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Just checked. You are in New Jersey. You are going to have some carbon traces just from where you live. I'm not making fun of NJ, it is just a fact of life. When we lived in south Florida, we had a LOT more carbon buildup than here in the country. We get tons of pollen instead.
I've seen this for many years- and usually in older homes.
What causes it? Air infiltration.
Air leaking in from under the wall plate, and the carpet is acting like a filter.
The usual fix is a good bead of caulk at the subfloor and wall plate under the baseboard.
I've seen this for many years- and usually in older homes.
What causes it? Air infiltration.
Air leaking in from under the wall plate, and the carpet is acting like a filter.
The usual fix is a good bead of caulk at the subfloor and wall plate under the baseboard.
Ar the very least consider getting one with a readout that gives you PPM to see if you have low levels that would be indicative of a problem but not enough to set off the regular detector.
I don't want to sound like the "sky is falling" but there is lot of people that have died from CO ignoring tell tale signs like soot in the house. Do you have anything else in the house that uses combustibles like a gas cook stove, gas dryer, gas/oil hot water heater or a gas fireplace? Anything that burns something is a possible source of CO.
This "soot" might not be soot and unrelated entirely but it's not something to ignore either.
I will check what kind we have and upgrade if need be!
Our HVAC guy told us today that if it were from our furnace, we would see soot/staining at the registers, which we don't have/see.
We have a gas stove/dryer/hot water heater. Stove and dryer are on the newer side and on the first floor, water heater is in the basement.
We have carpet in the family room on the first floor and I do not see it in there. It could be due to the fact that it's a semi-shag and darker than the second floor carpet and harder to see? Second floor carpet is a berber print - flat and easy to see anything and everything!
Just checked. You are in New Jersey. You are going to have some carbon traces just from where you live. I'm not making fun of NJ, it is just a fact of life. When we lived in south Florida, we had a LOT more carbon buildup than here in the country. We get tons of pollen instead.
I've seen this for many years- and usually in older homes.
What causes it? Air infiltration.
Air leaking in from under the wall plate, and the carpet is acting like a filter.
The usual fix is a good bead of caulk at the subfloor and wall plate under the baseboard.
Even on the second floor and in the hallways?
Our house is almost 14 years old, but we did have a home efficiency audit a few years ago when we had solar panels put on the roof and they found the "leakiest" parts of the house and filled them with insulation and caulk. And that was after they told us our house was in good condition "efficiency" wise.
I will check what kind we have and upgrade if need be!
I'm not suggesting changing them all, you can purchase one with a readout. Generally speaking it's a good practice to have at least one with a readout whether you have an issue or not.
I'm not suggesting changing them all, you can purchase one with a readout. Generally speaking it's a good practice to have at least one with a readout whether you have an issue or not.
I just checked and we have Nighthawks (plugged in to the outlets & have a battery backup) with LCD screens - as they sit right now, they all read 0.
I just checked and we have Nighthawks (plugged in to the outlets & have a battery backup) with LCD screens - as they sit right now, they all read 0.
Excellent, get in the habit of glancing at them occasionally.
The way a CO detector works is there is different thresholds, if it exceeds X ppm for one hour it will go off. If it exceeds X ppm for 24 hours it will go off, if it exceeds X ppm for 1 week.... It will also go off when it go overs level that is unsafe. You can have fluctuations in the levels as long as they don't exceed the "safe" thresholds and it will never go off.
Dust floats around in the air but it has a tendency to stick more to warm areas like around heat registers and it gives the appearance that the dirty streaks came out of the vent but it didn't.
+1 That's what I was thinking about.
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That's what I was thinking about.
