**Carbon Monoxide Awareness**

WealthyB

MAJJ wrote: »

Is there a fixed open vent in the room? Does the stove draw air from the room or from the outside, most likely the former. If that my house or family no fire to be lit until resolved.

Is the installer a registered installer as they sound a bit casual about the alarm?

Thank you for the response! Looking at their website they say they are are "an Oftec Registered Heating Business.". Their main guy is calling around tomorrow to view the stove.

There's no fixed vent in the room, and she wouldn't be great about opening windows, I think she would expect all CO to just go up the chimney flue (she's just come from an open fire where this wasn't a concern)

I'm terribly worried about her, she's elderly and we lost our dad only recently, I'm mostly worried she'll be fobbed off and this won't be fixed, and she's complaining about headaches already when she had no idea that her headaches and the CO Levels would be linked.

Where does she ultimately stand with the installer? If he says it's operating within acceptable parameters as per http://www.carbonmonoxide.ie/htm/poisoning.htm I don't know what we'll do

Thanks again

Wearb

There should be a vent that cannot be closed fitted. I would contact manufacturer or national supplier and have them verify that it's installed correctly.
Putting it in without the proper ventilation doesn't inspire hope in the rest of the installation.

See if leaving a window open enough to get your hand through helps. It might just need proper ventilation.

ITS NOTHING TO BE LAX ABOUT. Perhaps have some good local guy give it a look over.

jimf

as far as im concerned the only level of carbon monoxide that is safe is zero and that is the acceptable level

under no circumstances accept this fobbing off by installer

WealthyB

Thanks again all. I dug out the model of the Stove, it's an Aarrow i-Series ISC-5FCB. The manual my mum got suggests a vent should have been installed, which she's open to the idea of which is half the battle won IMO

Waiting to see what the installer says when he arrives today, but again I'm flummoxed if he falls back on what's in http://www.carbonmonoxide.ie/htm/poisoning.htm where it says 50ppm is "Threshold limit, no apparent toxic symptoms" - my mum is getting sick with CO symptoms off readings of 35-45ppm but when that site says 50ppm is fine, what do we do?

K.Flyer

You can have a test done to accurately measure levels of carbon monoxide in a room using a calibrated analyser from which you can get a printout from.
Might be worth having it done rather than relying on cheap alarm units.

jimf

WealthyB wrote: »

Thanks again all. I dug out the model of the Stove, it's an Aarrow i-Series ISC-5FCB. The manual my mum got suggests a vent should have been installed, which she's open to the idea of which is half the battle won IMO

Waiting to see what the installer says when he arrives today, but again I'm flummoxed if he falls back on what's in http://www.carbonmonoxide.ie/htm/poisoning.htm where it says 50ppm is "Threshold limit, no apparent toxic symptoms" - my mum is getting sick with CO symptoms off readings of 35-45ppm but when that site says 50ppm is fine, what do we do?

again I say there should be no co readings in your mams house if there is a detectable reading something is not right

so not safe to use the stove end of story

Wearb

The manufacturers instructions take precedence and would/should have at least abided by national regs, but mostly they go beyond those minimum requirements.

Fit new vent close to stove, so as not to have a draught travelling all across the room.

Did you try the open window test that I mentioned earlier ?

WealthyB

Wearb wrote: »

The manufacturers instructions take precedence and would/should have at least abided by national regs, but mostly they go beyond those minimum requirements.

Fit new vent close to stove, so as not to have a draught travelling all across the room.

Did you try the open window test that I mentioned earlier ?

Window open all day yesterday and the CO levels were dropping - there's been no stove all day today and window open - the CO levels are fluctuating anywhere between 0 and 15 on 2 x Different CO readers. WTF!

The installer has been and gone, he apologised profusely for not installing a vent and said he should have done so. He's back tomorrow to put in one. The proposed space for the Vent is to the right of the stove - approx 4' above the Stove and another 4' to the left.

Thanks everyone for all their input here, it was a very worrying 24 hours!

Wearb

WealthyB wrote: »

Window open all day yesterday and the CO levels were dropping - there's been no stove all day today and window open - the CO levels are fluctuating anywhere between 0 and 15 on 2 x Different CO readers. WTF!

