Home CO Safety Readiness Check

Carbon monoxide sends more than 100,000 people to emergency rooms in the United States each year and kills more than 400, two counts CDC publishes side by side rather than one inside the other, since many CO deaths never reach an emergency room at all. The risk increases sharply during winter months, when homes are sealed up and fuel-burning appliances run continuously, but CO hazards exist year-round in any home with a furnace, water heater, gas stove, fireplace, or attached garage.

The good news: most CO incidents are preventable with a few straightforward measures. The challenge is that CO safety involves multiple systems working together, detectors, appliance maintenance, ventilation, daily habits, and emergency planning. A gap in any one area can undermine the rest.

This 2-minute check evaluates your home across five CO safety dimensions: detector coverage, appliance maintenance, ventilation, safe practices, and emergency preparedness. You will receive a score for each area and an overall readiness rating, along with a prioritized list of what to address first.

Most readers of a home readiness check live in a house that already exists and are not about to renovate it, and that turns out to be the question the law is least consistent about. We asked every one of the 51 US jurisdiction records whether its requirement reaches a building that is already standing: 35 reach one outright, 11 reach one only on a condition, 4 record that they do not - Colorado, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia - and Illinois is recorded as open rather than answered. The eleven conditions are worth knowing because they are all events rather than dates. Connecticut turns on permitted alteration or addition work. Pennsylvania reaches an existing hotel when work is done to it and not otherwise. Hawaii turns on the county and on the valuation of the addition, since Honolulu added a budget threshold the state code does not have. In those eleven the requirement is waiting for you to pull a permit, which is a very different thing from not applying.

Note: This check provides general safety guidance based on widely accepted best practices from the CPSC, NFPA, CDC, and EPA. It is not a substitute for a professional home inspection or a licensed HVAC technician's assessment.

In 2 Minutes

• CO detectors on every level and near every sleeping area are the single most important protection, but roughly 1 in 3 US homes still lacks adequate coverage.
• Annual professional inspection of your furnace, water heater, and other fuel-burning appliances catches problems before they produce dangerous CO levels.
• Blocked vents and chimneys, from debris, snow, ice, or animal nests, are a leading cause of CO buildup in otherwise well-maintained homes.
• Never use generators, grills, or camp stoves indoors, not even in an attached garage with the door open. One portable generator produces as much CO as hundreds of idling cars.
• An emergency plan your household actually knows, including what the CO alarm sounds like and where to meet outside, turns detection into action.
• This check covers all five areas and tells you where your home is strong and where it has gaps.

What This Check Covers

• Number, placement, age, and testing frequency of your CO detectors.
• Professional maintenance status of furnaces, water heaters, and other fuel-burning appliances.
• Condition and clearance of external vents, chimneys, and flue pipes.
• Daily practices that create CO risk, garage use, indoor heating alternatives, generator placement.
• Whether your household has a CO emergency plan with known alarm sounds and meeting points.
• Whether anyone in your home is at elevated risk from CO exposure (infants, elderly, pregnant individuals, people with heart or lung conditions).
• Overall readiness score across all five dimensions with prioritized improvement steps.

Start the Check

How to Interpret Your Result

Your answers are scored across five dimensions: detector coverage, appliance maintenance, ventilation, safe practices, and emergency preparedness. Each dimension contributes to an overall readiness rating.

• Well Protected (80-100%): Your home scores high across all five CO safety dimensions. Detectors, maintenance, ventilation, daily habits, and emergency planning all appear to be in good shape.
• Mostly Ready (60-79%): Your home has a solid CO safety foundation, but one or two areas need attention. Addressing these gaps typically requires a small time investment, not a major expense.
• Gaps to Address (40-59%): Multiple CO safety gaps exist across several areas. The combination creates meaningful risk - especially during winter months or power outages.
• Immediate Action Needed (0-39%): Significant CO safety gaps exist across most or all of the five dimensions. Critical protections are largely absent or insufficient.

Sources & References

1. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Carbon Monoxide Information Center . CPSC's CO hub. "More than 200 people in the United States die every year from accidental non-fire related CO poisoning associated with consumer products. More than 100 of those deaths are linked to portable generators." It also carries the heating, generator and power-outage guidance.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), About Carbon Monoxide Poisoning . More than 400 unintentional deaths a year, more than 100,000 emergency department visits and more than 14,000 hospitalizations, with the prevention guidance.
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Protect Your Family from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning . EPA's DO and DON'T factsheet and its ventilation guidance, which are the reason to read it. It gives no placement rule, and its detector section is dated: it still describes CO detector technology as "still developing" and less reliable than smoke detectors, which CPSC no longer says.
4. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Carbon Monoxide Safety . NFPA's consumer guidance: "a central location outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home", interconnect them, follow the manufacturer for mounting height. No distance and no code text on this page.
5. U.S. Fire Administration (FEMA/USFA), Carbon Monoxide . "More than 150 people in the United States die every year from accidental nonfire-related CO", which USFA attributes to CPSC, plus the alarm guidance.
6. American Red Cross, Carbon Monoxide Safety . Preparedness checklist and evacuation steps, and the plainest statement of the sound difference we have found: "Smoke alarms typically make three fast beeps ... A carbon monoxide alarm makes four fast beeps."
7. National Safety Council (NSC), Carbon Monoxide . NSC's battery and replacement advice, change the battery at each clock change and replace the detector every five years. Its CDC figures are older ones, "more than 20,000" emergency room visits and "more than 4,000" hospitalizations, against the more than 100,000 and more than 14,000 CDC publishes now.
8. Kidde, Placement of Carbon Monoxide Alarms . Kidde's own placement rule: an alarm on each level, ideally on any level with fuel-burning appliances and outside sleeping areas, and "additional CO alarms are recommended 5-20 feet from sources of CO such as a furnace, water heater or fireplace."
9. UL Solutions, Carbon Monoxide Alarm Considerations for Code Authorities . The UL 2034 listing category and the end-of-life signal, plus the four-tone alarm pattern. It publishes no ppm thresholds; its sensitivity test is stated against a 10 percent COHb level.