Fellow wrenches,
Most CO sensors will be sensitive to both hydrogen sulfide and to
hydrogen. Here's a link to a typical sensor
<http://www.alphasense.com/pdf/COAX.pdf>. While the unintended
sensitivity to hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide may cause false alarms to
CO, does anyone know if these devices alarm before there is an explosive
concentration of hydrogen? Sounds like recommending them for that
purpose is risky.
Kent Osterberg
Blue Mountain Solar, Inc.
www.bluemountainsolar.com
On 2/3/2012 8:23 AM, john wrote:
Rich,
I have found that having the CO detector anywhere nearby seems to
pick up the battery gasses. I had a problem with one customer's
battery box (built by their carpenter) made of pine boards tightly
fitted together. It was leaking gasses thru the crack between
the boards on the top near the vent. I put electrical tape on the
crack and the problem was solved. The vent fan was working fine but
did not have enough volume to keep the gasses from escaping upward and
out of the crack. A good reason to use plywood or something else other
than multiple boards. I would definitely agree with Bob that the CO
monitor does work to indicate a bad fan. I have had them go off when
the voltage set point on the dux relay was set too high to catch the
early stages of gassing.
John
CVSolar
-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Nicol <r...@solartechvt.com>
To: 'RE-wrenches' <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Thu, Feb 2, 2012 9:40 pm
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Battery Off Gassing and CO Detectors
Wrenches
I understand that battery gassing of Hydrogen Sulfide can set off CO
detectors. A new customer who I am about to replace a large battery
bank for had his furnace tech on site today to check for proper
operation of the furnace since his CO detector was going off, the tech
found the high levels of CO were coming from the battery bank. I
recognize its not actually CO but rather it's hydrogen sulfide since
his generator had recently been running to charge the batteries and I
assume that the detector couldn't differentiate the Hydrogen Sulfide
from the carbon monoxide. Does anyone have any insight into the
mechanism that CO detectors use to detect the gas and secondly could
they be used reliably to detect battery gassing that isn't being
evacuated from the battery enclosure such as when a power vent fails?
Maybe a CO detector could be located near enough to the vent hole in
the Zephyr fan to detect high levels of Hydrogen Sulfide that aren't
being pushed out when the fan fails to operate and open its damper?
Power vent failure is a fear that a number of customers have
expressed, maybe this could be a method of alerting the homeowner
that there is an issue.
Thanks
Rich
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