Carbon monoxide help

[bluelakebrewing]

First brew session if the fall. I placed my fermenting beers in a small room which houses my furnace and water heater.

When I woke up I had vigorous fermentation and my carbon monoxide alarm was chirping.

The alarm had never done this before, but I have also never fermented in this room. Could the co2 release and displaced o2 cause the alarm go off from the beer, or do I have a bigger problem. The unit is not battery operated.

Just wondering if fermentation set this sucker off? Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[tooldudetool]

Hmm that is strange. A CO alarm should not go off from CO2 exposure. Its possible that your gas burning appliances fired and didn't have enough oxygen for the flame which causes an improper burn, which produces much more CO than usual. I'm assuming there must be vents or grilles in the door for combustion air for the appliances, right? If not, you need them by code in an confined space.

 

[bluelakebrewing]

This is a fairly large room the appliances are in, maybe 14x8. It's essentially my tool shed. I wouldn't figure there would be a lack of 02.

 

[JeffD1]

Hmm that is strange. A CO alarm should not go off from CO2 exposure. Its possible that your gas burning appliances fired and didn't have enough oxygen for the flame which causes an improper burn, which produces much more CO than usual. I'm assuming there must be vents or grilles in the door for combustion air for the appliances, right? If not, you need them by code in an confined space.

Yeah i guess this is possible, but I'd doubt that the fermentation puts out that much CO2 to prevent the appliances from igniting. I'd guess that its a faulty CO detector, or you have a problem with something else unrelated to brewing. However, that being said, I've had my CO detectors go off a couple times on brew days. The only thing I could figure is that the water vapor from boiling water and wort confused the detector.

 

[Wynne-R]

Essentially the electrochemical cell consists of a container, 2 electrodes, connection wires and an electrolyte - typically sulfuric acid. Carbon monoxide is oxidized at one electrode to carbon dioxide while oxygen is consumed at the other electrode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_detector

Based on the mostly reliable Wikipedia, it looks like CO2 will set them off.

 

[BigBill]

I had a batch set mine off once... Hasn't beeped since.... Long story short I had a slow start so I moved closer to furnace since that part of basement is warmer. Ended up putting right under detector and beeped twice.....

 

[highgravitybacon]

Yeah i guess this is possible, but I'd doubt that the fermentation puts out that much CO2 to prevent the appliances from igniting. I'd guess that its a faulty CO detector, or you have a problem with something else unrelated to brewing. However, that being said, I've had my CO detectors go off a couple times on brew days. The only thing I could figure is that the water vapor from boiling water and wort confused the detector.

Or, as nobody has considered, the OP has his room filling with CO and it has nothing to do with the beer. If it goes off, call your gas company or the fire department to check it with a gas meter.

 

[SpeedYellow]

Or the CO detector is chirping because the battery is about dead. That's what my smoke detectors do. I'd expect a lot more than simply "chirping" if it detects high CO.