One CO Alarm Enough? Ontario Says Every Storey Now
Resilience and safety · PROBLEM-FIRST
A home with a fuel-fired appliance, a fireplace, or an attached garage has long needed a carbon monoxide alarm near its sleeping areas. Ontario's rule now goes further: that same home needs an alarm on every storey, whether or not that storey has a bedroom, including a basement or a garage-level floor. This is a genuine expansion of where alarms are required, not just a reminder to replace an existing one, and it took effect at the start of this year. Late summer into fall, when most Niagara furnaces restart for the season, is a natural moment to check coverage on every floor rather than only the bedroom hallway. This page compares products; it does not replace confirming exact placement with a local fire department or a licensed technician. This section explains the placement requirement before naming any product.
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First Alert CO400A Battery Powered Carbon Monoxide Alarm
price: not in record Price and availability change, so check the current listing on Amazon.ca.
- Power Source: 9V replaceable battery, listing-published checked 2026-08-25
- Sensor: Electrochemical CO sensor, rated up to 5 years, cross-checked against the base CO400 model line since a separate spec sheet for this exact Amazon.ca SKU was not found, named rather than assumed identical checked 2026-08-25
- Certification: Listed to UL 2034, per First Alert's own CO400 product page; Ontario's Fire Code accepts either CSA 6.19 or UL 2034 under Division B Sentence 2.16.2.1(6), so this model meets the requirement on its stated UL listing checked 2026-08-25
Specs sourced from listing 1, listing 2, listing 3.
ASIN B0813FF8X7First Alert CO605A Carbon Monoxide Plug-In Alarm with Battery Backup
price: not in record Price and availability change, so check the current listing on Amazon.ca.
- Power Source: Plugs into a standard wall outlet, with 9V battery backup for power outages, cross-checked against the base CO605 model line checked 2026-08-25
- Warranty: 7-year limited warranty, base CO605 model line checked 2026-08-25
- Certification: A different First Alert plug-in SKU is UL 2034 listed per First Alert's own page; a CO605-specific spec page could not be retrieved, so this exact model's certification is not independently confirmed here, named rather than assumed checked 2026-08-25
Specs sourced from listing 1, listing 2, listing 3.
ASIN B0812P1NGTEvery spec above is copied from the manufacturer's own published listing or spec sheet, with the date it was checked.
Who this isn't for
This is not for someone whose home has no fuel-fired appliance, no fireplace, and no attached garage; the every-storey requirement applies specifically to homes with one of those, and a home without any of them is not covered by this particular rule, though a working CO alarm is still good practice near any adjoining unit. It is also not legal or installation advice; confirming exact alarm count and placement for a specific home's layout is a job for a local fire department or a licensed technician, not this comparison page.