lanterns and lamps. I've never been worried about it from a lamp, nor a lantern for
that matter. Some lanterns do smell, but you don't know what you are smelling, except
that it is usually not pleasant.
Coleman made a few million lamps in their day, and they were made specifically to be
used inside homes. Lanterns were made as a utility light, and might be used for most
anything, but lamps are definitely made for the indoors. No mantle protection, pretty
shades, etc.
Considering that, I've always thought Coleman must have made them well enough to
burn cleanly. After all, they didn't want to kill off their customer base. That's bad
business.
Anyway, I recently got a Carbon Monoxide alarm, which also has a display built into
it. It is not a proper meter, like a scientific instrument would be, but it does give a
good idea of what has been happening in your home in regards to CO.
Here is what I tried;
My workshop is a room in my house. I keep the door to it closed this time of year
to make heating the house less costly, and only open the door and turn on the heater
while I'm in there working.
This alarm I got will not show any CO until the minimum in the room is 11 parts per million,
and it will only show that by checking the highest recorded level button.
That is not a harmful level, though really, your house should generally have none, or
under 2-3 PPM.
So, I lit my CQ lamp and put it in the shop room, closed the door, and put a towel down
at the bottom of the door to keep anything from coming out.
After an hour, the alarm display did not register any CO. Remember, it won't register if
the amount is below 11 PPM, so all I know is it was below that amount.
Now, this alarm doesn't even go off until the CO level has been over 70 PPM for at least
one hour. It will start displaying the amount when it reaches 30 PPM, but doesn't sound
off until 70 PPM.
Next experiment was to light another lamp in that room, a 152, plus a 220J and a 220K.
So now I had four two mantle lights running in a 75 sq ft. room, for an hour and a half.
This is what the alarm display showed:
Eight mantles going for an hour and a half in a small closed off room. That 75 sq ft room
is smaller than some folks bathrooms. The display shows barely over half the amount of
CO needed to make the alarm show it, and it took 90 minutes to get there.
Oh man! That room was warm inside, too.
So, I'm thinking next time I run the old CQ during a power outage, or just to warm up
the room a bit, I won't think of it much. I'll still keep the CO alarm in the room, though.
For perspective, these are the numbers that came with the CO alarm explaining what is
not good, and what is really bad;
(It's a Kidde CO alarm.)
Below 50 PPM considered a low level. The alarm doesn't even show it until it's been
above 30 PPM for over an hour.
50-100 PPM is cause for concern, and you need to find out what is causing it after
airing out the room.
Above 100 PPM is getting bad, and you need to get out. On this alarm, if the level goes
above 70 PPM for over an hour, the alarm will sound continuously.
All in all, good on Coleman. I'm not going to die. From carbon monoxide.