Posted by Bob Mc on 06/12/2017 13:09:52:
Ok.. its not related to model engineering but perhaps there are some of you out there who might throw some light as to why I can't seem to find anything for household use which states it is a Gas detector/sensor.
I had a knock on the door and a real nice guy…a British Gas engineer told me that I was eligible for free fitting of carbon monoxide detectors … all paid for.. "well put them in" says I; after he had gone I began to think…. isn't carbon monoxide what you get when some volatile vapour such as petrol is burned..?
This don't make sense now… but I admit I don't know much about these things.. I would have thought that carbon monoxide is what you get when perhaps there has been a gas leak and perhaps a room full of gas is ignited…and then carbon monoxide would be present and the detectors would alert me to the fact that the house has just blown up…!!!
Is carbon monoxide the same stuff as household gas itself…? don't know..
I would have thought that sensing a build up of gas would be more appropriate…but I hope to be educated….
…Bob…
You didn't look too hard for residential gas detectors – try the following link, or a Google search for "gas detectors uk".
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gas-Detectors/b?ie=UTF8&node=1939548031
If you have gas burning heaters or water heating units, for best safety, you should have a smoke alarm, a CO alarm, and a gas detector. They are not expensive compared to other things in the home and may save your life if a fault develops in gas burning equipment. I used to work for a smoke alarm firm and believe me having the alarms is worth the money. They should be changed every 10 years too, as the sensors degrade over time. Also wise to change batteries at least once a year, preferably every 6 months. Every home or apartment should have at least one smoke alarm, regardless of whether there are combustion appliances or not.
I'm sure there will be the usual bunch of forum responses from the know-alls arguing this is over the top H&S nonsense and is not necessary, but while I worked in the industry we cooperated with fire departments on post-incident investigations. After seeing many horrific results of CO poisoning and terrible fires with multiple fatalities in these investigations I am extremely careful and fussy about gas and smoke alarms.