Don’t know where else to put it, but it’s realated to our enviroment in our country?)
Because of the many victoms of CO2 accidents, i’ve decided to build a sensor (I have all the material, and can integrate it in my Home Assistant) I’ve put 2 CO2/tem/humidity meters in my house, one in the bedroom in the attic and one on the living room. When we open the bedroom window to ventilate the room (30 min) the CO2 levels go up with about 10 % !! At first I thought it was an accident, meter not properly calibrated, but it’s the same on the two different meters, and if I put a meter outside, there is more CO2 in the air than inside! I do have a few neighbours, and some of them use a wood stove (houtkachel) but I never thought it would be this bad! it takes about 4 hours after closing the window to get back to normal levels. here’s a screenshot from one of the two meters values: [https://imgur.com/a/mtSg33F](https://imgur.com/a/mtSg33F)
So the spikes are when we OPEN the window… Does this make any sense? are we poluting so much that it’s better inside than outside? I understand if this is city center, but this is in Schepdaal!
EDIT: SORRY! mixed up CO and CO2. CO levels rising apparently seems normal when opening windows! Didn’t know it was that sensitive. Thanks all for pointing out my mistake. Won’t happen again (but maybe this helped you all react more quickly 😉
6 comments
~~What on earth is something like 8? CO2 is measured in PPM and the minimum possible value is around 400. 8 is impossible.~~
~~I’m guessing you just bought a crappy CO2 meter that doesn’t actually measure CO2 but tries to estimate it based on temperature and humidity and maybe particulate in the air.~~
~~I recommend buying a proper CO2 meter with a real sensor.~~
Wait what you’re talking about is CO, not CO2. Could people please learn the difference?
CO kills you right now.
CO2 kills the planet in the future.
In which case, yes it makes sense if you open your windows that it rises, it’s emitted by cars in normal operation, while your heating system will emit pretty much none if it’s functioning normally and exhausting outside.
I’m not sure that you are speaking of the right thing:
– CO2 is a naturally occurring gas required for plant and animal life.
– CO is the result of incomplete combustion during burning and a big cause of fatalities at home.
It makes sense that your meter will show a high CO2 when you open the windows. If it measures CO, then the amount will drop once there is ventilation.
Wait… Did you buy a CO2 meter instead of a CO meter?
Aside from that, it’s very weird that CO2 levels are higher when you open the windows.
Your first assumption when you get anomalies in any experiment: check your equipment.
I’m assuming your device measures CO and not CO2.
You can tell the difference quite easily : if it’s somewhere around 420 ppm you’re measuring CO2. If you’re measuring somewhere under 10 ppm then its CO. If you do measure 420 ppm CO… get out of there or it’ll all be over soon.
It is possible there is more CO outside than inside. Especially if you measure along roofs in an area where people burn trash. If you measure CO2 near any roofs with an exhaust, very slightly increased CO2 levels are expected. If you measure PM on cold days in areas where people burn wood, you should expect air quality outside to be worse than inside and keep your windows mostly closed.
An increase of 10% – assuming the actual CO levels you start from are very low – is also not really noteworthy. What is the absolute level of CO (or CO2?) that you are measuring?
>Does this make any sense? are we poluting so much that it’s better inside than outside? I understand if this is city center, but this is in Schepdaal!
Yes we pollute this much. It’s not so relevant in terms of CO and CO2 (CO dissipates quickly, CO2 is relevant for climate change but less for local health reasons). But in terms of PM – which is the most worrying pollutant for health – moving a few km out of brussels won’t fix the issue. You’re still in the vlaamse ruit, close to brussels & the ring.
Within cities, especially before introduction of LEZ as well as along the ever congested rings the PM count is systematically slightly too high to be healthy. This is a chronic issue.
On cold days, the PM pollution in all of flanders is higher than the average PM count next to a highway / in a city. For these cold spells, the air quality in all of flanders but especially the ruit is acutely harmful.
We need a ban or far more strict regulations on residential woodburning 😉
If you are worried by a CO intoxication make sure your gas boiler is inspected regularly.