Blunt warning about carbon monoxide for boaters using petrol engines
- Thread starter boatone
- Start date
Actionmat
Well-Known Member
Good advice. A generator ban would save lives too:encouragement:
Lower Limit 1909
Well-Known Member
Excellent advice and something that is worthy of regular reminders.
What I find depressing it the total lack of any action by any authority with regard to the various 'rent a room' boats on the river that regularly run petrol generators for hours every evening in boats with up to 10 sleeping onboard alongside makeshift propane cooking facilities . I hope it never happens but one day we could see multiple fatalities in a single easily preventable incident.
In an interview in The Guardian one ex. tenant on one of the Trotman boats reported that the CO alarms were regularly going off. Having an alarm is obviously a good thing, but only if it is used to identify and correct a problem - not when it is used to repeatedly advise you that the grim reaper is knocking at the door.
As usual we can expect no action will be taken to protect these (largely unwitting) tenants in Richmond, Kingston, and other boroughs until it's been necessary to hold an inquest.
What I find depressing it the total lack of any action by any authority with regard to the various 'rent a room' boats on the river that regularly run petrol generators for hours every evening in boats with up to 10 sleeping onboard alongside makeshift propane cooking facilities . I hope it never happens but one day we could see multiple fatalities in a single easily preventable incident.
In an interview in The Guardian one ex. tenant on one of the Trotman boats reported that the CO alarms were regularly going off. Having an alarm is obviously a good thing, but only if it is used to identify and correct a problem - not when it is used to repeatedly advise you that the grim reaper is knocking at the door.
As usual we can expect no action will be taken to protect these (largely unwitting) tenants in Richmond, Kingston, and other boroughs until it's been necessary to hold an inquest.
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penberth3
Well-Known Member
Do you mean CO alarms? I've never seen a CO2 alarm in a domestic environment.
Lower Limit 1909
Well-Known Member
I do indeed - duly corrected.
CX54WEK
Well-Known Member
Worth noting that an alarm will not only protect you from a fault on your own boat but from boats moored around you.
Ours was set off on a regular basis by the boat next door to us in the marina warming up it's V8 petrol engine. He has sold it now so hopefully the next boat next door will have a more sensible engine!
Ours was set off on a regular basis by the boat next door to us in the marina warming up it's V8 petrol engine. He has sold it now so hopefully the next boat next door will have a more sensible engine!
No Regrets
Well-Known Member
Apart from my initial thoughts anybody mad enough to run a pair of V8's on the Thames is unlikely to suffer from brain damage...
My CO detector went off last year when I was running my petrol genny on the towpath outside the boat, and the detector was in the bedroom with the door closed! While I doubt the fumes would have actually harmed me, it was an eye opener nevertheless, and a lesson to remember.
I have been waiting to enter Boveney lock, when the gates opened, and one could smell the petrol fumes as the gates opened, much to my horror, and a Sport cruiser exited the lock a few seconds later. I suggested to the skipper he might want to take a look at the engines due to the truly epic aroma of hydrocarbons it was emitting, but he cheerfully laughed it off and said it was running on choke (!) but it reminded me of an old skool American V8 with a four barrel Holley started up in a small lock up. How it hasn't gone bang, let alone killed anybody with CO is astonishing.
The warnings are definitely not scaremongering.... :ambivalence:
My CO detector went off last year when I was running my petrol genny on the towpath outside the boat, and the detector was in the bedroom with the door closed! While I doubt the fumes would have actually harmed me, it was an eye opener nevertheless, and a lesson to remember.
I have been waiting to enter Boveney lock, when the gates opened, and one could smell the petrol fumes as the gates opened, much to my horror, and a Sport cruiser exited the lock a few seconds later. I suggested to the skipper he might want to take a look at the engines due to the truly epic aroma of hydrocarbons it was emitting, but he cheerfully laughed it off and said it was running on choke (!) but it reminded me of an old skool American V8 with a four barrel Holley started up in a small lock up. How it hasn't gone bang, let alone killed anybody with CO is astonishing.
The warnings are definitely not scaremongering.... :ambivalence:
DogsBody
Well-Known Member
Seems to me that the Thames (or other inland waterway) would be about the only sensible place to even consider running a pair of large V8s these days. I for one wouldn't be able to afford the fuel bill to run a couple of them at full load, even if the petrol was readily available on the coast.
ChrisHanley
Member
One wonders why he was using the choke on a warm engine...
As a thought, are carbon monoxide detectors clever enough to distinguish between CO, CO2 and an excess of airborne hydrocarbons?
Chris Hanley
As a thought, are carbon monoxide detectors clever enough to distinguish between CO, CO2 and an excess of airborne hydrocarbons?
Chris Hanley
No Regrets
Well-Known Member
Auto choke: No choice on a cool engine running on idle for most of it's life, possibly poorly maintained and in need of a damn good thrashing!
CO detectors sense CO. I wouldn't care too much about CO2 as it's not lethal though. Hydrocarbons are not CO, despite being produced by the same sick engines!
CO detectors sense CO. I wouldn't care too much about CO2 as it's not lethal though. Hydrocarbons are not CO, despite being produced by the same sick engines!
duncan99210
Well-Known Member
I've heard of CO alarms being triggered by hydrogen from batteries being charged but they won't trigger for CO2 or hydrocarbons.
rotrax
Well-Known Member
In the absence of anything else to breathe, of course CO2 is lethal.
For six years I worked closely with dry ice-CO2 at around minus 80 degrees C.
We had a very severe code of practice when shipping product in large boxes-25 kilos in weight-full of dry ice.
All vehicles had to have gastight bulkheads between the load space and the driver. If they did not, we were forbidden to ship in that vehicle.
They were air freight regs, it was bio-science product going worldwide by air freight.
Deck hands have died after entering confined spaces where dry ice had been srored which had reverted to CO2 through tempreture change.
Bottom line-CO2 will not support animal or human life.
For six years I worked closely with dry ice-CO2 at around minus 80 degrees C.
We had a very severe code of practice when shipping product in large boxes-25 kilos in weight-full of dry ice.
All vehicles had to have gastight bulkheads between the load space and the driver. If they did not, we were forbidden to ship in that vehicle.
They were air freight regs, it was bio-science product going worldwide by air freight.
Deck hands have died after entering confined spaces where dry ice had been srored which had reverted to CO2 through tempreture change.
Bottom line-CO2 will not support animal or human life.
CLB
Well-Known Member
I have experienced that. Constant CO alarms in the mid cabin. Thought it was a faulty CO unit, but turned out that the battery bank under the mid berth was overcharging and gassing.
No Regrets
Well-Known Member
Some fumes will kill CO detectors, worth a little research if you're concerned! :ambivalence:
