Normal Carbon Monoxide (CO) levels in a home?

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Blue_Goose

Blue_Goose

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I have a couple of Kidde Nighthawk CO detectors in my house. These are the kind with the digital display and sample the air every 15 seconds. While wife was deployed the stove and oven hardly got used at all (big surprise lol) Now that she is back she has returned to her cooking extraordinaire self. After the stove and oven (natural gas) have been on for a bit I check the reader that is maybe 15 feet away in the dining room and always get a reading between 10-18 ppm. The one in my upsatirs bedroom also gets a similar reading. I'll clear the number and then keep checking every couple of minutes until I don't get a reading any more. this usually takes about 5-10 minutes.

I guess my question is, is this normal for a gas stove to give off these levels of CO? If so is it ok at these readings?

Thanks

Goose
 
I got a Kiddie CO detector that claims to detect down to 10 but won't say anything until 25. (But the fire department can apparantly recall history somehow).

I take it the range isn't vented?
 
My Nighthawk CO detector is in my bedroom upstairs, and it can read over 100 ppms after a long oven use. I just ignore it and it returns to zero over time.

Tom NJ
 
In NYC any level over 9 ppm is considered to be not normal and requires the fire department to begin efforts to mitigate. Over 100 ppm requires evacuation.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I got a Kiddie CO detector that claims to detect down to 10 but won't say anything until 25. (But the fire department can apparantly recall history somehow).

I take it the range isn't vented?



No not vented...well not to the outside at least...this will detect anything 10ppm and higher but won't alarm unless it is over 70ppm for a certain amount of time. My guess is it has probably been like this since I been here (8 years) and only noticing now because of the new CO detector.


My guess is that any gas buring appliance will emit a certain level of CO and what I'm seeing is pretty normal?



Goose
 
I hung one up above my stove, got a 23 IIRC. Otherwise always less than 15, which won't show up on mine (shows up as 0).

It was hard to get the 23, I think I had all four burners on.
 
My CO detector has a built in expiration timer from the moment one first inserts batteries. IIRC 7 years.

When the gas company hooked up my gas in a rented house (with already existing tank and equipment) they inspected both the monitor heater and unvented stove and called it good. Whomever did your stove likely would get sued pretty fiercely if it violated code.
 
Mine says it'll say zero up to 25 even though it detects down to ten. Assume to keep people from freaking out. This disappointed myself, a wood stove owner, as I figured the LCD number display would be more useful than the go/no-go of the cheaper model.

Apparantly some city required CO detectors in rental properties before the technology matured. Drove their fire dept nuts.
 
Well the one in the bedroom detects the CO also when stove is on.....not all the time but if I get a reading downstairs I get a reading upstairs too...is that ok?


As far as stove install..I mean all it is is hooking up the gas right? Any CO emitted I imagine would be from the burners?


Goose
 
Highest instant reading ours has ever read is 23, and that is with all 4 burners and the oven going for a while on our gas range. We have a gas furnace, gas hot water, gas fireplace, gas dryer, and gas range. The only unit that seems to contribute is the gas range (and cars in the garage on cold mornings!) Ours is similar that it reads zero as long as it is under 25 - you have to press a button to get a peak reading. It also self alarms after 7 years from when the battery is first put in to ell you to replace it.
 
I work in the steel industry. There have been many, many, many, many deaths in steel mills from CO, especially around blast furnaces. At 50 - 100 ppm exposure your not going to keel over and die. CO exposure is cumulative and at that level of exposure over a few hours you will get headaches and nausea etc. You can't clear the CO from your blood by just getting some fresh air, it takes time to clear it out. Your blood has an affinity for oxygen but an even greater affinity for CO. The problem is once it gets saturated with CO it can't absorb oxygen.

At very high levels, say 500 or more ppm, it is extremely quick and lethal. Even if you were to hold your breath it can be absorbed by the skin and knock you out before you can walk away. That's why they teach you to never attempt a rescue of someone who fell unconscious unless you have put on an emergency breathing apparatus. Many times there have been cases where one person goes down and another goes in to rescue the first only to also succumb to CO and then another holds his breath and goes in, and another holds his breath and goes in... and a half dozen end up dying.
 
Most of the furnaces i check are between 13 and 30 ppm, so i would assume a good clean stove would be in the same ball park.

In the instructions for our CO detector 400 ppm results in death with in the hour. That is in the room, not inside the furnace.


