Ok guys, the alarm is back at it. And this time, there’s no gas leak to blame.
(Here’s how it all went down on Monday.)
Here’s the situation: I was in the shower, Hubs was in the garage. The attic fan was on. Windows were open. Everything else about this night was normal. Until the alarm came on again.
It lasted longer this time, and it was so terrifyingly loud that I shut off the attic fan in hopes of getting it to go off. Luckily, that seemed to do the trick but we’re still not sure what the alarm was for.
So far, the only thing we’ve decided is that it’s not the carbon monoxide detector going off for real. (That is four short bursts followed by silence, then more short bursts.)
We also know that both the smoke detector and the carbon monoxide alarm test normally and they seem to be in perfect functioning order. There’s no gas smell, no smoke in the attic. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The only thing that seems to be in common with these two incidents is that the attic fan was on (and maybe the timer was close to going off but I don’t think it has a timer alarm).
Here’s what our attic fan controls look like, in case you have the same kind and want to offer advice. (PLEASE!) Also, please forgive the one almond colored switch cover we still need to replace on this level of the house. They don’t sell this kind at Home Depot…
So I’m asking for advice here. Have any of you guys ever experienced something similar? We’ve never had an attic fan so we’re not sure if this is a “normal” occurrence? How do we figure out what’s causing this and how to fix it? We’re pretty sure we’re not in danger, but it’s pretty unsettling! We can take all the advice you’ve got so let’s hear it!
Not sure what to tell you. We don’t use our timer, we just tun the fan on and off.
Hmm…thanks for the comment! I think we have to use our timer. It won’t turn on if we don’t set it. Weird.
Hey, Melissa!
We had the same problem with our alarm in the basement everytime we used our electric fireplace. After doing our own research, we found out that electric components in close proximity to your detector can cause it to sound. We moved our fireplace to the other side of the room and that worked. Since you obviously cannot move your attic fan, try moving your alarm. Our alarm upstairs is about 6 feet away from the attic fan, and we don’t have problems with it. Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestion! We’ll look into it. The carbon monoxide alarm is close…but the smoke detector isn’t. We’ll see what we can find out!
Yeah… it was our carbon monoxide detector too. The smoke alarm doesn’t seem to react at all.
We went to the manufacturer website for our carbon monoxide detector, and that’s where we found out about separating it from close electronic devices.
Huh. Thanks for the tip!