Are there actually dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from cooking? You would think fire alarms would be a bit smarter by now to distinguish someone cooking from a dangerous life-threatening situation.
In: Chemistry
fire alarms do not detect carbon monoxide, they typically detect smoke (detecting carbon monoxide and co2 also sometimes happens).
And when you burn your food there will be smoke.
Fire alarms detect smoke, if you cook and it produces smoke it can set off a fire alarm. Smoke is just tiny solid particles of random crap. Carbon monoxide that’s a whole other thing that’s not related to fire*
How is the fire alarm supposed to know the difference between a bit of smoke because you are cooking and a bit of smoke because your couch just caught on fire so now your whole house will be ablaze in about 5 minutes? Smoke is smoke.
*I will say that a lot of fire alarms nowadays detect both smoke and CO, but CO isn’t whats setting off your alarm while cooking unless there is something *seriously* wrong with your gas stove (and it has to be gas).
You’re confusing smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. Smoke alarms react to any particle in the air. Carbon monoxide detectors only react to CO. A CO detector would not alert you to a fire.
Fire alarms generally do not measure carbon monoxide levels, they can, but most carbon monoxide alarms are separate devices. There are mainly two forms of fire alarms, optical and radioactive. In general they measure smoke, not carbon monoxide or even carbon dioxide. When you cook you might create a lot of smoke and steam. For example when searing a steak. If you do not have proper ventilation the smoke will go up to the ceiling and trigger your fire alarm.
Fire alarms can be quite smart depending on which model you buy. They can have multiple sensors like temperature, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in order to better recognise if it is a big fire or just someone cooking. But the basic problem is that when you are cooking you are actually making a fire, even if there are no flames. The gasses given off when burning food and burning a house are the same. The fire alarm goes off because it detects a fire, it just don’t know that you have control of the fire.
But in general if your fire alarm goes off every time you cook then you do not have enough ventilation in your kitchen. The smoke and gasses even from cooking is dangerous and does increase the chance of cancer. It will also soak into your kitchen making it smelly and promoting fungus. The spores from fungus is also poisonous and will damage you over time in addition to damaging your kitchen and house. It is not normal to have the fire alarm go off when you are cooking.
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