CO detectors went off

It's been a while since I stayed in my house. Last night was the first night.

Last night I fired up the stove. Everything went great. Nice dry warm heat. I have 2 CO detectors. One in the living room and one in the bedroom about 16 feet away with a wall separating the rooms.

I woke up early for work and no problems. I got home from work and the hopper had burned way down so I added rice coal to it. It was warm so I brought the thermostat (coal trol) down a bit. A short while later the CO detectors went off. The living room one was reading 66 and the bedroom one was just above 70.

I go to the backdoor and open it wide open. I also open up 3 windows. The CO detectors probably saved my life.

I'm thinking not enough draft. This may have been caused by the following:
1. Me turning the coal trol down
2. I installed what I thought was a better auto barometric draft. The old one was stiff and it'd take a heck of a wind to move it
3. The fire had burned down a bit by the time I got home.

Time to get me one of those manometers. I'll also shut the stove off when I'm away from the house.

Also, I think I was trying for to much BTU out of the coal. Better to be a bit more cautious.

CO detectors are a MUST

Tifford wrote: ↑

Tue. Jan. 07, 2020 9:58 pm

It's been a while since I stayed in my house. Last night was the first night.

Last night I fired up the stove. Everything went great. Nice dry warm heat. I have 2 CO detectors. One in the living room and one in the bedroom about 16 feet away with a wall separating the rooms.

I woke up early for work and no problems. I got home from work and the hopper had burned way down so I added rice coal to it. It was warm so I brought the thermostat (coal trol) down a bit. A short while later the CO detectors went off. The living room one was reading 66 and the bedroom one was just above 70.

I go to the backdoor and open it wide open. I also open up 3 windows. The CO detectors probably saved my life.

I'm thinking not enough draft. This may have been caused by the following:
1. Me turning the coal trol down
2. I installed what I thought was a better auto barometric draft. The old one was stiff and it'd take a heck of a wind to move it
3. The fire had burned down a bit by the time I got home.

Time to get me one of those manometers. I'll also shut the stove off when I'm away from the house.

Also, I think I was trying for to much BTU out of the coal. Better to be a bit more cautious.

CO detectors are a MUST

A big +1 on this! No matter what fuel you burn in the house a CO monitor is necessary.

You may need to keep the stove at a higher temp than you turned it down to in order to keep a good draft in your set up - and/or when it's 'warmer' you may need to cover the baro. The manometer will give you the numbers to let you balance the flue pipe draft versus the firebox draft.