CO2 = carbon dioxide.

It's everywhere. -- It's the primary ingredient in what you exhale.

Yes, And it's quite OK in proper amounts of 200-450ppm found in outdoor air (away from cities).

Concentrations above this come with a variety of temp and perm health risks. As I mentioned above, cognitive ability measurably declines above 550 and quite significantly by 700ppm. Concentrations above 600 have a measurable negative effect on sleep. Higher levels are also associated with increased headaches, respiratory problems and other issues.

Not long ago 30,000ppm was considered OK in industrial settings (as were higher levels of lead, asbestos, ...). For years ASHREA pushed 5,000ppm as safe and only relented to lowering that to 1,000ppm when the entire medical community went after them. Increased study has shown that 1,000 (two to three times the levels of outdoor air) is also quite unhealthy.

Plants are great but it takes a massive amount to lower indoor CO2 levels.

The solution is getting a proper amount of fresh outdoor air inside to maintain levels below about 600ppm. Open windows, open windows + Whole House Fan, proper make-up-air systems, and proper ERV/HRV's to pull stale air from baths & kitchen and provide fresh air to bedrooms (where highest concentrations are typically produced).

opaone: Looks like my sensor collection is missing a component, even though my house is deliberately "leaky." Is this the IQAir [AirVisual Pro] Smart Indoor & Outdoor Air Quality Monitor [PM2.5, CO2, AQI, Temperature, Humidity]?

How do you like it, and why did you select this brand?

Thanks

kas

" CO2 = carbon dioxide.

It's everywhere. -- It's the primary ingredient in what you exhale.

Buy yourself some house plants, remember to water them"

So Austin, when people die of CO poisoning, it's because of a lack of plants in their home?

Ridiculous comment.

Edit - I corrected my post from Stax's correct observation. I was thinking about the right thing but didn't say. The concern from combustion is carbon MONOXIDE as the OP had in mind, of course, not carbon DIOXIDE.

I was speaking about CO2, not CO. CO2 is not nearly as deadly as CO. It is however, from an IAQ standpoint, one of and perhaps the biggest threats to health in the U.S.

Oh my, what a day.

CO2? Did you leave a bucket of dry ice on the counter?

Open a few windows, problem solved.

How exactly does a non-exhausting hood affect this?

So Austin, when people die of CO poisoning, it's because of a lack of plants in their home?

CO2 is not the same as CO. Carbon Dioxide versus Carbon Monoxide.

Carbon Monoxide will kill you much faster because there is less oxygen. But you'd need a high concentration to do that... most of the time it just makes you sick.

Carbon Dioxide can do the same thing, but concentrations would have to be quite large. It works by displacing oxygen in the air... you suffocate.

A bag over your head: if you can't breathe you take the bag off. If you can't breathe in a room what would you do... common sense you leave the room or open a window. (as already stated above)

CO is more or less poison, automotive exhaust fumes as a primary example. Called Carbon Monoxide. Makes it more deadly than CO2 because of the pass out effect of too little oxygen in the air.

Carbon Dioxide or CO2 --- part of that equation is 2 parts oxygen. As with Carbon Monoxide or CO --- only 1 part of that equation is oxygen.

"Interestingly it wasn't too long ago that 30,000ppm average over an 8 hour period was considered acceptable."

Can you point to a reference which states where this condition was acceptable.

"And it's quite OK in proper amounts of 200-450ppm found in outdoor air."

The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii does CO2 measurements every day. They are currently measuring about 415 ppm of CO2. I would expect to about the same where you live.

Did you take CO2 measurement while cooking the same meal without turning on the circulating hood? It would be interesting to compare the CO2 levels with and without the hood operating.

OK, lets not get off the track here. opaone obviously measured some distance from the range, as seen in the photo, but not, it would seem, the average of the entire residential space. Clearly, the gas stove is providing the increase in CO2. So the original premise is that the recirculating hood (which opaone would have run to make his point) was operating. Unless the hood had a filter pack performing like that on a WW2 submarine, no CO2 would have been reduced.

I am not qualified to comment on what level degrades human performance, although there is a body of scuba literature on acidification of the blood if too much is rebreathed.

