11 Mar 2017 9:33 AM:
Brandon55 - you've partly right but that's the least of their problems.
CO2 is Carbon Dioxide and can be a killer and is indeed heavier than air. The killer is its big brother Carbon MONOXIDE! This gas 'isn't' heavier than air. In fact it's mixed quite evenly throughout the full room. You MUST immediately buy an audible Carbon Monoxide detector. The recommended place is to put it in any room that has a solid fuel 'burner' at a hight of about 4 feet or just over a meter. Although it's evenly mixed within the room this is the optimum position recommended.
A solid fuel burner is anything that burns solid fuel. This includes gas appliances and oil burners as gas and oil are products of solid fuel. A gas ring - gas oven - gas boiler - openfire/log burner/ behind glass fire - barbeque (Remember about 3 years ago some campers had a barbecue then it started to rain so they brought it into their tent to add a little extra heat whilst they slept. Yes, they all died!)
As stated in some other answers this gas is totally invisible - totally unsmellable - No indication at all that it's there.
In the right combination you will just fall asleep and never wake up. You will have no warning whatsoever. You won't feel drowsy (You won't realise you are feeling drowsy) You and anyone else in there will just fall to death. However, when they find you you'll look the healthiest you've ever done as you will have a cherry red glow about you. This is because your white blood cells have been attacked!
I know it sounds harsh but that is the reality of the situation.
This is how I see it - your open fireplace is acting as the chimney from down stairs and it's just about who is going to pay to blank the fireplace opening up then just bite the bullet and get the local bricky in for what it costs. Inform the occupants below that this is what you're doing and tell them that it's their problem to get 'their' chimney sorted out and obviously warn them of the dangers recommending to them not to use their fire. In the mean time, blank it off with a board and seal it all around with silicone. Still buy an alarm and have the windows open. If possible don't use the room until it's done! However, if it's just residue of smoke percolating into your room from the majority going up the chimney then closing it up should improve the updraught from dowstairs.
Don't wait until tomorrow as tomorrow may never come!
This message was last edited by watchmanager on 11/03/2017.
This message was last edited by watchmanager on 11/03/2017.
Thread:
Fire place issue
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