Too much CO2?

[s0615353]

In a month or so, I am going to be fermenting 6 gallons of Amarone, 6 gallons of Chardonnay, 6 gallons of Syrah, 40 pds. of Temparanillo, and 3 gallons of ice wine in the kitchen/living room of my apartment. The space is approximately 500 square feet and I will be leaving the windows cracked (for smell/ventilation). Is there any need to worry about too much CO2 in my living space, or will everything be ok? Death by winemaking is a good way to go, but not for a few more decades

 

[jamesngalveston]

I think you are good to go.....the co2 level in a wine bucket is very nominal.

 

[seth8530]

What matters is the volumetric (cubic) volume inside of the room, the rate of CO2 production and the rate that CO2 is ventilated from the room. Do you intend on fermenting this all at the same time? If so, I would take precautions to make sure the room stays ventilated. Luckily, CO2 is not poison but it can displace the air and cause some issues.. and even kill in large enough concentrations..

That being said, I have never personally heard of a winemaker being killed from CO2 created by wine-making.

So, to be safe, I would take precautions to keep the room ventilated.. Maybe buy a canary or something and check out how he is feeling from time to time.

 

[jamesngalveston]

buy two canarys...one will die because of all the crap thats put in bird food.

 

[RegionRat]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozeuu0PaOxg[/ame]

nuf said,

RR

 

[s0615353]

I am most likely going to ferment everything at the same time, it is possible that I will ferment the icewine later, if it is going to come in in early November. I have heard that when people stomp grapes or punch down the cap in large cement legarres, they carry candles with them. If the candles burn out, it is not safe to tread. Maybe I will light some candles and see what happens.

 

[seth8530]

Honestly, I feel like the candles are a greater hazard than they are a safety. Fire=Bad. Keep the room ventilated. Just to give you an idea of some approximations I just made.. Bear with me, it is early in the morning so I can not show all my work because I have class soon.....

1 gram of sugar will yield .489 grams of Co2
You have 25 gallons of wine roughly which I assume to start at 25 bricks which equates to 282 G/L sugar.
25 gallons is roughly 100 liters
The density of Co2 is 1842 g/m^3

So, take 282 g/l *100 liters *.489 gives you 13789.8 grams of Co2 Produced from the wine. Assume it creates that in 3 days so the wine would make around 4600 grams of co2 a day.

divide the mass of co2 by the density 4600/1842 yields 2.49M^3 of Co2 made per day.

Take the room size, of 500ft^2 and multiply that by a ceiling height of 8 feet to get a room of 4000ft^3 which is equivalent to 113.2m^3.


So looking at the air space to Co2 generated per day in theory the wine could fill up around 1.6% of the room with Co2 a day. However, another thing to consider is that a human (according to wiki) makes around 1.8m^3 of Co2 a day.

Thus ventilation is the key.. Also, something else to consider which is important is that Co2 sinks to the bottom, so still be very careful about sticking your head down to the wine and especially careful if you got it stashed somewhere like a closet.

Also, please don't use this math as a legit safety evaluation because it was done in about 15 minutes very shortly after I woke up, but just to get an idea at the numbers we are dealing with here. Also, the Co2 will not evenly disperse around the room, it will sink to the bottom, so you wont to be careful about that.

 

[s0615353]

I already planned on having at least two windows open when I am at work and at least an extra sliding door open when I am home. Thank you for the calculations, I appreciate it.

 

[seth8530]

Yeah, NP. I imagine that should be more than enough.

 

[RegionRat]

Honestly, I feel like the candles are a greater hazard than they are a safety. Fire=Bad. Keep the room ventilated. Just to give you an idea of some approximations I just made.. Bear with me, it is early in the morning so I can not show all my work because I have class soon.....

1 gram of sugar will yield .489 grams of Co2
You have 25 gallons of wine roughly which I assume to start at 25 bricks which equates to 282 G/L sugar.
25 gallons is roughly 100 liters
The density of Co2 is 1842 g/m^3

So, take 282 g/l *100 liters *.489 gives you 13789.8 grams of Co2 Produced from the wine. Assume it creates that in 3 days so the wine would make around 4600 grams of co2 a day.

divide the mass of co2 by the density 4600/1842 yields 2.49M^3 of Co2 made per day.

Take the room size, of 500ft^2 and multiply that by a ceiling height of 8 feet to get a room of 4000ft^3 which is equivlent to 11.32m^3.


So looking at the air space to Co2 generated per day in theory the wine could fill up around 20% of the room with Co2 a day. However, another thing to consider is that a human (according to wiki) makes around 1.8m^3 of Co2 a day.

Thus ventilation is the key.. Also, something else to consider which is important is that Co2 sinks to the bottom, so still be very careful about sticking your head down to the wine and especially careful if you got it stashed somewhere like a closet.

Also, please don't use this math as a legit safety evaluation because it was done in about 15 minutes very shortly after I woke up, but just to get an idea at the numbers we are dealing with here. Also, the Co2 will not evenly disperse around the room, it will sink to the bottom, so you wont to be careful about that.

My head hurts after reading that, Bravo!!

 

[LoneStarLori]

My head hurts too! I feel like closing the lid on my computer and staring out the window till math class is over.
I don't know what it means, but well done Seth!

 

[seth8530]

Thanks, btw found a small error in the volume of the room I calculated.. Was early in the morning.... 11.32 meter^3 should of been 113.2.. Thus the room has much more volume than I originally came up with.. However, the point still stands, the real danger is in confined non-ventilated spaces such as closets and freezers. However, you can never err too far on the side of safety and end up dying from regret.

So, ventialte the room? Sure! why not eh?

 

[Tess]

buy two canarys...one will die because of all the crap thats put in bird food.

As descends of mine workers that is funny and sad all at the same time!! lol

 

[Tess]

My head hurts after reading that, Bravo!!

OMG me too!! lol Im not sure its even right but it sounds good

 

[RegionRat]

Thanks, btw found a small error in the volume of the room I calculated.. Was early in the morning.... 11.32 meter^3 should of been 113.2.. Thus the room has much more volume than I originally came up with.. However, the point still stands, the real danger is in confined non-ventilated spaces such as closets and freezers. However, you can never err too far on the side of safety and end up dying from regret.

So, ventialte the room? Sure! why not eh?

I did catch that slight math error, lol. But figured you would check your work. I didnt want to be 'that guy' and call you out on it, JK

RR

 

[seth8530]

Ha, nah, nothing is ever wrong with pointing out mistakes so long as it is done in a tactful manner. However, simple errors that result in the result being off by an order of magnitude tend to result in some pretty bad results lol.

 

[s0615353]

The fact that you could work out that equation is impressive enough. One decimal point is a minor error that no one will call you out on. That 20% per day made me a little nervous to tell you the truth, lol!

 

[JohnT]

The issue here is that CO2 is heavier than air and will (in an environment void of any type of circulation) settle to the floor. People have died by passing out and landing on the floor where the concentrations are much higher.

I ferment in a shop. The first thing I do, before punchdowns, is to open the double doors and run a fan for about 10 minutes.