Help with carbon monoxide

I brought a Smart Sensor hand held meter and it said 52 when the alarm went off. It than went down to 22ppm. Is opening the door to put in coal a reason for this? I don’t want any co but who is best to check this out. Someone told me to call the fire dept.

It makes a difference...

Where is this sounding alarm physically located in reference to the stove?

Is this where you sleep or spend a lot of time at?

First upstairs than I moved it downstairs basement where stove is - about 30 feet from stove (house is about 959 sq ft each level) I didn’t do a good job starting the fire because draft blew all the smoke into basement. It says a barometric valve is not intended for manufactured homes as a warning. Don’t know why.

Quirkalot wrote: ↑

Mon. Jan. 07, 2019 12:55 pm

First upstairs than I moved it downstairs basement where stove is - about 30 feet from stove (house is about 959 sq ft each level) I didn’t do a good job starting the fire because draft blew all the smoke into basement. It says a barometric valve is not intended for manufactured homes as a warning. Don’t know why.

Built and sealed too tight and running any exhaust fans etc, can pull air out from swinging barometric door and cause CO exposure.

I don’t have a barometric vent. I read they are not to be installed in a manuf home.

Starting a fire shouldn't fill the basement with smoke, so you might want to start by checking to make sure the flue is intact and free of any obstructions. If the house is tight you may need to provide some make-up air (e.g., crack open a window) near the stove to get things to work properly.

Mike

Thanks mike. I think my house is too tight

Opening the door is always, allow me to amend, almost always a way to allow (pull) exhaust into the domicile. Under certain circumstances the "house" will pull more than the chimney.

It's a fine line, sometimes. The "pull" of your open door is stronger than the draft. Sometimes.

Yes, that's why you may need to provide a source of make-up air near the stove.

Mike

I suggest a number of night hawk co detectors with a digital readout put on different ends of the house... This allows you to monitor levels throughout the home... Also you may try cracking a window near the stove if you have too tight of a house...

+1 to the multiple monitors idea mentioned by archangel.

I also suggest buying a monitor in a 3 years and another monitor 3 years after that. The replacement dates for the units are staggered. That way you don't have all units coming up for replacement at once and if you happen to get one that goes bad early you have a back up. If you have three & put a date on them and replace the oldest one every three years, that means you will be replacing them at the 9 year mark.

I have one in the basement about 10' from the stoker, one on the first floor at the top of the basement steps and one in a bedroom. I always put the newest in the basement and move the one that was there upstairs. I also have the 10 year smoke/CO alarms in each bedroom and hallway.

Anything other than 0 gets my attention right away. If there is a reading other than 0, including 'Peak', on them there better be a good reason (like vac'ing out the flue pipe for 30 seconds w/o shutting down ). The hardest part is to remember to catch the 3 year mark for replacing the oldest unit.

Most of the instructions and guidance I've seen says don't place the detectors too close to possible sources, because you are likely to get nuisance alarms. It's not news that you can find some amount of CO in the vicinity of a coal stove, a gas cooking stove, the garage where you park your car, etc.

If there is such a thing as good news related to CO, it is that CO from coal, oil and wood heating appliances tends to be mixed with other combustion by-products that have distinct odors and/or appearance. While all CO is important, to me the most dangerous are the sources powered by natural gas, because you can't see or smell the CO or other combustion by-products. So in a very tight house you might find you're getting CO buildup from a gas cooking stove. And when you turn on the range hood to remedy that, you may pull CO and other combustion gases out of the coal stove (unless you have adequate make-up air). Good to know and monitor what you're dealing with, to keep everyone safe.

Mike

that smoke is caused by starting the wood fire and putting in too much wood
too fast. I start with a few small sticks, then build up a nice rectangular wood stack.
My last few pieces of wood are usually larger ones. Make sure to have the initial wood sticks to burn
for a few minutes to warm up the chimney. I then add the coal slowly ontop of the fire, slowly. Close the door, open the bottom ash door. Repeat process till you fill up the entire bed up to the fire brick if needed.