The power required to illuminate an area of vegetation necessary to convert the stove-generated CO2 level in real time is surely higher than that used by a household exhaust fan, or even a sufficient externally venting kitchen hood. And this vegetation area is unlikely to fit in the kitchen.

I believe that CO exposure is a red herring in the context of this thread unless the burners are quite maladjusted.

What the measurement report lacks is the set of readings over 24 hours given normal kitchen cooking. A set from the bedroom would also be helpful. Then opanone's comment (third in this thread) related to CO2 levels and health effects could be put into perspective.

Or, abjure from gas cooking and use induction.

opaone: Looks like my sensor collection is missing a component, even though my house is deliberately "leaky." Is this the IQAir [AirVisual Pro] Smart Indoor & Outdoor Air Quality Monitor [PM2.5, CO2, AQI, Temperature, Humidity]? How do you like it, and why did you select this brand?

I have several. Of the consumer variety this and Foobot are generally the more accurate according to testing by Lawrence Livermore and others. I went through five IQAir's (testing against a borrowed lab meter) before settling on this one. All were fairly accurate but this one was the closest. Foobot was similar though I only went through three. I keep an IQAir and Foobot next to each other in our bedroom all the time and then have another IQAir that I move around wherever needed.

I write about healthcare and population health and IAQ is an increasingly critical component.

How exactly does a non-exhausting hood affect this?

A proper exhausting hood would exhaust the byproducts of gas combustion of which CO2 is one.

Can you point to a reference which states where this condition was acceptable.

Here's a quick one. https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/air/toxins/co2.html

"Carbon dioxide is not generally found at hazardous levels in indoor environments. The MNDOLI has set workplace safety standards of 10,000 ppm for an 8-hour period and 30,000 ppm for a 15 minute period. This means the average concentration over an 8-hour period should not exceed 10,000 ppm and the average concentration over a 15 minute period should not exceed 30,000 ppm."

"Clearly, the gas stove is providing the increase in CO2."

Nonsense. You can not know this until the below questions are answered.

"Do you heat your home by gas? Is it possible that your furnace flue is leaking into the house? What is CO in your home when the CO2 is over 1000?"

We are in a rental condo. The heat is not running. Windows are closed. My CO meter is unfortunately packed away for the next 6 weeks until we move in to our new home.

Importantly, the rise coincided with cooking on two occasions.

Tune in next time when we find out what Ozone is.

LOL.

Note to any innocent passerby -- a perfectly adjusted gas stove will combust the gas into water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). There will be trace amounts of other chemicals due to combustion of additives such as ethyl mercaptan included in the gas stream.

For those following this with bated breath (to keep down CO2 perhaps), here is a link to an overview of a study that supports the concerns raised by opaone.

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2012/10/17/elevated-indoor-carbon-dioxide-impairs-decision-making-performance/

The spikes during cooking continue.

Someone here had said that this was impossible but I cannot find their posts. These represent dinner last night, breakfast this morning and dinner tonight. This is with the monitor in our bedroom. They are much more pronounced when the monitor is in the main room (kitchen + living room) but are clearly noticeable even w/ the monitor in the adjacent bedroom.

Yellow bars are 700+, red are 1000+

The spikes have consistently been around 1200ppm regardless of levels during other periods. The past three days have been quite warm so we've been closed up more and thus higher levels in general.

Thanks, @opaone, for the supporting data.

This thread illustrates what I have noticed since a 'best answer' message has started appearing in every thread; whatever person or algorithm is performing this function lacks sense. Further, in many cases the totality of the best answer is contained in more than one message, so the concept itself is flawed. Where personal preferences are requested, the entirety of the messages constitute the answer, and there is no best answer.

Also of note, the arrow of time runs forward, yet our messages now irrationally progress backward in time (except for the first message, and the supposed 'best answer' message).

Stultitia ipsa loquitur.

I found this article about indoor air quality while cooking fascinating.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-hidden-air-pollution-in-our-homes?source=search_google_dsa_paid&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi7jNv9bk6QIVvj6tBh395gTzEAAYASAAEgJBs_D_BwE