carbon monoxide alarm going off!

[Roosaaliiee]

Hi all.

I have a small woodburner that I use every day. Yesterday my CO alarm went off. I left the house and ventilated and all that, but I want to know why this happened. My guess is that because there was no wind and I had the vent almost closed, there wasn't enough draft into the woodburner and the smoke wasn't going into the chimney. I did see smoke puff back a bit, when opening the door, a few times, which I understand now is not a good thing. I use dry enough wood (I checked), and combine it with coal. The chimney was swept and the woodburner checked last October.

 

I only moved here last year and I'm quite new to using a woodburner, so not sure what I'm doing wrong, and if my guess (fume 'build up' due to not enough draw because no wind and vents almost closed so low slumbering fire)

 

Any advice / thoughts/suggestions apart from getting the woodburner checked (will do that anyways)? 

 

Thanks

[Squaredy]

1 hour ago, Roosaaliiee said:

Hi all.

I have a small woodburner that I use every day. Yesterday my CO alarm went off. I left the house and ventilated and all that, but I want to know why this happened. My guess is that because there was no wind and I had the vent almost closed, there wasn't enough draft into the woodburner and the smoke wasn't going into the chimney. I did see smoke puff back a bit, when opening the door, a few times, which I understand now is not a good thing. I use dry enough wood (I checked), and combine it with coal. The chimney was swept and the woodburner checked last October.

 

I only moved here last year and I'm quite new to using a woodburner, so not sure what I'm doing wrong, and if my guess (fume 'build up' due to not enough draw because no wind and vents almost closed so low slumbering fire)

 

Any advice / thoughts/suggestions apart from getting the woodburner checked (will do that anyways)? 

 

Thanks

Not saying it isn’t the wood burner, but you should consider all the appliances in your house.  Do you have a gas boiler, gas cooker, gas fire, or indeed oil of any of these?  All are capable of producing CO.

[openspaceman]

I would guess the wood was smouldering with no flame and that is why smoke came out when the door was opened. Do not close a flue damper if there is one and always supply enough air so there is a bright flame, Do not attempt to keep the fire in by "slumbering" it with the vents closed.

 

If this is not the reason and the CO alarm went off then I would suspect a leak from the flue into the room which must be rectified.

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

where is alarm installed ?

 

 

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

is batteries ok ?

 

[Roosaaliiee]

1 hour ago, Squaredy said:

Not saying it isn’t the wood burner, but you should consider all the appliances in your house.  Do you have a gas boiler, gas cooker, gas fire, or indeed oil of any of these?  All are capable of producing CO.

Thanks. I have none of these! Everything else is electric.

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

CO alarm will signall if batteries is low.

 

 

[Roosaaliiee]

1 hour ago, openspaceman said:

I would guess the wood was smouldering with no flame and that is why smoke came out when the door was opened. Do not close a flue damper if there is one and always supply enough air so there is a bright flame, Do not attempt to keep the fire in by "slumbering" it with the vents closed.

 

If this is not the reason and the CO alarm went off then I would suspect a leak from the flue into the room which must be rectified.

Thanks. On days like today (very low wind) it's practically impossible to keep a flame going, unless I'm on it all the time. And even then....

Would you say to never keep the fire slumbering? I tend to do this overnight to keep some heat in the living room, or on days that it's not too cold, because otherwise it gets way too hot in the room.

[Roosaaliiee]

3 minutes ago, Sviatoslav Tulin said:

CO alarm will signall if batteries is low.

 

 

The alarm is mains powered so batteries aren't the problem.

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

They must have back up batterie it’s the law