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CO Warning. Be careful out there

mrsmelly

By mrsmelly
in General Boating

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Sea Dog Veteran II

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Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, bizzard said:

Jet black smokeless fuel means its wet or damp. When perfectly dry it is a dark grey colour.

I think they spray it with water before they bag it so it weighs more and comes out black and shiny! ;)  The serious point being it's hard to avoid damp fuel, certainly at this time of year, so most of us are burning damp stuff from a new bag every 2 or 3 days.   Its a valid and interesting point, but there's more wrong with the stove in question than just that, clearly. Next instalment/update awaited with interest...

 

Edited by Sea Dog
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Wanderer Vagabond Influencer

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Posted
Posted

Had my first experience of the CO alarm going off today, interestingly it was whilst travelling along. What I think happened was, because we had to pass through Gosty Tunnel, I had to take the chimney top off (low tunnel, almost lost it in the past) and just replaced it with a 'chinaman's hat'. The embers of the fire were still glowing a bit (not much) this morning when we set off and the day was quite windy. I suspect that a strong downdraught went down the chimney since there was no top on and blew the CO fumes back into the boat activating the alarm, the second alarm we have in the front of the boat didn't go off but there is a facility for seeing what the highest reading has been. Prior to today's trip it had a long standing reading of 46 (presumably ppm) today it has gone up to 77ppm. The alarm that activated in the bedroom has no facility for knowing what the reading was but my understanding of CO alarms is that there must be a raised level for a given period of time before they activate (they aren't like smoke alarms, activated by a puff of smoke).  We moored up, opened all doors and windows to ventilate the boat until the alarm stopped sounding and the reading on the front alarm was back to zero. I had by then re-fitted the chimney top but I closed the boat up and left the engine running for another 15 minutes before setting off again to make sure the alarm didn't re-activate (it didn't).

 

Assuming it was the absence of the chimney top that caused the  alarm to go off (along with strong winds) it is one more thing to add to list of things to remember!

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Sea Dog Veteran II

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Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Prior to today's trip it had a long standing reading of 46 (presumably ppm) today it has gone up to 77ppm. 

I think you should look into those levels WV.  Obviously you have in terms of the 77ppm and the alarm, but the longstanding lower one too since 35 points per million is the level below which there's said to be no affect on a healthy adult - 46 is a fair bit more. My own Fire Angel CO detectors also have a readout and they both say "zero", even the one closest to the stove. I did see a brief max of 12ppm once when I had the door open too long under unusual circumstances (cleaning, I think).

 

CO levels in the blood accumulate since CO bonds with the haemoglobin in the red corpuscles more readily than with  the oxygen they should be picking up in the lungs and releasing around the body. Long term exposure is therefore not something that should be tolerated even at lower levels.  Better to be safe, eh? :)

 

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ditchcrawler Veteran II

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Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I think you should look into those levels WV.  Obviously you have in terms of the 77ppm and the alarm, but the longstanding lower one too since 35 points per million is the level below which there's said to be no affect on a healthy adult - 46 is a fair bit more. My own Fire Angel CO detectors also have a readout and they both say "zero", even the one closest to the stove. I did see a brief max of 12ppm once when I had the door open too long under unusual circumstances (cleaning, I think).

 

CO levels in the blood accumulate since CO bonds with the haemoglobin in the red corpuscles more readily than with  the oxygen they should be picking up in the lungs and releasing around the body. Long term exposure is therefore not something that should be tolerated even at lower levels.  Better to be safe, eh? :)

 

Mine normally reads zero in the galley

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Wanderer Vagabond Influencer

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Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I think you should look into those levels WV.  Obviously you have in terms of the 77ppm and the alarm, but the longstanding lower one too since 35 points per million is the level below which there's said to be no affect on a healthy adult - 46 is a fair bit more. My own Fire Angel CO detectors also have a readout and they both say "zero", even the one closest to the stove. I did see a brief max of 12ppm once when I had the door open too long under unusual circumstances (cleaning, I think).

