Carbon Monoxide Co2 is Co2

[Old Ironmaker]

I've brought this up more than a few times in my day. We are well into storm season in the east of North America and with those storms comes electrical failures. Someone is going to die because people refuse to heed the warnings not to use a gas BBQ indoors to keep warm or cook.

OK, anything that is burning carbon is emitting carbon monoxide, C+O= CO+CO2. We have 2 Natural Gas stoves, 1 in the main kitchen and 1 in my basement (I am of Italian decent). The NG stove in the upper kitchen has 5 stovetop burners and of course the burners in the oven. Often I have each and everyone of those burners lit on high when I'm cooking for 30 people, some friends included. Where is the toxic Co2 going? No hood vent and a hood vent isn't required by code. Yes the newer stove might be high efficiency up to what 90% max? That leaves 10% waste gas. Why aren't home cooks dropping like flies preparing every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner?

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Brain freeze. CO not CO2.

 

[dwco5051]

In perfect or adiabatic combustion of hydrocarbons the result will be only co2 and h20, In boilers or furnaces efficiency is measured by either excess oxygen or co in the flue gas. CO means incomplete combustion without the proper amount of O2 in the fire box and is not only dangerous if the flue gases get into a closed space but also inefficient. Excess O2 means you are heating air not needed for combustion and sending it up the chimney. Setting up a boiler for max efficiency requires an amount of excess O2 less that 10% as it is cheaper to heat air than not burn all the fuel. The properly adjusted burners on a gas stove should burn with only a blue flame with no yellow tinges which is adiabatic combustion and would produce very minute amounts of of CO. The volume of air in a house would dilute that to a point that it is not dangerous, Internal combustion engines do produce a much larger volume of CO and thus the deaths during a power outage from running generators. It has been over 62 years since I took thermodynamics in school so my explanation should be taken with that in mind.

 

[dwco5051]

I left out the answer to your question in my semi-awake state. If you were to turn on all the burners and the oven on a gas stove and there was not enough infiltration of outside air into a closed space the oxygen would start to be depleted from the air and incomplete combustion would start producing ever increasing amounts of carbon monoxide which also eventually cause the flame to go out but not before the levels of CO would be deadly.

 

[gm280]

Because we have a wood burning fireplace, we also have a CO detector. However, That detector has never ever gone off even once. So how do you test such detectors to at least know it is working? I see some of them have a digital readout. but this one has nothing. What would be a great way to at least test it to verify it works?

 

[roscoe]

. So how do you test such detectors to at least know it is working??

Press the little test button ?