Its sort of funny, in my experience its either low or it pegs my meter, rarely in between.
 
Originally Posted By: xlt4me
I work in the steel industry. There have been many, many, many, many deaths in steel mills from CO, especially around blast furnaces. At 50 - 100 ppm exposure your not going to keel over and die. CO exposure is cumulative and at that level of exposure over a few hours you will get headaches and nausea etc. You can't clear the CO from your blood by just getting some fresh air, it takes time to clear it out. Your blood has an affinity for oxygen but an even greater affinity for CO. The problem is once it gets saturated with CO it can't absorb oxygen.

At very high levels, say 500 or more ppm, it is extremely quick and lethal. Even if you were to hold your breath it can be absorbed by the skin and knock you out before you can walk away. That's why they teach you to never attempt a rescue of someone who fell unconscious unless you have put on an emergency breathing apparatus. Many times there have been cases where one person goes down and another goes in to rescue the first only to also succumb to CO and then another holds his breath and goes in, and another holds his breath and goes in... and a half dozen end up dying.


I also work at a steel mill, in Middletown Ohio. Areas of the mill require you to wear a CO monitor. They alert at 50 PPM and give a steady beeping warning at 100 PPM. When it goes off at 100 PPM, we are supposed to evacuate the area. But I've never had it reach 50 PPM yet after 15 years.
 
Originally Posted By: hertzer


I also work at a steel mill, in Middletown Ohio. Areas of the mill require you to wear a CO monitor. They alert at 50 PPM and give a steady beeping warning at 100 PPM. When it goes off at 100 PPM, we are supposed to evacuate the area. But I've never had it reach 50 PPM yet after 15 years.


AK? I work for Mittal at the former Inland plant... 35yrs this month. I work at a BOF shop but I stay in the office most of the time because I'm an automation geek. We have had one CO death at the shop where I work and three other guys almost died trying to save the first. Pigeons routinely fall from the 6th floor to the third after getting gassed with CO up there, but the BOF is nothing compared to the blast furnaces.

Stay safe my friend!
 
Our NightHawk CO detector has shown peak numbers above 0 a few times this winter. The highest was 23. Past winters it always stayed at 0. The only time in the past it ever went above 0 was in the summer when a neighbor had a big BBQ.

So far I have spent $1350 for a closed combustion loop gas water heater to replace the natural draft water heater. + $60 to the a neighbor to drill the big brick wall for the vent. That brought the peak down to 18, but that seamed to be much less frequently then the 23 in the past.

Then recently after the large snow, the peak went up to 21 often. I cleared the area behind the house where the forced exhaust of the furnace goes outside. The snow had built up there, combined with stuff that was stored there there was a lot of restriction. The peak went back down to 18.

I found a top window on the back of the house (above the area where the forced vent from the furnace exits) that had slid down about 3/8 of an inch. Closed that, now the highest peak was 12.

Most of the time it is at 0.

I called NightHawk 1800 880 6788 or 1888 662 3559 M-F 8 AM - 7 PM EST SAT 9 AM - 6 PM EST They said the lowest level that will set off the alarm is 40 PPM for 10 Hours. As the amount goes up the amount of time required decreases. 70 PPM will set it off in 1 Hour.

I talked to a neighbor who is fireman today and he told me that they had a call to the house next to ours for the CO detector going off. They checked the house and furnace and all showed OK.

That house has a new furnace installed last summer. The person who installed it vented it to the alley between our house and the house it is in. I am now thinking that the vent in the alley way is causing CO to get into the house by air leakage on that side. Our furnace is not a closed loop. When it runs it draws combustion air from the house and forces the exhaust outside. This creates a lower pressure in the house and forces outside air into the house. This could aid any CO outside the house to enter with outside air.

Since the neighbors CO alarm went off I suspect the alley way venting of their furnace is more of a problem for them. I am going to point it out to them and see if they get it changed to vent into the back yard area. Also that house is huge and the vent for their furnace seams to realy blow a lot of exhaust.
 
BTW, I worked in J&L Steel Pittsburgh works in the summers to earn my way through school. We never had any CO problems when I was there.

My dad worked there all his life. He told stories about when he started working there. When he started there it was 12 hours on and 12 hours off. Once every 2 weeks he worked 24 hours straight, and once every 2 weeks he got 24 hours off. Back then many men would get over-come with gas at one time. They would put them on a flat RR car and have the RR run it up and down the track. Those that woke up went back to work. Those that did not wake up got buried.
 
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