 

CO levels in the blood accumulate since CO bonds with the haemoglobin in the red corpuscles more readily than with  the oxygen they should be picking up in the lungs and releasing around the body. Long term exposure is therefore not something that should be tolerated even at lower levels.  Better to be safe, eh? :)

 

Perhaps I didn't make it quite clear, the instantaneous reading is zero but when you press the button to find out the highest historical reading it was 46 prior to yesterday and whatever caused yesterday's activation pushed the historical highest reading up to 77. I am keeping an eye on the instantaneous reading to make sure it remains at zero.

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Is there any merit with having a Co2 alarm in the engine compartment?  I'll be doing lots of work in there shortly and just occurred to me might be a good idea??

If that is where your batteries are then the answer would be 'yes'.

 

We found that when we had a problem with a battery getting hot (having an internal short) it set off the Co alarm so useful to have one near the batteries as an indication of imminent failure.

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robtheplod Influencer

robtheplod

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If that is where your batteries are then the answer would be 'yes'.

 

We found that when we had a problem with a battery getting hot (having an internal short) it set off the Co alarm so useful to have one near the batteries as an indication of imminent failure.

thanks, yes it is.... I'll get two new alarms for the cabin and put the existing one from the cabin in the engine bay... hopefully that's all scenarios covered! The webasto heater and obviously the engine itself are in there so hopefully these wont cause lots of alerts when running (when I wont be in there)….

Edited by robtheplod
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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

thanks, yes it is.... I'll get two new alarms for the cabin and put the existing one from the cabin in the engine bay... hopefully that's all scenarios covered! The webasto heater and obviously the engine itself are in there so hopefully these wont cause lots of alerts when running (when I wont be in there)….

If you do get 'alerts' when running the engine or Webasto it shows that you need to do something (unless your engine compartment is hermetically sealed from the rest of the boat).

 

 

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robtheplod Influencer

robtheplod

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, stegra said:

You can get interlinked wireless co alarms so that if you is triggered, they all sound:

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/fireangel-w2-co-10xq-wireless-interlink-carbon-monoxide-alarm/8931d#product_additional_details_container

thanks... if they all went off wouldn't it make finding the source of the problem harder?

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stegra Proficient

stegra

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, robtheplod said:

thanks... if they all went off wouldn't it make finding the source of the problem harder?

Hmm. Not sure but I guess they must have thought of that. Perhaps there's an indication on the triggered alarm. 

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WotEver Veteran II

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Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Carbon Monoxide... sorry I said co2 didn't I sorry!!!!

I made the same slip in a bunch of scripts I wrote. I also kept writing mitre gauge when I meant mitre guide. I eventually got myself out of the habit. 

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Momac Veteran

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Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If that is where your batteries are then the answer would be 'yes'.

 

We found that when we had a problem with a battery getting hot (having an internal short) it set off the Co alarm so useful to have one near the batteries as an indication of imminent failure.

It's interesting that a CO detector should alarm due to battery gas, which is Hydrogen Sulphide.  The co detector  makers are perhaps missing a sales opportunity.

But let's no tell them.

I will need some new co detectors soon so may well get an extra one to place  near the battery box. 

 

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Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, stegra said:

Apparently they're good at detecting farts as well, so could be re-purposed as an early warning of when it's time to take to the chucky-out-bed after a curry night. Another marketing opportunity missed. 

No, that’s gas detectors which alarm to any alkane gas including the methane in your (or your dog’s) farts.

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Chewbacka Veteran

Chewbacka

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, MartynG said:

It's interesting that a CO detector should alarm due to battery gas, which is Hydrogen Sulphide.  The co detector  makers are perhaps missing a sales opportunity.

But let's no tell them.

I will need some new co detectors soon so may well get an extra one to place  near the battery box. 

 

Gases from batteries are mainly hydrogen and oxygen when water is electrolysed.  Though as you say there is also some H2S which is very smelly.  CO alarms detect fuel gasses which includes CO, Hydrogen and Methane.  Not sure how long the sensor will last in an engine hole as it may get contaminated by oil fumes and belt dust.  The test button tests the electronics rather than the sensor itself, so if you want to check it, get a can of test gas.

Edited by Chewbacka
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