Carbon Monoxide in house

[vallyfarm]

I heat with a wood stove in my 1,000 q ft house for several years, but this year if I close the door to the spare bedroom the CO detector goes off in the room. Any ideas as to why? The detector in the livingroom just 10 ft from the wood stove, and every other detector dosen't go off. I've even tried swapping detectors, and it still goes off..only in the closed off, empty room. I'm stumped. Never did this until this year. Mike.

[Nevada]

Is the spare room on the same level as the rest of the house? That is, is it upstairs?

[mdharris68]

Do you have any gas burning appliances near or below that room? Water heater, gas dryer?

[calliemoonbeam]

It may just be a faulty detector. The one that was here when I moved in kept going off all the time when there wasn't anything on anywhere! I started researching online, and it said some are notorious for false alarms. I can't remember what brand that one was, but it was listed as the worst one. I bought a new one and haven't had one single alarm since.

You might try swapping out one of the others and see if it still happens. If it doesn't, then you know that one's defective.

[Ross]

You should stop using your wood stove until the chimney has be checked and swept. If you have done some work to tighten up the windows and doors or installed new ventilation equip like range hoods or bath room fans etc you could be depressurizing your house and back drafting the stove. Or as sugested some other fuel burning appliance could be malfunctioning. CO is deadly get everything checked!! You might need a combustion air opening for the stove or some other burner.

[big rockpile]

Your Flue might be getting stopped up.

big rockpile

[Cabin Fever]

Perhaps the CO detector is the spare room is more sensitive than the other detectors and/or has an alarm that goes off at a lower CO concentration that the other detectors.

Often CO can come back into the house when a fire is burnt down to coals and is slowly going out. In this situation, there is not enough heat to cause the gases to rise out of the chimney (in other words the chimney needs heat to draft and the fire is too cool to allow a draft). The gases leak out of the woodburning appliance into the home...often unnoticed.

I suggest that you get a CO detector that has a digital readout of CO concentrations. A level below 9 ppm is considered safe and below 35 ppm is considered marginally safe.

[vallyfarm]

No gas appliances near or under the room. All on same floor (1 story ranch). When I swap around detectors all of them go off in that room, but none signal any problems in rest of house...kitchen, living room with wood stove, hall by bathroom, or bedroom so it can't be the detector itself. Chimney was cleaned this spring and didn't really need it. The problem is in this room only. Is there any way the carpet or something could off-gas? Mike.

[Pink_Carnation]

Somehow carbon monoxide must be getting into that room. Is someone warming up a vehicle near it? Does your chimney go along any of the walls of the room? Do you have any gas appliances that vent near it outside? Have you checked to see if the attic space has anything that could be leaking into there and just finding the way down into that room? The detector might not go off as soon as the source is started up...it may take time for the CO to get to the room and the concentration needed to set the alarm off.

Unless the detctors are activated by other things in the air also then the carpet would not be a source.

[nathan104]

Will it only go off in that room while you have the wood stove burning or does it go off other times with the fire out?

[Yvonne's hubby]

Ok, you have swapped out detectors and it still does it, so its not a faulty detector, therefor you must be building up more co in that room somehow. You say its only when you close the door to that room so this is a key factor. Closing the door is preventing the fresh air to circulate through the room, somewhere near the chimney, or stove there must be something that is allowing the CO to enter the spare room and accumilate there. It could be as simple as a window leaking a bit, allowing the CO to enter after leaving the flue outside, it could be and more likely a leak in the flue attic which then filters down through into said spare room. I wouild check for air flow by closing all the doors and windows, turning off any fans or blowers and light a cigarette in front of the stove door. Watch where the smoke goes. then open the spare room door and watch where it goes.