Carbon Monoxide!?

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Weird The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured oout what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heating eff...
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Smithville NY

I ran my first ever 5K race this morning over in Smithville NY. Smithville is the town that has a great old unrestored mill. The mill captured my attention when I stated looking for property just after I decided to take the job down this way. I hope someday it gets restored. It feels good to do something that is good for yourself for the first time. You have to get over the natural resistance of something new (the biggest hurdle), plan, execute, and reflect. I have now moved into reflect. It was a marathon for me. I am planning on running in the Berkshire Heritage 5k later this summer too. Maybe another one, if there is another one close by.

I fueled up last night on some of Bonnie's most excellent Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies.

My exercise bike generator project is working now pretty good. I ended up using the motor out of a paper folding machine. I still have some testing to do to it to see if I have the right ratios. I am thinking about creating a website dedicated to contraptions I have built over the years. The RIMs machine needs a place to be documented.

I got my computer working again, sort off. What a piece of crap this windows thing is. I have paid all sorts of extortion (paid protection) money to Mcafee and the latest XP service pack 2 and you still get these anomalies. If I wanted to "fix it right" I bet I would have to buy a new computer with a new software install. It is just nuts.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Congratulations on the race. Vic
10:13 AM
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Carbon Monoxide!?

-
Image
Weird The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured oout what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heating eff...
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