Bruce Napier wrote: > On 25 Oct 2008, at 08:30, Steve Wood wrote: > >> This will be my first winter with the Old Dutch and I had high >> hopes for >> it but after many high gusts I can smell exhaust fumes presumably >> caused >> by backdrafts. Quite apart from the safety implications (though my >> carbon monoxide detector doesn't complain and yes I have tested it) >> it is very unpleasant. > > > Can't help with the main query, except to suggest a taller chimney, > but is there a CO risk from a diesel stove? I'd always assumed it was > like a diesel engine and didn't generate CO, just unburned fuel if > it's not achieving complete combustion.
Wrong assumption.... You are thinking about diesel engines - different ball game. Diesel is just a hydrocarbon fuel (in order of boiling points) natural gas, propane, buatne, petrol, paraffin, diesel, paraffin wax. When you burn it with *enough* air, one gets complete combustion to water and carbon dioxide - although one should note that the generated product at high temperatures is always carbon monoxide, it's only in the "cooler" outside edges of the flame that the combustion is completed. Anyway, so not enough air = carbon monoxide - very simple and very dangerous. In a diesel engine, there is no air restriction (unlike a petrol engine), so the engine always runs very *weak*, thus when the mixture is allowed to escape, as the exhaust valve opens, the last remains of carbon monoxide are converted to carbon dioxide in the exhaust manifold (which is partly why they glow bright red when running - but you can't see it as the car is moving!) Ron Jones Process Safety & Development Specialist Don't repeat history, unreported chemical lab/plant near misses at http://www.crhf.org.uk Only two things are certain: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not certain about the universe. ~ Albert Einstein
