knowing the facts ,that girl in cork may have been in a room where a duct cracked.
A lot of newer buildings are prefrabicated concrete and if they move slightly,it's very easy to get cracks.

I'd be very suprised if it was negligence in that hotel that caused this issue ,it may have been a weakness somewhere that no one seen.

DoneDL

Gas fitters would be the most paranoid of the trades when it comes to CO because it is gas appliances which are the most at risk but all fuel burning appliances will produce CO and ventilation in a home should be a consideration when fitting all heating appliances, you can get combined smoke and CO detectors which should be mandatory in every home.