Method Blocking the gas heater's vent to build up CO inside the room

[GodChallengesMe]

I have a wall mounted gas heater, the gas flows nonstop from industrial tubes so there's no limit of how long it can burn unless you turn the hose to stop the gas flowing. The heater is mounted on the wall, right besides balcony entrance. It's venting appliance is accessible from the balcony easily, just need to squat to inspect it with my hands. If I try to cover it with garbage bags to block the outflow of combustion products, how much is it likely that lethal amounts of CO will build up inside the room if I set the temperature above average on the heater?

I know that besides CO, there are other, irritant byproducts too but it won't be that uncomfortable to not make you fall asleep from CO buildup. If the heater doesn't have some kind of mechanism that detects obstructed outflow of emissions, it will likely won't shut down and continue operation until it malfunctions or someone turns if off but I'm concerned whether the heater will build up enough CO in the room to make it lethal in 10-12 hours time period.

Anyone with knowledge of how those heaters operate and whether it would work?

 

[GodChallengesMe]

Bump.

 

[Dontwant2Bhere]

You would need to damage the internals of the heater to cause CO. It's called the heat exchanger. It's what prevents the combustion products from the burnt gas from entering the air. If that was damaged and had a hole in it, CO would flow. Just no idea how much exactly. Cannot recommend this.

 

[GodChallengesMe]

You would need to damage the internals of the heater to cause CO. It's called the heat exchanger. It's what prevents the combustion products from the burnt gas from entering the air. If that was damaged and had a hole in it, CO would flow. Just no idea how much exactly. Cannot recommend this.

Yeah, but if there is physical obstruction in the outflow vents outside where it's mounted, wouldn't the heater burn incompletely and accumulate waste products inside the room if it doesn't have some kind of mechanism that detects it and turns off automatically? If there is no such a mechanism, then what will stop the heater from continuing incomplete combustion and accumulating dangerous CO in the room?

 

[Dontwant2Bhere]

Yeah, but if there is physical obstruction in the outflow vents outside where it's mounted, wouldn't the heater burn incompletely and accumulate waste products inside the room if it doesn't have some kind of mechanism that detects it and turns off automatically? If there is no such a mechanism, then what will stop the heater from continuing incomplete combustion and accumulating dangerous CO in the room?

Oh there's mechanisms that will detect it. Multiple layers of them. The most that would happen if you blocked off the vents is, over time (years), the heat exchanger would burn itself a hole on it's own, which would allow the actual combustion byproducts to enter the air. But it's much, much more likely that the safety switches would burn out first, which would prevent the unit from firing up.

 

[GodChallengesMe]

Oh there's mechanisms that will detect it. Multiple layers of them. The most that would happen if you blocked off the vents is, over time (years), the heat exchanger would burn itself a hole on it's own. But it's much more likely that the safety switches would burn out first, which would prevent the unit from firing up.

So how do those accidents happen when people die in their sleep in the winter when snow obstructs the vents of the heater?

 

[Dontwant2Bhere]

So how do those accidents happen when people die in their sleep in the winter when snow obstructs the vents of the heater?

Probably because it was an already old heater that was already damaged from similar things happening over years. They probably had it fixed multiple times, but the repair guy never checked for CO leak.

Trust me, just blocking the vents will not magically cause CO to enter the air. All the heat that comes out the vents is from room air being run across a specific side of the heat exchanger (basically a set of metal tubes the combustion gasses flow inside of). There is never any combustion products that make contact with room air, except in cases of a damaged heat exchanger.