Good reading.
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/hovflett.htm
To read about how much CO2 a vent-free fireplace exhausts into the breathing space, click here.
To read about a recent study of the effects of long-term exposure to CO gases, click here.
To read about respiratory irritation from vent-free exhaust in the breathing space, click here.
To read a posting about vent-free gas appliances from an indoor air quality scientist, click here
“Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement”
Replies
There is no such thing as a ventless fireplace.
They all vent combustion gases.
The question is where do they vent them.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Thanks for those links, although I think the web site designer has had too much CO exposure - yellow on black text is almost unreadable.
For medical effects of CO exposure, inclusing the developing body of medical information about the serious effects of long term low level exposure, check this site, maintained by the leading medical expert, Dr. Penney at Wayne St Med School in MI,on CO:
http://www.coheadquarters.com/CO1.htm
For a now outdated protocol for testing for CO:
http://home.att.net/~cobusters1/
(Note - this site has an older draft protocol which has changed - reading it would not qualify one to do thorough CO safety analysis - understanding the processes is also necessary)
For victims: http://www.homesafe.com/cosupport/
What made the teaching of Jesus different and apparently so hard to accept then as now, was that it required a critical reassessment of the structures and values and attitudes of human society as his listeners and followers shared in it.
- Monika K. Hellwig
from Jesus: The Compassion of God (The Liturgical Press, 1983)
A note on the false sense of security the "ventless" heaters give.
These devises have an "oxygen depletion sensor" (ODS -- which is nothing more than a pilot light and sensor of flame size.)
If there is insufficient air supply, the levels of CO2 will build and when they get high enough, the ODS will shut the gas off.
So one saftey issue is (arguably) covered. (I don't know whether the ODS will shut the unit off before the high levels of CO2 cause the flame to start producing high levels of CO)
However, if a unit is producing excessive levels of CO, the CO will rise in the room (being in hot gases) and if any doors are open, spread through the house, The ODS will do absolutely nothing to protect against this.
And a burner out of adjustment can casue excessive amopunts of CO.
What made the teaching of Jesus different and apparently so hard to accept then as now, was that it required a critical reassessment of the structures and values and attitudes of human society as his listeners and followers shared in it.
- Monika K. Hellwig
from Jesus: The Compassion of God (The Liturgical Press, 1983)
I had a so-called ventless unit operating in a well-built (tight) house; bad idea. Combustion processes emit water and CO2...and unfortunately CO if the combustion process isn't perfect. The unit we had, set off our CO detector and created condensation on the inside of windows. We stopped using it. I've even heard that that ventless manufacturers lobbied the makers of CO detectors to raise there alert thresholds for obvious reasons. Of course, the water emitted can also create its own set of problems.
I'd never recommend the use of one of these in an unventilated area.
Dang boy, start proof-reading your stuff. That's "their alert levels" not "there alert levels". And there's a "that" where there ought to be a "the". I'm surprised you didn't write "of" where you wrote "off". Take a little more time next go-around and don't insult other readers with your poor grammar!
There, that felt good (or should it have been "their, the felt good").
Yeah, and I hope someone catches my implication that a house has to be tight to be well built!