Single Family /Town Homes:
If your home has an attached garage or a fuel-fired appliance (including furnaces, hot water heaters, gas or wood fireplaces, portable fuel-burning heaters and generators, barbeques, stoves and vehicles) you are required by law to have a working carbon monoxide alarm. This alarm is required to be installed outside the sleeping areas, not in the furnace area. If you have sleeping areas on a second floor in your home then a second carbon monoxide alarm is required outside of that sleeping area.
Apartment or Condo buildings:
Not all suites in a multi-unit building require a carbon monoxide alarm. If there is a fuel-burning appliance in your condo/apartment, you require a carbon monoxide alarm adjacent to each sleeping area. If there is a service room or parking garage on the other side of your floor, ceiling, or any wall you require a carbon monoxide alarm installed in your suite, installed adjacent to the sleeping area. There must also be a carbon monoxide alarm in the building’s service room, but not necessarily in the laundry room. For more information contact your building maintenance or the Fire Department.
For added protection, install a carbon monoxide alarm on every storey of the home according to manufacturer’s instructions. You may only require one alarm, but a second alarm provides additional piece of mind, and provides confirmation if you suspect your other alarm is not functioning properly.
All carbon monoxide alarms must be installed according to manufacturer directions. Alarms do not have to be installed low to the ground. Typically, plug-in style is installed low to the ground because that’s where the plugs are. Battery-operated alarms are often installed at chest-level, whereas combination smoke/CO alarms must be installed at the ceiling. All of these alarms are equally effective at warning your family of a carbon monoxide emergency as long as they are properly installed.
In general, “adjacent to each sleeping area” means the hallway serving or area outside the sleeping area. For instance, a CO alarm must be installed in the hallway adjacent to multiple bedrooms in a house or apartment.