Carbon monoxide alarm sounding in your Birmingham home? Exactly what to do straight away, the symptoms to watch for, and the appliance checks that should follow.
Open windows, appliances off if safe, everyone out, ring 0800 111 999.
Headache, dizziness, nausea, tiredness and breathlessness. Get medical help.
Faulty boilers and flues, old gas fires, back boilers and blocked chimneys.
Short chirps usually mean low battery or end of life.
The appliance is checked and repaired before it is used again.
In each room with a fuel-burning appliance, and near sleeping areas.
Open doors and windows, turn off gas appliances if safe, get outside and ring 0800 111 999.
A short chirp every minute or so is usually a low battery or the alarm reaching the end of its life.
Headache, dizziness, nausea, tiredness and breathlessness, often easing when you go outside.
Most last around seven to ten years. Check the replacement date on the back.
Yes, if it is not burning properly or the flue is blocked or damaged. An annual service checks this.
Yes, once the supply has been made safe, across Birmingham.
If your carbon monoxide alarm goes off, treat it as real until it is proven otherwise. Open doors and windows, turn off gas appliances if it is safe to, get everyone outside into fresh air, and ring the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999. If anyone feels unwell, with headache, dizziness, sickness or drowsiness, get medical help. Carbon monoxide has no smell or colour, which is why the alarm matters.
Carbon monoxide comes from fuel that is not burning properly. In Birmingham homes the usual sources are a boiler with a blocked or damaged flue, an old gas fire in a front room chimney, a back boiler behind a fire in an older terrace, or a cooker used to heat a room. Blocked chimneys and flues in the Victorian terraces of Handsworth, Sparkhill and Moseley are a known risk, especially where a fire has not been swept or checked for years.
An alarm that beeps briefly every minute or so is usually a low battery or the end-of-life warning, not an alarm. Check the label: most alarms last around seven to ten years and show a replacement date. A continuous loud alarm is the real warning and needs the steps above.
Once the emergency service has made the supply safe, the appliance that caused it must be checked and repaired by a Gas Safe registered engineer before it is used again. We check flues, combustion and ventilation and tell you plainly what we find.
If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, open doors and windows, turn off gas appliances if it is safe to, get everyone outside and ring the National Gas Emergency line on 0800 111 999.
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