Now that you've stocked up on monitors, where do you place them around the house? It's not as simple as placing smoke detectors because carbon monoxide doesn't spread the same way as smoke does.

Start in the garage—you should have one here regardless of if you have a workshop or not. It only takes a few minutes of leaving the car running while you gather your coat and keys to send CO into the enclosed space and start to poison you and your family.

One detector per level is the minimum that your house needs, regardless of the floor space. You may find it silly to place two monitors within plain sight of each other, but remember that they're working on different levels as well as monitoring the air quality for a much larger space than you think. Put one at the top of each staircase as well as one in each bedroom where the occupant sleeps with the door closed. If the door is closed, the level of CO can rise dramatically and kill the sleeper much faster than if the door is open and the odorless gas seeps through the rest of the house. Your furnace and basement will need detectors, as well as any room that has a fireplace.

But unlike smoke detectors, you can't place these monitors too close to cooking areas or in the bathroom. The dampness in most bathrooms will set off the detector, while a kitchen can confuse and set off the sensors with false readings. Consult the instructions to determine the best place to set up your CO monitors. And make sure to mark your calendars for battery changes as well—a dead battery won't work in either a smoke detector or a carbon monoxide monitor!