Carbon monoxide symphony

 
fig
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Post by fig » Wed. Mar. 03, 2021 10:17 pm

I came home to a symphony of carbon monoxide detectors tonight. I have about 7 in the house and they were all firing off. I got the dog out. He just acted normal. The cat stays in the basement and was asleep or partially unconscious. Half the alarms were down there and I don’t see how he could sleep through all the noise. It sounded like a video arcade.

I opened all the windows and doors and stuck a fan in a window. Opened the draft wide open and the ash drawer. It soon shot up to 600* so it wasn’t too far gone.

The draft on the stove was .03 and that’s where I’ve been running it for a few weeks. I did turn the primary air down lower then usual since it was so warm today. I guess that was too low. Must have lost the draft and it was gassing out the baro?

It took about an hour to get the carbon monoxide detectors to quit. Glad it wasn’t cold out tonight as I had to wait outside the whole time.

I’m back in now and buttoned the house back up so I’ll see if they start firing off again.


 
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Post by Hoytman » Wed. Mar. 03, 2021 11:36 pm

Stay safe. Open dampers and waste some heat, or by opening windows and letting the stove run as usual. I’ve done the same thing, turning it down too far. Luckily haven’t had any music though and I hope I don’t.

 
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warminmn
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Post by warminmn » Thu. Mar. 04, 2021 7:18 am

Are any of the detectors digital to give a readout? An hour is a very long time to take to get the level down.

Efficiency is fine but sometimes its better to forget about it and just burn. Saving 2 pounds a day is only 60 pounds a month, $8 or $9, sometimes less. It isnt worth the risk when you have issues like you found out you have.

Im glad you didnt lose a pet but it could be even worse.

 
fig
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Post by fig » Thu. Mar. 04, 2021 8:48 am

None were digital. So not sure of the level. Yes I was surprised how long it took to clear as well. I hope it killed the squirrels living in the attic

The fire is nearly out this morning. The whole firebox is practically those rocks I keep getting when this tsc coal burns down. Wonder if that contributed to the carbon monoxide.
Last edited by fig on Thu. Mar. 04, 2021 8:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

 
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nepacoal
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Post by nepacoal » Thu. Mar. 04, 2021 8:56 am

My basement detector went off two nights ago during all that high wind... Barometric damper stuck open at midnight. 19 degrees an blowing 40 mph. Had all the windows open for about a half hour. House dropped to 62 pretty quick.

 
fig
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Post by fig » Tue. Apr. 20, 2021 6:05 pm

I haven’t burned coal since this incident. I had a ton of pellets sitting on my trailer I wanted to burn so I could have my trailer back.

It’s going to get down to mid twenties tonight so I think I’ll fire it up this evening. I’ll admit I’m a little put off by it all. Hope it’s not a repeat. Still don’t know what the issue was. Weird.

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Apr. 20, 2021 7:16 pm

fig wrote:
Thu. Mar. 04, 2021 8:48 am
None were digital. So not sure of the level. Yes I was surprised how long it took to clear as well. I hope it killed the squirrels living in the attic
That's because of how they work. They have thresholds, if it exceeds X ppm for X amount of time it will go off. The air could be perfectly fine but it's still within that threshold for high levels of CO over the past X time.

They won't go off when they detect any amount of CO unless it has exceeded the "get the hell out the house threshold". There is an expectation for example if you have gas stove there will be some CO in the air and this can be amount that is fine for 12 hours but is danger over 24 hours. CO bonds to hemoglobin in your blood and it can't carry oxygen, it's only removed naturally over time. A level of CO that is not an immediate health risk will be a danger over longer length of time because it will build up in your blood.

As already noted get one with digital readout so you can have better understanding of what is going on.

One thing to keep in mind is CO has almost the same specific gravity as "air", it will travel with air along natural air currents.


 
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Post by CoalHeat » Wed. Apr. 21, 2021 1:05 pm

Sounds like you lost the draft or had a draft reversal. I've been afraid of that happening here with my hand fed on warm days and would let the stove go out when it warmed up outside. Now I'm around the house a lot more than I used to be and have monitored the draft, seems as long as I have a reasonable fire burning the draft is fine.
The other chimney that the EFM exhausts into is prone to reversal, I have a draft inducer running full time on the breach.

 
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Post by Hoytman » Wed. Apr. 21, 2021 7:23 pm

Hoytman wrote:
Wed. Mar. 03, 2021 11:36 pm
Stay safe. Open dampers and waste some heat, or by opening windows and letting the stove run as usual. I’ve done the same thing, turning it down too far. Luckily haven’t had any music though and I hope I don’t.
I was just re-reading this thread...

“...music...”?!?!

I have come to absolutely despise this autocorrect on this phone. Somehow it got the word “music” out of the word “issues” . This sort of thing happens all the time and Inhave to edit a post. Just like that...I type “ I have to”, and every time it will replace it with, “Inhave”. Sometimes it’ll change one word and add 2-5 words that make no sense in a sentence.

 
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Post by freetown fred » Wed. Apr. 21, 2021 7:46 pm

Sooooo Billy, you're sayin it's a music issue????????????????????????????? LOL

 
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Post by Hoytman » Wed. Apr. 21, 2021 8:23 pm

freetown fred wrote:
Wed. Apr. 21, 2021 7:46 pm
Sooooo Billy, you're sayin it's a music issue????????????????????????????? LOL
Something like that.

 
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CoalHeat
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Post by CoalHeat » Wed. Apr. 21, 2021 9:47 pm

You can shut off the autocorrect feature if desired. I try to read everything before I send it but I still mess up once and a whale.

 
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Post by ColdHouse » Sun. Feb. 06, 2022 8:20 am

I had a couple of alarms go off the other day. The night and day temperatures were much milder than they have been so I closed the ash pan vent way down. At least one of my stoves was not burning hot enough. I opened the ash pan door and damper and got the fire going and then opened the vents a little more. At first I was thinking faulty detector but then there were two going off. I am glad I have the detectors and glad that it was a simple fix.

 
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Post by Dreamcatcher » Sun. Feb. 06, 2022 9:28 am

Had the same thing happen to me even changed the batteries on the detector But the problem was the same not enough air Thank God for detectors they really work everyone should have them

 
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Post by lee192233 » Sun. Feb. 06, 2022 12:27 pm

I'm pretty sure all new construction requires networked CO detectors now. I believe they are as or more important than smoke detectors. I have a friend who is an HVAC tech and he has seen cracked heat exchangers in furnaces that he could smell as soon as he walked in the house. The homeowners had no idea. The smell came on so gradually that they never realized there was a problem until the furnace quit. Had they had CO detectors they'd have been alerted much earlier. CO is a very dangerous thing especially when using natural draft solid fuel appliance. It needs to be respected.


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