Carbon Monoxide Question

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Island

New Member
Dec 21, 2008
12
Alaska
I had a quick question with a longer story behind it.

The question is whether CO from a wood stove exists without the smell of smoke in any burn conditions?

This is a relatively new house. Six month old. We run the wood stove (RSF Opel III) for the primary heat source each day for around 10 hours. It is built more air tight than older homes. We only have a wood stove on the lower level, all other appliances/heat are electric.

The story is that our CO alarm (ceiling mounted combo smoke/CO no digital readout) went off yesterday. The stove was burnt down to coals and dampered down. There was one bathroom fan on at times upstairs during the day and one Panasonic ERV downstairs which exchanges heat and brings in fresh air running constantly on low. We have operated the stove in similar conditions every other day. At no time during the day did we smell any smoke.

My wife and I had been feeling a bit under the weather but attributed it to similar symptoms as another family member outside of the household that we spent time with the prior day. Typically fatigued, slight headache and upset stomach. My wife did vomit one time similar to the family member. We felt some symptoms even when we were out of the house prior to the alarm and after. The kids were fine throughout.

There were two open fires within 100 yards of our house burning scrap wood. The smell of that was strong as soon as we stepped out doors. It was a bit of an inversion day.

We did purchase two new detectors w/digital readouts and installed them within an hour after the event on the two levels of the house. Neither has any memory yet of any CO particles.

I regret having opened all the doors and airing out the building. I should have closed it down and called the FD to track any source if there was CO present. Next time I will treat it more seriously and systematic as the concern we have now is bordering on paranoia.

Any ideas or prior experience with CO and wood stoves that can help us ferret out the cause?

Thanks!
 
As I understand it, CO is heavier than the air we breath, so in order for a ceiling mount CO sensor to be tripped would mean the entirerty of that floor was flooded with CO. Most likely, it was the Smoke Detector being tripped for some reason, not the CO sensor.


I'm not a scientist... but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express. :)
 
I stand corrected..
http://www.homesafe.com/coalert/detect.htm


When considering where to place a carbon monoxide detector, keep in mind that although carbon monoxide is roughly the same weight as air (carbon monoxide's specific gravity is 0.9657, as stated by the EPA; the National Resource Council lists the specific gravity of air as one), it may be contained in warm air coming from combustion appliances such as home heating equipment. If this is the case, carbon monoxide will rise with the warmer air.
 
Although you may get some responses here, you might be better off posting this in the wood burners forum, The Hearth Room.

Maybe a moderator can move this thread for you.

Too bad you didn't have the FD test the house before airing it out. CO is nothing to be taken lightly.
 
Macman,

I did try to post on the wood burner side of the forum but for some reason the post wasn't accepted. If a moderator can switch that would be great.
 
Island said:
Macman,

I did try to post on the wood burner side of the forum but for some reason the post wasn't accepted.....
That's weird...... :-/
 
Island said:
Thanks Bobforsaken.

What are your thoughts on CO absent of any smoke smell?

CO IS very possible with no smoke smell. Trust me on this one, it's what I do for a living.
 
Just because the detector isn't going off doesn't mean there is co present. Yes i typed that right. There is a threshold when the unit must sound depending on the ppm of co. So a low level co will not sound the detector and it probably won't show up on the display either.

I would try and recreate the situation and have the FD present, their sniffer is much more accurate and sensitive!

Bottom line please don't ignore it out of site our of mind!
 
NSI 3000.... will alarm at 15 ppm. ul listed detectors bought at home depot and elsewhere don't usually alarm until 70 ppm for so many minutes..
 
If the wind conditions are just right or there is some kind of weather inversion going on I could imagine that the Ventilator could suck up some of the flu gasses from the outside. Check the placement of the ERV intake. This is probably far fetched but that's how my mind works, LOL.
 
cold front said:
If the wind conditions are just right or there is some kind of weather inversion going on I could imagine that the Ventilator could suck up some of the flu gasses from the outside. Check the placement of the ERV intake. This is probably far fetched but that's how my mind works, LOL.

Which is the reason behind all of those clearances to things like windows, doors, and other exterior vents in the installation instructions and also the prohibition on installing more than one appliance per flue.

You don't need a smoke smell for carbon monoxide to be present, CO is present in ALL organic material burning situations, only the amount varies.
 
Thanks everyone for the comments. As always, good insight on this board.

Took the following measures:

New Combo CO/Smokies in all the bedrooms and one in the hall; two plug in alarms at floor level; One CD-2002 (boy is that sensitive!!) in the main living area 20’ from the stove; two Fresh 80s make up air within 30’ of the wood stove; reduced the time and volume of the automatic bath fan kicks on upstairs; set a higher minimum damper setting for the stove to avoid too cool of a fire.

Also got the CO blood test done. The doc said test was valid for 48 hours. It was 22 since our alarm. 0% CO particles attached to my Hb. He said no poisoning occurred as some residual would have shown. His conclusion was the stomach bug which had traveled through some family members days prior.

Looking forward to seeing how the house and stove performs with all the additional data collection and modifications.

Learned to respect CO even more after all I have read.

Thanks again!
 
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