The dangers of carbon monoxide

Another fatal incident

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That is frightening, its so tempting to try to warm a tent if you are cold at night.

you tend to think people would realise not to do this type of thing EVER but i suppose like you said helen the temptation when your cold and especailly if you my have slightly clouded judgement not a good combination

We must get a carbon monoxide detector,we have a solid fuel stove in the front room with a chimney that goes through our bedroom so we have one in there,these things are cheap now and i dont think you get the false alarms that you do with smoke detectors,ours hasn't gone of in 6 years of use and yes it does work

We use a little heater in the Dandy but am going to be some detectors that you stick on and they change colour

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We use them in our house but if you smoke they will give a false reading.

They are cheap and give some warning but I would rather you had one with some sort of alarm that would wake you up. Now I know what you are having for your birthday

Dear All

I do think some of these should be listed under Darwin awards, but I suspect some of my own actions might not have been the brightest.
I may well invest in a CO alarm as I have often used some form of heating.
A good overview of the subject and other safety issues is contained here.

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I may have linked before but well worth reading.

Kevin.

From kevin

I do think some of these should be listed under Darwin awards, but I suspect some of my own actions might not have been the brightest.

Yes its all too easy to think well i wouldn't be that daft, if we all dig into our pasts we have done things that where to say the least dangerous,i look at my 3 storey roof and think you used to go up there with no scaffold or any safety feature not now

Mike

Not saying there's a million reasons why I shouldn't be waking the earth but there must be at least a dozen.
One of the best was when as a youth looking for a water leak on an Avenger we thought it was off the water pump.
After removing all the fan bolts decided to just turn it over again to check.
With head hung over side of engine bay car then fired up.
Metal fan blades then shot off up into the air about an inch from my head.
Tend to think the result of actions through a touch more now. (Thats Tempting Fate)

Kevin.

God you were lucky.

Am i being thick here but i didn't think you could get carbon monoxide poisoning from a charcoal bbq i thought it came from the burning of gas etc.

Also it says that the gas bbq was outside and that they think he died of lingering fumes (thats scary stuff.)

I was thinking of going to a site with no elec and using one of the burners of the cooker to warm the dandy up but that has put me off now.

Lol and Steve wrote:
God you were lucky.

Am i being thick here but i didn't think you could get carbon monoxide poisoning from a charcoal bbq i thought it came from the burning of gas etc.

Also it says that the gas bbq was outside and that they think he died of lingering fumes (thats scary stuff.)

I was thinking of going to a site with no elec and using one of the burners of the cooker to warm the dandy up but that has put me off now.

charcoal is a fossil fuel and and all fossil fuels produce carbon monoxide when burnt
the tent will not have had any proper ventilation for cooking etc as all cooking should be done outside
i think leaving a gas burner on in a dandy or caravan on low would be ok as there are the vents above the door and window which would work like a chimeny effect and leaving the window open a touch would also allow added ventilation,
i'm sure someone on here will know about burning gas
but i imagine its exactly same principles well ventilated etc etc

I think i will just zip the sleeping bag up to my neck instead.

I don't think i would be able to sleep now with the burner on.

Then again i could boil the gas kettle for our night time drinking chocolate and warm the place up that way, turn it off get my thermals on and then zip the sleeping bag up to my neck.

vickoir wrote:

Lol and Steve wrote:
God you were lucky.

Am i being thick here but i didn't think you could get carbon monoxide poisoning from a charcoal bbq i thought it came from the burning of gas etc.

Also it says that the gas bbq was outside and that they think he died of lingering fumes (thats scary stuff.)

I was thinking of going to a site with no elec and using one of the burners of the cooker to warm the dandy up but that has put me off now.

charcoal is a fossil fuel and and all fossil fuels produce carbon monoxide when burnt
the tent will not have had any proper ventilation for cooking etc as all cooking should be done outside
i think leaving a gas burner on in a dandy or caravan on low would be ok as there are the vents above the door and window which would work like a chimeny effect and leaving the window open a touch would also allow added ventilation,
i'm sure someone on here will know about burning gas
but i imagine its exactly same principles well ventilated etc etc

I wouldn't use a naked flame for long as heat no matter how much ventilation you had in the dandy not worth the risk,maybe the gas rings for 10-15 min,when tenting we used one of those cannister fires that are all the rage but only in the morning while we had breakfast,maybe 60 min but that was in a Montana 6 and we where not getting ready for bed.

As vicki says all fossil fuels are dangerous without suitable ventilation thats why we have a detector in our bedroom above the room with a stove in it as in the winter we let the stove burn all night.

This may help settle your mind

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Dear all

Yet again I do recommend the link mentioned earlier in this thread. He covers most stove hazards then in separate page explains what he has found relating to differing stove fuels, the placement of cooking vessels and how this affects CO levels. it's pitched at a level where it can be understood without a deep knowledge of chemistry. I'll link it again. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Indeed the idea of cold vessels causing incomplete combustion and hence more CO is mentioned quite separately in an article on the Solid Fuel Association who I refer to in the next paragraph.
If you want to understand more about how stoves work (but not much on gas) and don't mind a hard read try [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Mike

In a former I life I sold wholesale solid fuel. The office I worked in was just next to the Solid Fuel Advisory Service (SFAS) this is now defunct though a private concern appears to have rights to the title and uses the old logo.
The organisation that provides information on solid fuel and a appliances now is The Solid Fuel Association.I have a link to it's safety page [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
If you have a permanently open vent brick in the room you have the appliance in, or if the appliance has a separate source of air for combustion all should be fine. Biggest danger is burning unseasoned wood or any wood and not getting the chimney swept. This results in chimney fires, which can be very spectacular. If you look at the site in general it's good overview and the links are encyclopedic.
Back to Darwin awards see [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for details of how people managed to light old roomheaters effectively turning them into small bombs.

Kevin.

And another one it has been reported they moved the BBQ into the tent dont know if that's fact or not but worth another warning about the dangers

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I was surprised to hear of another one today and had hoped the warning had been heard after the last tragedy but clearly not. Very sad for this young family but thank goodness the children are ok.

Oh no, I didnt know there had been another one, how terrible! Yes it is a silent killer, we always have an electric heater when camping and a smoke alarm just incase.