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I am doing some research on indoor environmental quality and come across a number of spikes in CO in a dwelling.

This is a dwelling in central London with no gas-fired equipment: electric cooker and heating from a centralised district heating system.

Could this be from cooking? And/or people themselves?

Cairan Van Rooyen
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  • I'd say both would be possible, but for a megalopolis like London the major source is likely car exhaust. Having a comparable density with air, CO tends to accumulate in a poorly ventilated space over time. Also, it might be worth to check CO pollution levels in your region from time to time; probably there is a wildfire nearby. – andselisk Jul 30 '19 at 11:41
  • @andselisk Light or heavy gases only have buoyancy if they occur in high concentrations, and CO certainly does not accumulate, unless you have a source in the room. – Karl Jul 30 '19 at 19:33
  • Humans do not give off carbon monoxide, unless they are suffering an acute poisioning. If your sensor isn't an actual mass spectrometer, I would suspect it's confused by sth else, or indeed an external source, like someone smoking on the toilet. :-D – Karl Jul 30 '19 at 19:39
  • The sensors we are using for the research are high grade research instruments manufactured by Eltek AQ110. The research participants do not smoke and live on the sixth floor of a tall building not facing any road. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.eltekdataloggers.co.uk/pdf/user_instructions/TU1082_AQ110A_from_serial_no_32655.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjS57DTvN3jAhWKa8AKHQRSAToQFjAYegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw3JqeoPsXZudzhJTS-WK1rP – Cairan Van Rooyen Jul 30 '19 at 20:25
  • It's still not a mass spectrometer and could be fooled. And people who "don't smoke" tend to do it in secret. Have you put two identical sensors in the same room an checked if they spike at the same time? Correlated the occurence with the presence of your participants? You don't say, which makes me suspect, bloody suspicious scientist that I am, that you haven't. :-) – Karl Jul 30 '19 at 21:52
  • Check at ground level at the same time to help pinpoint the source: car exhaust, old gas lines underground (producer gas contains substantial amounts of CO), a neighbor, insider or outside, using a charcoal grill... – DrMoishe Pippik Jul 30 '19 at 23:13
  • The dwelling is occupied during all spikes. The participants live in a flat with a joined kitchen and living space and have a sensor in both the kitchen and living rooms, which show the same spikes, but with a higher concentration in the kitchen. 'General' CO levels cycle in a range of 0.2-1.6mg/m3. 5no spikes in CO (all on different days), 3.5@22:00, 7.6@21:00, 6.1@14:00, 4.4@02:00, 8.4@21:00. The spikes are a clear sharp increase in concentration followed by a sharp decay in CO levels. – Cairan Van Rooyen Jul 31 '19 at 07:38

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