The installer has been and gone, he apologised profusely for not installing a vent and said he should have done so. He's back tomorrow to put in one. The proposed space for the Vent is to the right of the stove - approx 4' above the Stove and another 4' to the left.

Thanks everyone for all their input here, it was a very worrying 24 hours!

how big is this stove that it needs 2 vents?

Tom44

It's 23 years ago this long weekend, feels like 3, since the death of my sister Avril from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Like us all, you read about it on the news, but never think it will happen close to you, but yes it can, so take care and always go by your gut feeling & common sense. If something doesn't seem right, it's possibly not. And doesn't harm if your wrong.
But don't ignore things.

Not meaning to waffle on, some of you know my story, some don't, but all I can say is that to this day, all my family suffer the consequences.
As do a lot of other family's for other reasons too.

Not looking for a conversation on this if you don't mind, but thanks for the support over the years.
Michael


Feel free to use the story if you think you can use it.
M

MAJJ

WealthyB wrote: »

Window open all day yesterday and the CO levels were dropping - there's been no stove all day today and window open - the CO levels are fluctuating anywhere between 0 and 15 on 2 x Different CO readers. WTF!

The installer has been and gone, he apologised profusely for not installing a vent and said he should have done so. He's back tomorrow to put in one. The proposed space for the Vent is to the right of the stove - approx 4' above the Stove and another 4' to the left.

Thanks everyone for all their input here, it was a very worrying 24 hours!

Wealthy B , Great to hear that he has takenresponsibility and hope this means he won't repeat the mistake. Your Mam is has been very lucky. All the best.

To Michael, thank you for sharing your warm and touching story about Avril.

Wearb

Carbon Monoxide alarms in Aldi today for less than 13 Euro.

Dtp1979

Wearb wrote: »

Carbon Monoxide alarms in Aldi today for less than 13 Euro.

Would you reckon they’d be any good? Would you literally bet your life on them?

Wearb

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Would you reckon they’d be any good? Would you literally bet your life on them?

I'd expect them to have the required certification. I haven't checked them out yet to see if they have the CE mark. These will most likely be sold all over the EU and even further afield. Last thing they'd want is a recall.

DGOBS

You may find they are, as long as CE marked, and to the correct ISO for them (you'd be surprised how cheap a major brand can be wholesale)

Wearb

"Mum and son die in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning after she closed chimney to keep youngster warm"

Just read above. It seems that she closed the flue damper before going to bed. She did this to conserve heat. The fire shouldered away with no way for the combustion gases to escape safely up the flue. TRAGIC

Stihl waters

Wearb wrote: »

how big is this stove that it needs 2 vents?

The vent is 4 inches above stove and 4 inches to the left is the way I'm picking it up

K.Flyer

Bit of a thread bump, but for a good reason.

So.. I got talking to this chap over the weekend who doesn't smoke in his house, but smokes outside.
Now with the bad weather he had been sitting in the shed where his boiler is because it's warmer and out of the rain.
He told me he was thinking of going to the doctor because a few days ago, while in the shed, he had collapsed, fell and hit his head, and felt very out of it after getting up from the chair to go back into his house.
Apparently it's happened on a couple of occasions, he would be feeling a bit off, then grand later. But the fall gave him a scare. He was thinking he was having some health problems related to smoking. (We had been discussing health issues).
My immediate suspicion was Carbon Monoxide poisoning.
I wasn't able to immediately go and check his boiler as I didn't have my analyser with me, but I took a new CO alarm out of the van and gave it to him and told him to follow the instructions and fit it as soon as he got home with the boiler turned off.

I got a call from him today, he said he was out earlier this morning getting something from the shed (not smoking) and the boiler had been running for about 15 - 20 minutes and the alarm started going off.
As per my instructions, he got out of the shed immediately and shut the boiler down from the house.
That may have answered his medical concerns!

Just for clarification, I have never been to his house to do any work on his boiler, someone else looks after it.

Everyone, please, if you have any gas appliances or oil boiler, a stove, open fires or any other fuel burning system, make sure you have good quality, in date, correctly installed Carbon Monoxide alarm(s), it could save your life or someone else's.

If your Carbon Monoxide alarm goes off Do Not Go Over To It to see what's wrong, the air is contaminated. Get doors and windows open immediately and if you can, shut off the appliance remotely,
Ask your service person to show you how to shut off your appliances remotely.

Stay Safe everyone.