carbon dioxide concern

[Dhorton]

Hello all,
Im kinda new to wine making and I was wondering should I be concerned by the co2 being produced? I live in a small 1 bedroom apt.
"NIOSH states that carbon dioxide concentrations exceeding 4% are immediately dangerous to life and health."
Also since I started making wine, my smoke/co2 detector has started going off randomly.. anyone else have problems?

[Vanterax]

You most probably have a CO detector, not CO2. Carbon monoxide is very dangerous and a greater danger if you have natural gas heating. What you wine is releasing is equivalent to a couple of bottles of pop. Did you stop drinking pop from that fear? It's full of CO2.

CO2 is what you exhale when you breathe. You are yourself a producing source of CO2.

[Dhorton]

Actually my smoke detector detects smoke/CO/CO2/rapid temp shifts (rather high end for my crappy lil' apt, lol) And high concentrations of Co2 can cause health issues, from wikipedia;

Toxicity and its effects increase with the concentration of CO2, here given in volume percent of CO2 in the air:
* 1%, as can occur in a crowded auditorium with poor ventilation, can cause drowsiness with prolonged exposure.[2]
* At 2% it is mildly narcotic and causes increased blood pressure and pulse rate, and causes reduced hearing.[36]
* At about 5% it causes stimulation of the respiratory centre, dizziness, confusion and difficulty in breathing accompanied by headache and shortness of breath.[36]
* At about 8% it causes headache, sweating, dim vision, tremor and loss of consciousness after exposure for between five and ten minutes.[36]

[Wade E]

Unless you are fermenting about 1000 gallons of wine at 1 time there really is no concern. If you are still worried get a few plants in your house as they take in C02 and produce 02 with it.

[Vanterax]

Originally Posted by Dhorton

And high concentrations of Co2 can cause health issues, from wikipedia

And do you know how high it needs to be? Several times (by a large magnitude) than what home wine degassing can produce. Again, did you stop drinking pop? Because it has just as much CO2. And you should probably stop breathing too. Might be safer.

[koda_ky]

That must be why I feel so funny I thought it was from the wine..lol

[Dhorton]

Originally Posted by Vanterax

And do you know how high it needs to be? Several times (by a large magnitude) than what home wine degassing can produce. Again, did you stop drinking pop? Because it has just as much CO2. And you should probably stop breathing too. Might be safer.

No I havent stopped drinking sodas, yea soda does have quite a bit of CO2, but Im not opening a new bottle every couple of seconds releasing co2, 24 hrs a day, for months at a time. Also CO2 being a gas, it acts as gasses do, "pools together" possibly creating a bubble of high concentration.
Im pretty sure its the Co2 setting off my alarm since A) I replaced the old one thinking it was faulty, B) cracking open a window seems to help, but gets old now that its warmer outside.
Also GFYGT

[Dhorton]

So I figured I'd take a scientific approach to my problem. According to my calculations it will take ~15 mins to fill a volume of 1 cu/ft at a 8% concentration at 60 degrees f. That's assuming 1/8 of a teaspoon of CO2 per bubble exiting the airlock every 2 seconds...

[Tom]

EER... OK I will take your word for it....

[Vanterax]

I guess we should've all been dead long ago.