My propane forge setup and CO concerns

B

Batt

Joined
Feb 12, 2017
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2
Hi, I have been running my propane forge inside my garage with a door open, but no CO alarm. Today I changed that and installed a Kidde CO alarm with digital readout of current CO levels in ppm. The forge is about eight feet from the door and I installed the alarm in between the two, which is right about where I stand at the anvil. I fired up the forge and kept a close eye on the alarm because I was curious what it would read. It immediately started climbing steadily to 250 ppm at which point it descended back down to 0. The alarm never went off. It took 15 minutes or so for this all to take place and it never went above 0 again for the remainder of the time the forge was running. This seems erratic to me. Does anybody have any ideas what is going on with this alarm?
 
I'll watch to see what folks with actual knowledge have to say. I'd suspect when the forge first fired up it was not burning clean at all creating a much higher level of CO. After heating up the forge was burning cleaner producing less CO. AND perhaps also with the heat from forge a positive pressure was built causing the exhaust gases to move outside the area of the CO monitor.

Why the monitor didn't alarm at 250 ppm - no idea unless there is a time the level has to be high to cause the alarm.
 
I did a bit of research and some thinking last night and I came to the same conclusions you did. I'm not completely satisfied yet, though. This afternoon I'm going to take the CO alarm from my house out there and see if it goes off. I'm also going to start cracking the large garage door when I run the forge.
 
Oh, I just realized in your OP you didn't say the "garage door" was open, just said "a door" was open. Yes, agree with you to open the garage door some at least to get a bit of flow thru ventilation.
 
You don't get full combustion right out of the gate. The interior needs to come to heat. To become fully insured for classes, I had to get a shop inspection, including air quality for both particulate and gas. The technician wasn't even concerned about the gases at start-up. After 1-2 minutes, it was only reading water and CO2.... no worse than a kitchen gas range. I still use exhaust and intake fans. I will also add that I use an explosive gas alarm as well. A tiny leak could build up over time and get real ugly in a hurry. The fire marshal suggested I disconnect my motion sensor interior light. I love not having to flip a switch when I walk in... but not more than living, should a slow leak occur and I fail to hear the alarm before entering.
 
The wall switch is far more likely to make a tiny spark that any electronic circuit.
The motion sensor switch should use electronic switching, not relay. I wonder why he worried about it? If it was a really old relay type, just change to electronic.

One good reason for a master shut-off solenoid at the propane/gas source is that when you shut off the switch you shut off the gas and leaks become a non-problem. The main shut-off switch should be by the light switch at the entry/exit door. Use a NC solenoid and it shuts down automatically when power is lost.
 
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