Jen’s Boot Camp and Allerton Abbey Experience

Paul, that was on the day that I was trying to charge the mass with heat. So it involved many hours of constantly feeding the fire without leaving the house or opening windows, etc. It also involved removing the coals several times in order to fit in more wood (leaving the coals resulted in a steady temp). I did smell smoke occasionally during that process, but not for the vast majority of the time it was burning.

Jen, when you removed the coals, where did you put them?  If they were still inside the building they could have been causing the CO buildup.  I think...

Jen, and all: Have a care. Don't die.

The CO problem is a PROBLEM. Take it very seriously. Somewhere combustion products are not going where they are supposed to, are getting  into the room. CO kills people "silently", painlessly. You don't know it's happening. The commonly available alarms go off at quite a high concentration because fire departments were getting too many "nuisance" calls and also because people won't use them if they go off all the time.  Law now requires that CO detectors not alarm below 40ppm.  But low levels of CO are not good for you.

Here are some links with info on CO and detectors: (note also that it takes a lot of time to get CO out of you)

https://reviews.chicagotribune.com/reviews/best-carbon-monoxide-detectors?cid=1475297658&aid=56337950639&eid=&tid=kwd-10216257&ul=9031972&mt=p&n=g&d=c&dm=&dt&sn&adid=349837344124&k=co%20detector&p=&pc=&ap=1o2&chtrb=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI35zA7_7g5QIVjh6tBh2q9A7NEAMYAiAAEgINwPD_BwE

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/165963/need-recommendation-for-home-co-detector-want-ppm-readout

https://uihc.org/health-library/carbon-monoxide

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-difficult-brain.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2018/02/12/why-a-carbon-monoxide-monitor-in-your-home-may-not-be-enough-to-protect-you/



Here are two "serious" detectors. I doubt, because of the cost, you will get these, but it doesn't hurt to know what's out there. The "CO Experts" products are the gold standard, and you pay for it. The other comes recommended, but I haven't done research here for 7-8 years, so I put it out for info only. The COExperts product runs about $200, the Sensorcon about $130. But in a link above, one of the Kidde products performed well when a heating pro compared it with his high end sensors.

http://coexperts.ca/product/model-2016/

https://sensorcon-sensing-products-by-molex.myshopify.com/products/portable-carbon-monoxide-detector-meter?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwbzn7Kuc2wIVzSWBCh0Q1AwJEAYYASABEgIdnPD_BwE&variant=4193480964

Stay safe,
Rufus

OK, Jen, now I'm worried too... (but I worry about everything!).  Glad these guys are 'on guard' here.   Please get back with the CO readings.

I am not someone who worries about everything, but I want to warn you too about CO! It's such a silent killer!
Probably the alarm warns you before you're about to die ... but even when there's a lower CO, it's bad for your health. You can get headaches. Oxygen in you body get lower, which can harm everything inside (organs) and in that way influences the way you function (as a whole).
So I hope you'll find out why there's CO in your wofati, and you can do something about it.