carbon dioxide concern

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Dhorton

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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?
 
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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.
 
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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]
 
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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.
 
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.
 
That must be why I feel so funny I thought it was from the wine..lol:)
 
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:)
 
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...
 
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EER... OK I will take your word for it....:b
 
OK, you’ve peaked my interest. Here’s my calculations…
Lets assume that you have 1 gallon of wine with a s.g. of 1.09. That’s 2lb. 1.3oz of sugar, or 33.3oz. From what I’ve read, fermentation creates two molecules of ethanol and two of carbon dioxide. Assuming 50% of the sugar is converted to C02, then you will have 16.65oz (1.04lb.) of CO2. If the average fermentation time is 14 days, then that’s .07433 lbs. per day. The density of CO2 is 0.123420 lb/cu. ft. So, you have 0.602 cu/ ft. of gas per day. To fill up a 2400 cu. ft. apartment would take 3986.71 days. That’s assuming that the apartment is completely sealed with no air entering or exiting. If you want to go worst case scenario, assume ALL of the sugar becomes CO2 and double my numbers.
 
When's the last time you changed the battery in your detector? most of them chirp when they need a new battery.

I say this because CO2 is heavier than atmospheric air...so it tends to sink rather than float up where most detectors are installed. of course if the apartment has good airflow, like ceiling fans, then I could see it mixing that ground level CO2 into the rest of the air.

But you'd need a LOT of fermenters and no air exchange with the outside world to really build up those levels.
 
OK, you’ve peaked my interest. Here’s my calculations…
Lets assume that you have 1 gallon of wine with a s.g. of 1.09. That’s 2lb. 1.3oz of sugar, or 33.3oz. From what I’ve read, fermentation creates two molecules of ethanol and two of carbon dioxide. Assuming 50% of the sugar is converted to C02, then you will have 16.65oz (1.04lb.) of CO2. If the average fermentation time is 14 days, then that’s .07433 lbs. per day. The density of CO2 is 0.123420 lb/cu. ft. So, you have 0.602 cu/ ft. of gas per day. To fill up a 2400 cu. ft. apartment would take 3986.71 days. That’s assuming that the apartment is completely sealed with no air entering or exiting. If you want to go worst case scenario, assume ALL of the sugar becomes CO2 and double my numbers.



your new nickname is Magnus Pike....!

:)

Allie
 
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?

Interesting question! I know that I've looked at the airlocks bubbling up and down and with all the hype over co2 emissions, the amount of co2 coming off my wines has crossed my mind - fleetingly :)

As someone else has already pointed out, the amount of co2 produced is not very much at all, relatively speaking. You shouldn't have to worry.

As far as your smoke and carbon monoxide alarm - those things can be kind of fickle - and often sound "false positive" alarms. They can be affected by humidity, dust, and other factors - of course, they are sensitive - by their very nature, but this sensitivity can cause false alarms. Even small bugs getting into them can set them off.

I've got about 20 gallons of wine fermenting right now - and have at times, had 100 gallons of wine fermenting in my house at the same time. All is fine here :)
 
Kiljoy, I like your approach.
The density of pure (100%) CO2 is 0.123420 lb/cu. ft at 69.9 degrees f.So based off of your calculations. 1 gallon of fermenting wine/must will produce 0.602 cu/ft of pure (100%) co2 at 69.9 degrees f per day, or 7.53 cu/ft at 8% co2 at 69.9 degrees f per day.
Malkore, I changed my battery, that didnt work So I had a new one installed- it was the maint man who originally pointed out to me that it may be the 13 gallons of wine Im making. I would assume that the co2 threshold is 1-2% for the detector since normal "air" is .037-.039% co2. Ive since went out and purchased some houseplants to deal with the yeast farts.
While researching this I stumbled across a pretty interesting article;
http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/askpablo-co2-from-beer.php
 
Magnus Pike? Sorry, had to look that one up.

I'm an engineer with A LOT of time on my hands lately. :sl Work's a bit slow these days. Damn recession!
 
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Just had a thought! We should all get together and sell our carbon offset credits! Oh wait. we'd have to buy them wouldnt we?
 
Just had a thought! We should all get together and sell our carbon offset credits! Oh wait. we'd have to buy them wouldnt we?

Hehe.. actually though - if you consider transportation costs of commercial wine - us winemakers should have credits to sell! Besides, that organic material is going to release co2 anyhow, when it's rotting naturally or being digested by humans and animals.
 
Just had a thought! We should all get together and sell our carbon offset credits! Oh wait. we'd have to buy them wouldnt we?

hehehhe...

well I run beef cattle .. so my carbon credits are chewed up by the local fart tax debits. ( hey it really is called the fart tax!)

Allie
 
Also concerned for newborns

I'm so glad I found this thread because I also have a concern about the levels of carbon dioxide with regards to my new babies. We make wine in 1-5 gallon batches in a walk-in closet in our bathroom (no real ventilation). It gets pretty stinky in there but I've never felt light-headed or anything. Now I'm pregnant with twins expected in September and I worry that they may not be able to tolerate carbon dioxide like an adult can. Our bathroom adjoins the master bedroom directly with no door. The babies crib will be in our bedroom so I'm very worried about the carbon dioxide levels from the adjacent bathroom. And I can't even have a glass of wine to ease my excessive worrying! I must add that pregnancy has allowed me to actually get some age on some of my wines. :h So what should I do? We don't have any other space in the house with room for all our wines except the garage- which has no A/C and we live in Houston TX. I've thought of getting an old refrigerator. Any other ideas?
 

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