Carbon Monoxide

I never looked up the meaning of 11:11 until now. I think i just saw it a couple days ago.

5 Reasons Why You Are Seeing 11:11 – The Meaning of 1111

Picked up a random dime this morning on the bedroom floor.

 

Do you have an outside air kit? Hows the seal around the stove door?

 

No outside air kit.

Seal is pretty good, I squeeze it to tighten it up from time to time. It's also in very good shape still.

 

https://mr-soot.com/2021/03/21/video-carbon-monoxide-alarm-set-off-by-woodburner-at-night-heres-why/#:~:text=Eventually%2C%20if%20there%20is%20too,off%20your%20Carbon%20Monoxide%20Alarm.

The advice from this site is essentially if you're doing a burn to just take the chill off on an otherwise mild & foggy night would be to open the air controls all the way before you go to bed so the fireplace burns out and doesn't smolder.

I know you posted previously that you're just going to forego burning in those conditions but in the off chance you need to/ or decided to give it a go one more time- maybe that would be of some help. Some combination of a smaller fire and letting it just go out after a fast burn.

 

Resurrecting an old thread as I had this happen again last evening. Wasn't really paying attention to the weather as it's been pretty chilly but yesterday it was somewhat mild out 43-45ish with very high humidity and then came the rain. My outdoor gauge was reading 80% humidity

Of course when it goes off it's always somewhat a concern (My sweet teenage daughter of course jumps to her smartphone looking it up and was in a panic) but chalking it up to the milder weather and the extreme humidity. I have a few CO detectors but just ordered another one that gives a visible PPM reading just in case.

This AM was a bit colder and windy in low 30's and I had no problems, just irks me I guess.

 

Yup, irritating...especially when people overreact to it...acceptable CO level is time weighted calculation, and those meters go off at a pretty low level too (50 IIRC, which is the highest acceptable exposure for 8 hrs, by OSHA) so as long as you open up the windows and air things out, no harm no foul.
Did the one you order have instant read capability/high level? Ours can be zeroed and you can push the button and see current level/and what the highest level has been since the last time it was zeroed...kinda handy!

 

That is kinda handy I just checked and canceled the one and found one that did. I actually ordered two, one plug in which I am going to put in the same room as the stove (I swear I had one in that room, I will be good $, my wife moved it to vacuum, lol) it's a 5 in 1.

Seems the one at the base of the upstairs steps is the one goes off, which makes sense. I'll tell ya my staircase is a dam wind tunnel when it's bitter cold out. Cold air flying down, hot air rushing up.

 

Could you post a link to the meter you chose?

 

Sure thing, these are two I picked up. The plug in one already came LN and was put to use, I love being able to visibly see PPM readings...............errr more on that in a moment!!!

Other ceiling mount has an app where I can see historical data as well as PPM reading on the face of it.

I was able to score that plug in one for $14.99 yesterday on a lighting limited deal, now it's $40, ugh!

Plug In
Ceiling Mount

 

After studying CO health effects and alarms a while back, I want to push back on this HARD.

The current OSHA/NFPA/.gov/UL recommendations for alarm levels are not chosen for safety. They are required to *not alarm* below 50ppm. 50ppm is above the LD50 for children, the elderly, and people with respiratory problems. LD50 is the dose at which 50% of the affected population is expected to die. The charts, like the one you posted above, are generally only meant as guidelines for middle-aged (meaning perhaps 25-50ish) when safety is not the top priority. CO detectors became consumer-accessible at a time when the UL and NFPA had just realized that people were taking the batteries out of their smoke detectors because they were giving so many false alarms. So the major driving factor when setting limits for CO alarms and guidelines was making sure the CO detector went off rarely enough that people would keep them functional and believe it was an emergency when they went off. Early testing found that almost all homes with combustion appliances in them had not healthy. If you set the CO detector guidelines low enough to protect 100% of people, you were going to get the things going off all the time because so many homes had problems with CO leaks. So the regulators chose a level that was too low to protect some people but high enough that the "normal" amount of malfunction in your heater or hot water tank wouldn't set them off.

If you actually prioritize safety/survivability, you need to look to the one and only market where they're taking CO seriously: Aviation. Get an aviation-specific low-level CO alarm like the CO Experts PRO-10. You'll be surprised how often it has a non-zero reading but the up side is that it'll show you you have a problem at a low enough level to take reasonable action to fix the issue vs a UL-listed alarm waiting until you're actually in danger to tell you anything.

 

Thanks for the refresher...I've probably had that data in a class somewhere over the years, but it was more or less forgotten now.
So any time there isn't a zero reading it's all hands on deck for a potential snipe hunt? I totally get why they have to pick a level that is a compromise, otherwise nobody will use it...kinda like seat belts, if you require a 5 point harness (which is safer) participation is gonna drop, a lot.
I do occasionally check the history on my meter so I can see if there has been anything over zero since the last reset...I find that handy, that's why I recommended that type meter. Now, me personally, I'm personally not gonna get to worried about it, unless I see non zero readings more than rarely...the further from zero, the quicker it gets my attention, alarm or not.
I think the highest I've ever seen was 125, and that happened while we were gone, and I kept everyone in the car while I opened the windows to air things out, and dealt with the back draft on the stove.
I think people would be surprised at the CO levels they are exposed to day to day...in a parking garage, around a campfire, certainly a poorly drafting open fireplace, etc.

50% die at what exposure length? I can't imagine it's 8 hrs, OSHA would never tolerate that.
As you well know, it's not just the level, it's the time exposed to it too.

I know for myself, being over 50 now, I am much less tolerant of CO than I was when younger...running an engine in the garage as a young man was no big deal, seemed like no harm no foul, but now it takes very little to cause headache.
I'm more worried about the indoor air quality from all the plastics/etc off gassing...and engineered/"fake" foods.

Chemical air fresheners, cell phone radiation, detergents, micro plastics and phosphates in our water...it just goes on n on...

 

Basically correct. If mine read 1-2ppm, I'd be waiting to see what happened. Look to see if it was the same in a couple of hours, etc. 5ppm and I'd start turning things off one at a time, see if could figure out which thing was causing the problem. 10ppm I'm opening windows and if it doesn't come straight back down, I'm calling the professionals (fire department) to come out and see if they can use their snooper meters to figure out exactly which thing is trying to kill me. Basically by 10ppm it's definitely not a false positive or something having a slightly rich moment during startup. It's a real problem, just not a severe one yet. The reason that the aviation CO alarms start going off at these low levels is that, even at 10ppm, your judgement begins to become impaired (especially at altitude) so you need time to be able to work the problem before you get too stupid to realize you have a problem. 5ppm at 15,000' might be 60ppm by the time you can make an emergency landing, etc.

Almost all of my extended family except for me are fire fighters. They would all MUCH rather you called them at 10ppm and had them walk around trying to figure out what it is than wait until someone feels sick and it turns out it's too late for the kids or grandparents. Call 911 (since most departments no longer handle non-emergency calls direct to the station) and say "I have a CO alarm going off but no one feels sick. Can you send the fire department out to check if this is real or not?". In most districts, that will categorize you as an urgent but non-emergency call. In other words, you get seen to before the cat stuck in a tree but if there's an actual fire or a car crash, you'll have to wait.

I honestly can't remember. For kids and the elderly, it's nowhere near as long as you'd think though. Remember that OSHA doesn't give a damm about anyone who isn't working age/working able. If you're disabled or retired, you're not their problem.

Absolutely. Not to mention that all the plastics in our houses and that we make our houses out of have made surviving a house fire way less likely. They spread faster, the smoke is far more toxic, and structural collapse happens sooner.