Blog · Kitchener
Ontario's 2026 carbon monoxide alarm rules and a fall furnace checklist for Kitchener homes
Before the furnace starts running hard in October, it is worth an hour of checking. This year there is a new reason: Ontario's Fire Code changed on January 1, 2026, and many Kitchener homes that were compliant last year now need more carbon monoxide alarms.
Last updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by the Kitchener Duct Cleaning team
What changed on January 1, 2026
Carbon monoxide alarms have been required in Ontario homes with fuel-burning appliances for years, placed next to sleeping areas. The Fire Code amendment that took effect on January 1, 2026 expands that. According to the Government of Ontario and the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, homes that have a fuel-burning appliance, a fireplace or an attached garage now need CO alarms:
- adjacent to each sleeping area, meaning near all bedrooms, and
- on every storey of the home, including storeys with no bedrooms, such as a main floor or a basement.
The TSSA notes the rule covers detached and semi-detached houses, townhouses and cottages. The province adds that in multi-unit buildings heated by fuel-burning appliances, CO alarms are now also required in public corridors, and that condo and apartment units need alarms if they have a fuel-burning appliance or fireplace or sit next to a service room or garage.
In practice, a typical Forest Heights sidesplit or a two-storey in Doon South with a gas furnace and an attached garage may need an alarm in the basement, one on the main floor and one outside the bedrooms. Hardwired, battery and plug-in alarms are all acceptable if they are certified to Canadian standards.
Why it matters
Carbon monoxide comes from incomplete burning of fuel, in furnaces, water heaters, fireplaces, gas stoves, portable heaters, generators and vehicles. It has no colour or smell. The province lists symptoms of exposure as headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion and drowsiness, which are easy to mistake for the flu, and at higher levels loss of consciousness and death. If an alarm sounds, get everyone out of the house and call 9-1-1 from outside.
Fall checklist: what a homeowner can do
- Test every CO and smoke alarm, and check the manufacture date on each. Replace any alarm past the replacement date printed on it.
- Add alarms so there is one on every storey and near every sleeping area.
- Change the furnace filter and write the date on it.
- Clear the outside vents. The province advises keeping outside vents and chimneys for the furnace, water heater, dryer, fireplace and stove clear of snow and debris. High-efficiency furnaces in newer Kitchener homes vent through plastic pipes on a side wall, and drifting snow can block them.
- Open every supply register and move furniture and rugs off floor registers and cold-air returns.
- Look at the humidifier, if there is one: clean or replace the pad and check the drain line.
- Listen when the furnace starts for new rattles, squeals or delayed ignition, and note anything unusual for the technician.
Where to put each alarm
- Outside the bedrooms. In the hallway serving the sleeping area, so the alarm can wake people behind closed doors. A house with bedrooms at opposite ends may need one at each end.
- In the basement. Near, but not right beside, the furnace and water heater, following the alarm maker's instructions on distance from fuel-burning appliances.
- On the main floor. Even with no bedrooms, it now needs its own alarm under the 2026 rule.
- Near the door from an attached garage. Vehicles running in a garage are a common source, and a main-floor alarm near the connecting door covers it.
Combination smoke and CO alarms can cover both requirements in one device where a location calls for both. Read the installation instructions that come with the alarm; mounting height and distance rules vary by model.
Tenants and landlords
In rented houses and duplexes, which are common in older parts of Kitchener near downtown and in Cambridge, the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs notes that landlords are required to provide working alarms and that tenants can be charged for disabling them. Tenants should report a missing or chirping alarm right away and never pull the battery.
What needs a licensed gas technician
The province recommends having fuel-burning appliances, chimneys and vents inspected and cleaned by a professional every year, before the heating season, and points homeowners to COSafety.ca to confirm a contractor is registered with the TSSA. A furnace inspection by a gas technician covers things a homeowner should not touch: the burners, the heat exchanger, the flame sensor, the venting and the gas connections.
Where duct cleaning fits, and where it does not
Duct cleaning is not a furnace safety inspection, and a duct cleaning crew does not work on burners, gas lines or venting. What it does cover is the air side of the system: the supply and return ducts, the blower and the coil. That is worth doing when:
- The blower wheel is caked with dust, which reduces airflow and makes the furnace work harder. See furnace blower and coil cleaning.
- The house was renovated, or it is a new build still full of construction dust.
- The returns in an older Forest Heights or Stanley Park house use the joist bays and have never been cleaned.
A sensible order is the gas technician's inspection, then duct cleaning if it is needed, then a fresh filter. Planning ranges are on the Kitchener duct cleaning cost guide, and a written quote is available through the contact page.