I have here collected some basic info that should answer most questions, as a resume... much is copied from the 8chan thread on charcoal/CO - we had been musing that to be one the safe side, you should be using 1 kg of coal per cubic meter of air, though that is exaggerated - you see, CO will bind to the hemoglobin of your blood 300 times better than O(xygen), so... try to follow this reasoning or correct us if we're wrong :
A cubic meter of air weighs ~1.2 kg. One kg of coal will ultimately produce ~3x its weight in in carbon dioxide (this is possible because of the the oxygen.) In practice with an incomplete burning of coal it is lower obviously. Coal is mostly carbon, once the carbon is gone.. where has it gone? …into the air.
Typically indoors the amount of oxygen in the air is 10-20% of volume or weight.
We can see in 10 cubic meters of air there is approx 1.2 x ~.15 x 10 kg oxygen. = 1.8 kg oxygen / 2 (one carbon two oxygen) = 2.7 kg carbon dioxide. / 3 =
.9 kg coal / carbon
So one kilo of coal would not finish burning in a 10 cubic meter area before it had used up all available oxygen.
However when oxygen levels are low instead of producing co2 coal will begin to produce co. We can establish you only need 1% (see above, 300 times) of the air to be CO to have an instant death. This is not enough volume to impact our calculations.
We can say if there is enough coal to turn all of the oxygen into CO2, then we will have excess CO production. But in reality the proportion of oxygen burned will never reach 100%, the oxygen will not be completely consumed only about ~70%, so we already have a pretty significant margin of error (in fact, we'll be burning the coal mostly outside and only bring the coals inside after the CO2 production has already stopped, but let this not stop the line of reasoning here).
I can say for 10 cubic meters one kilogram of coal, provided it is good coal, will be plenty (about bathroom size). That may be a good rule of thumb to follow, however also consider if there is air leaking from your area and fresh oxygen entering this could either increase the volume you need based in the rate of airflow. As long as the flow of air is less than a 1-3 cubic meters an hour there should be no problem.
That being said if you have the means, there will not be a harm in using excess coal. So if you can use more without significant hazards, than you may want too.
So !
I have 40 cubic meters.
► After all the testing I did I will use one flat grill with about 4-5 kgs, and the fireplace, as flat, also with 4-5 kgs. I will not use a chimney starter as these things destroy about a third of the coals, they take half an hour to ignite all the coals... that's too long. You see, the problem with lighting a fire is that different materials ignite at different temperatures. You can start a fire with paper, have that ignite a light sort of dry wood, which will burn longer than paper and at a higher temperature, to eventually ignite pine wood, which even later ignites oaks wood... or charcoal. This being a lengthy and messy process, I can understand that many people prefer to use just paper in a chimney starter... well, try it before you go and see if it works for you, if it will get all your 3 kgs of coals equally grey, non-burning, just glowing, CO producing, but still in an unspent state so you have 30 minutes to enjoy them inside. I don't think that's going to happen... you have stapled 40 briquettes or so 5 high, and are firing them from below, so the lower ones will be burning out way before the top ones even start to get warm. By the time the top ones stop burning, the lowest will start turning into ash. Is this not reasonable ? What you want is having them all laid out flat beside each other, and then fire them all at the same time, and you need your fire to burn hot enough for at least 15 minutes, because charcoal is a bitch to ignite (which is why everybody tells you to use a chimney starter).
► I lay out the briqs on a metal grid wired together from what you find in the house (stove) and what they sell at the markets, improvised stuff, you can create one from parts of chickenwire garden fences if need be. This to have them about 2 inches from the floor of the grill or fireplace or stove, where I collect the rocket fuel. This rocket fuel is also laid out flatly, it's about half an inch of wood pellets lavishly sprinkled with vegetable oil and intermixed with an ample amount of paraffin fire starters. Directly before you go, spray all of this with alcohol, then add the grid with the coals on top, then fire it from four sides but be prepared to jump out of the way ;) It won't hurt to oil the coals before placing them on the grid, it's all about assuring that they will all start burning and later glowing at the same time, and the big deal is making them ignite fast - different briqs have different ingredients, so never use a mix of different brands... understood ?
They get grey and stop smoking, bring them inside. Time to die ;)
► If you're using a car or tent, you might be best served with those disposable aluminum foil barbecues you can buy at 3 bucks at the markets (seems they found people will pay 5 times that in the US by now, see below), just use several of them as they contain less than one kg of briqs. Tally-ho !
https://www.amazon.com/Leisure-Ways...ZYE9Z5SX8V8&psc=1&refRID=B3Q0BKQNAZYE9Z5SX8V8
► I also have this sulfuric/formic acid setup in the bathroom with a hose leading into my "final bedroom," the mix will be inside a metal jerry can inside the plastic bath tub, and I'll finish the filter that should eliminate all the acid fumes, tomorrow - it was a job that lasted a few days, almost done now - the latter is a
very important part that you shouldn't underestimate when using this method, as it is usually being ignored in what you read on the web. Ask me if you're going to use this method - I will mix this stuff together when my coals have started burning... It's hard to time this perfectly, a bit like directing an orchestra... but remember,
we need to embrace it all as a chance.
► I just went back to the "where to get a CO meter that measures +10000ppm" conundrum, well you can easily get 999ppm meters at amazon - 1000ppm will not do you a lot of harm, so we can experiment with that, correct ? So what we do, we burn 10% of the briqs we will use for the end game, and we use the 999ppm, 20 Eurodollar meter... if that produces enough CO to bring the cheap CO meter up to 999, beep-beep, bingo. If not, you will still have a good measure you can extrapolate. Is this plausible ? How hard can it be... after the test, ventilate - get some fresh air into your gas chamber and prepare for the real show, this time with confidence.
In general - I'm in no hurry, this will happen eventually but not necessarily tomorrow. I'm a happy person but I have some progressing health concerns and I just want to be ultimately prepared and in charge to the very end, so there will be the CZ Nine beside the bed as well. I may be available a few more months, or I might not...
Having this planned out perfectly and readily usable makes me feel good and free, in the sense of
;))
