Carbon Monoxide - Don't Loose respect for It

[JoelD]

Thanks all for the posts.

The generator was about 2-3 feet from the garage door.

The exhaust as noted by tmajor was exhausting parallel to the door.

The garage is on the same level as the basement.

Then you go up stairs to the first floor, kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom / laundry room, added family room.

Then up stairs to the bedrooms and bathrooms, then upstairs to the attic.

We had a fire in the fireplace earlier in the evening so the flue was still open, that would've contributed to draft sucking the air from under the garage door into the house.

I'm still shocked that the detectors in the garage did not alarm, obviously they'll need to be replaced. They are hardwired into the home's system.

Scary thing, would not be unusuall for me to be working in the garage on tractors or cars, was planning to do my wifes oil change, that most likely would not have turned out well as I would've been in the garage with the door shut.

Just super scary stuff, very scary how easily it can happen and you have no idea.

I'm 44 years old and understand this stuff. With that said, I've argued with my mom who's almost 80 when ever she "gets on my case" about replacing the existing detectors on a regular basis and adding more, testing my smoke detectors, etc. And she's never had an issue with CO ever. I've said to myself she's just an older person with time on her hands to do nothing but worry after she reads crap stories on the internet.

What's that about Mother knows best???

I've had 7 years of college and hold various credentials, read endlessly on generators, welding, etc., and here is an 80 year old, with no "higher" education, making me look like a fool. I'll be heeding her advice a bunch more carefully that is for certain.

TAKE THE BIT OF TIME, AND SPEND THE BIT OF MONEY AND GET CO DETECTORS AND PLUG THEM IN. We'll think nothing of dropping $100 on a couple of craftsman tools on sale, but we'll bock at CO detectors. Just silly. And I'm guilty if it myself, if not for my mom and dad's "hounding", I'd likely not have the CO detector that alarmed.

Hoping to see a reply or two confirming the purchase and install of a detector or two.

Sincerely,
Joel

 

[Dutch445]

is your whole house being powered by the generator or
just a few circuits? my cutoff switch only has 6 or 8
circuits when i'm on gen power, so i don't have a lot of my
place with power, just essentials, water/fridge etc.

i have had to replace the detectors i use every once in a while
as they seem to go bad in a relative short time. maybe it's not
worth trying to keep them, and we should change them out in october
like we used to do batteries!

 

[jonyyuma]

I believe you solved your own problem, The fireplace drafting in the house , pulling the exhaust silently thru the home? I read a Gov. bulletin on how much heat a fireplace pulls from a home. It was enough I covered mine and put in a air-tight stove for heat, Noticed a termendious savings in wood for superiour heating..Most common excuse: Yeah, but you love to see the fire? You might inquire into it?

 

[farmfun]

Could it be the CM gas stayed closer to the floor in garage where it was colder, missing the detectors at that point and then after being sucked in by fireplace Flu draft, warmed in the house and rose?

 

[grsthegreat]

yup.... I have CO2 detectors on every floor. I'm starting to be asked to install combination CO2/smoke detectors on the new houses i was building.... before the government pretty much shut down all new houses here in North Idaho with their great policies.

 

[JoelD]

I power my entire house, the detectors in the garage had juice.

Yes, fireplace draft must have contributed, thank god I had detector in that room.

Joel

 

[tmajor]

I power my entire house, the detectors in the garage had juice. Yes, fireplace draft must have contributed, thank god I had detector in that room. Joel

Any solid fuel heating appliance needs "combustion air" from someplace. Also, exhaust fans can deplete the combustion air in the house, making it necessary to come in from somewhere/somehow.

So, after this incident, what are you going to do, to correct the problem? CO detectors aren't the answer to the problem, but merely an alert to the problem.

 

[MikeD74T]

New England is at the end of a multiday power outage from early nor'easter snow storm. News reported a couple found dead in a mobilehome from CO poisoning. They had a radiant heater mounted on a 20 lb propane bottle inside. Found a CO detector on a bed with the batteries removed??. MikeD74T

 

[grsthegreat]

I had a neighbor and pretty nice overall guy die from CO poisoning a few years back. He didn't have a monitor in his RV trailer. His wife almost died also.

 

[RoyJackson]

Could it be the CM gas stayed closer to the floor in garage where it was colder, missing the detectors at that point and then after being sucked in by fireplace Flu draft, warmed in the house and rose?

Minor correction:
Carbon Monoxide is CO, not CM
Carbon Dioxide is CO2 (the "2" should be a subscript but can't do that in a TBN post)

Not picking on you, farmfun...just happened to be the post I quoted...