carbon monoxide detectors....how many

[cofo]

so, i live in a ranch style house. the hall way has a carbon monoxide detector. that hallway is where all our bedrooms sprout from.
but, i got scared recently that maybe just one wasn't enough because what if it doesn't work correctly(it's 5 years old and is wired in) and so i plugged in detectors into our bedrooms as well. it's a small house, 1900 square feet, and these detectors are all in about 800 square feet section of the house.
now, i got worried last night that if all 4 detectors go off at once that it will damage our hearing!! especially my son's(he's 18) they are so loud! if the one in his room goes off and the one in the hall way, right outside his room does too, would that damage his hearing??!?

but now my dilemma is, should i remove them? i'm scared to now that they are there!! i'll be sick if the one in my son's bedroom would have been the life saver, ya know?

i can't remove the wired one.
ugh.

[Carys]

If all 4 detectors go off, as there is carbon monoxide building up, then you will just be glad it was detected and the noise of them going off won't be a concern. These alarms are loud enough to wake someone, but not loud enough to damage ears! Also, they are designed so that you press a 'test' button and they produce the noise that they would when alarmning - and your head is right next to them. They wouldn't create a product that deafened people when tested. It does sound like you've gone a bit overboard though if there is one outside his room, and one in his room :winks:

[AMomentofClarity]

Translation: “I’m going to find something to worry about no matter what.”

Your issues come down to anxiety, not detectors, noise or anything else. Treat the cause and everything else falls into place.

[cofo]

yep, i know i have anxiety. :) that's why i'm on an anxiety forum!! LOL i wasn't worried about it, but last night i heard a chirp(or i dreamed a chirp). anyway, i woke up and wondered if a smoke/co2 detector had chirped. i listened, and didn't hear anything, and i started to worry about what if they were detecting co2. then i remembered rationally that they don't just chirp a tiny bit and make you guess, they go off and they are loud. so, then my anxiety brain just thought of the possibility of them going off all at once and how loud that would be! that's the thought process. it's not like i sat down and said, hmmm what can i worry about. it just was a stream of thought.

thanks carys.
ps-yes, i know one of them going off by itself won't deafen us, but if all of them went off at the same damn time....that would be really loud.
just not sure how loud something has to be to damage your hearing :O

[Fishmanpa]

ps-yes, i know one of them going off by itself won't deafen us, but if all of them went off at the same damn time....that would be really loud.
just not sure how loud something has to be to damage your hearing :O

You obviously haven't been up close to the stage at a heavy metal rock concert :roflmao:

Positive thoughts

[Carys]

Look, I don't know the volume of them, but I know that they will have been designed so that even if a number are in a property they can't make you deaf (all together). I once had to stand in a big educational building for 30 minutes in a 'safe area' which they had positioned right under an industrial-sized alarm. I swear it took me hours to hear properly again, but even then my hearing wasn't permanently damaged.

[JoeCanuck]

Sound levels aren't additive. If, for example, each of the alarms is 70 decibels 4 alarms isn't 280 decibels but more like 75-76 decibels. That being said, even IF the 4 alarms were loud enough to damage hearing they wouldn't be loud enough to cause noticeable permanent damage after a single exposure. On top of that, it's better to have some mild hearing damage as opposed to dying from CO poisoning.

By the way the a random, non-repeating chirp out of a CO or smoke detector is probably just a diagnostic check. If chirps are repetitive then you might need to change the batteries.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, our smole alarms start the occasioanl chirp when the batteries are getting low. After a while they will just chirp every minute.

[Darksky]

Great minds and all that. I was just going to suggest testing your batteries. Mine chirp when they are running low on battery power. I always change them sharpish, not because of any safety reasons, just because that chirping annoys the hell out of me.

[Carys]

...and they always start chirping at night !

[MyNameIsTerry]

...and they always start chirping at night !One of the mysteries of the universe falling under Sod's Law. If ever there was proof of a divine being this is it, up there have a damn good laugh at us for their mischief :biggrin: