Thursday, January 22, 2009

Carbon Monoxide?

Alright, the CO monitor has gone off THREE TIMES tonight, after not going off at all the entire time I've been here. I called the landlord down the first time, and it stopped while we were checking it out. He said sometimes the gas logs will cause it to go off??? So I turned off the gas logs- except for the small pilot light. No alarm for 3 hours, then beep-beep-beep-beep. Reset the alarm, and it stayed off for a few hours.

Now it's 2 am and it went off again. Logs are off. No other known sources of gas. Looked on the internet and it says sometimes atmospheric changes can cause it to go off. I moved it beside my bedroom door (instead of in the other room) cause it said it should be placed within 15 feet of my bedroom. I opened the door for awhile. It's not going off now.

But now I'm worried. Landlord was not worried- but he's not up at 2 am.

I'm not dizzy or headachey, or any other symptom. Just worried cause the darn alarm keeps going off. And the internet says to call 911-- but if there's CO levels then it should be present everywhere in the apartment, right? If it goes off outside the bedroom, I'm calling Mr. Landlord down to inhale the fumes with me.

So here's hoping I'm not being hypo-reactive.

UPDATE: Landlord is checking it out. I survived the night after airing the apartment out for 10 minutes at 3 in the morning (4th time the thing went off). We're installing a new monitor for tonight and if it so much as stutters a beep I'm heading to a hotel. I'm tired. And I"m heading to work. Not a lot of driving planned today, so that's good.

UPDATE #2: Did you know plug-in CO detectors have a battery in them? Neither did the landlord. We bought a new one, realized there's a battery in it despite being a plug-in, and changed the battery on the old one. Neither detector is alarming now! Yeah. Now I have two and I shall sleep well tonight- but not well in that "oh I'm breathing carbon monoxide" well that I was scared about last night! BTW- at 3am all sorts of stuff runs through your head when an alarm for a odorless clear gas keeps going off. Lots of whatifs and whatnots. At one point, I was convincing myself that my landlords were NOT already dead from CO poisoning and that's why they hadn't come down to investigate the the shrieking alarm. It didn't help that their 6 chihuahuas were eerily quiet during all of this shriekbeeping as well. But all is well. Another life experience.

1 comment:

  1. Yikes! My Grandma got carbon monoxide poisoning when I was in middle school. It happened at her work...a faulty furnace or something. Not everyone that worked there got sick. But...she got very sick and it didn't help that it took the doctors forever to find out what was wrong with her.
    I'm glad your landlord is looking into it. Not something to take lightly. Stick to your guns on this one chica.
    Hmmmm....come to think of it....I don't think I have a carbon monoxide detector. I should probably get one. :)

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