Minnesota code timeline · HVAC · Enacted 2006

Carbon Monoxide Alarms and Minnesota's Requirement

Minnesota requires an approved carbon monoxide alarm within ten feet of every room used for sleeping. Homes built before the requirement were not constructed with them, though they are inexpensive to add.

By Karl Espilseth, Founder, Tarn · Updated

What it is

Minn. Stat. 299F.51 requires every single-family dwelling and every unit in a multifamily dwelling to have an approved and operational carbon monoxide alarm installed within ten feet of each room lawfully used for sleeping. The statute was enacted in 2006 and has been amended since. The ten-foot rule is the part most often missed in practice — a single alarm in a hallway may or may not satisfy it depending on where the bedrooms actually are.

Why it matters

Carbon monoxide has no color, no odor and no taste, and the early symptoms of exposure resemble ordinary illness closely enough that people routinely miss them. Any appliance that burns fuel can produce it if it is not venting properly: a furnace, a water heater, a gas range, a fireplace, an attached garage with a car running in it. Detection is the only practical defense, which is why the requirement exists at all rather than being left to maintenance.

What's worth doing next

This is the least expensive item on this list by a wide margin, and the only one you can resolve yourself the week you move in. Count the sleeping rooms, check that an alarm sits within ten feet of each, and check the manufacture date on any alarm already installed — the sensors have a service life, typically seven to ten years, and an expired alarm that still chirps on the test button is not necessarily still detecting anything. Combination smoke-and-CO units are common, but confirm what you actually have rather than assuming a detector on the ceiling covers both.

I built Tarn as a homeowner, not a code official. Everything on this page is sourced to published Minnesota law and linked so you can check it yourself.

Minnesota uses a single statewide building code, so these requirements are state law rather than city ordinance — they apply the same way across every Minnesota city Tarn covers, except where noted. Code changes are also prospective: they apply to work done after the change, not retroactively to homes already standing. A home that predates a standard isn't out of compliance with anything. It just predates it, and that's worth knowing before you buy.

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