Carbon dioxide?

Open the window or door? And yes you are crazy.

The door is pretty much onto the main corridor and I get woken up constantly like I said, I have neighbours who do different shifts and come back at e.g. 12:30, 1, etc. The window is out onto the car park and same issue, that's why it's not open, I've tried a lot of times to have it open and I usually end up giving up at about 2am and shutting it. I can't deal with being woken up so much. What I'm asking is if carbon dioxide build up is a realistic concern or whether it's a load of rubbish, as a lot of sources online say as long as a room has some ventilation (e.g. the gap under the door) there couldn't be any problem.

This might not be that crazy. We had a guy bring a CO2 monitor into a gym and measured the CO2 with no one in it (overnight). It matched the atmosphere at about 0.03%. Then we looked at the numbers with a dozen or so people working out (gym is about 7000 sq ft) and the levels increased to 0.08%.

You could

a) put out an ad on your local equivalent of craigslist and see if someone has a CO2 monitor that you can borrow

b) buy some earplugs and open the window

c) complain to management and force them to pay for CO2 test

green salad wrote:

The door is pretty much onto the main corridor and I get woken up constantly like I said, I have neighbours who do different shifts and come back at e.g. 12:30, 1, etc. The window is out onto the car park and same issue, that's why it's not open, I've tried a lot of times to have it open and I usually end up giving up at about 2am and shutting it. I can't deal with being woken up so much. What I'm asking is if carbon dioxide build up is a realistic concern or whether it's a load of rubbish, as a lot of sources online say as long as a room has some ventilation (e.g. the gap under the door) there couldn't be any problem.

Yes, CO2 buildup indoors, in fairly airtight buildings, is a concern if ventilation is inadequate. The gap under your door is totally insufficient, plus you've got a seriously small room.

If your building really is built tightly, there should be some sort of fresh air ventilation provided. This is required in many US states in new construction, though I'm not sure about UK building code (I'm inferring you're in the UK). You might want to ask your building management about any ventilation system in the building, and see if anyone else has had the same concerns as you.

One quick suggestion would be to put a small window fan into the window and have it blow out (toward the outdoors), this would force air in under the door more effectively than passive air movement would bring it in, and the white noise would drown out the cars. Or just crack the window and use a white noise machine or app to drown out noise. Earplugs, too.

Sounds like an interesting apartment setup, could you describe it a bit better? Is it like a dorm, or a proper apartment? Do you have shared bathrooms and kitchens? With how many others?

Thank you all for your replies, I think I mistyped in the first post as the room is 3 metres by 2 metres! It's the size of a double bed with a walkway on one side.

Thank you for all of the suggestions, you never know what you're going to get on letsrun and actually this has been really helpful. I'm airing the room out in the day and I found the window has a vent right at the top in the frame so opening that at night.

It's a proper apartment just the bedroom is tiny and situated in a bad position (opposite the main door that leads onto the corridor). I really like it here apart from that, everything else is good.

I think our apartments are a lot smaller than yours, at least from when I've visited and been shocked by the amount of space in homes in the USA.

Part of the services that my company offers are indoor air quality investigations. What you're describing could certainly be due to CO2 buildup. In fact, when we're evaluating the ventilation in a building, a quick check is to measure CO2 levels throughout the day. If they rise too much while the building is occupied, there is not enough ventilation.

Do you live in a place where it gets terribly cold in the winter? If not, your window solution will likely solve this. If you open the window and your symptoms continue, it's likely not an air quality issue.

luv2run wrote:

This might not be that crazy. We had a guy bring a CO2 monitor into a gym and measured the CO2 with no one in it (overnight). It matched the atmosphere at about 0.03%. Then we looked at the numbers with a dozen or so people working out (gym is about 7000 sq ft) and the levels increased to 0.08%.

0.08% is perfectly healthy.

hey, not to be a dick, but the thing you're probably talking about is carbon monoxide. you can fix this usually by leaving windows open.. as long as air can flow out, you should be okay. definitely get a CO detector though. it's a silent killer.

No I think the OP is worried about too much CO2 and too little O2 because of his tiny well sealed room. Although we've since learned is not quite as stamped sized as originally started.

I'd buy a sound machine or fan and crack the window if I was concerned.

But if that doesn't solve the issue there could be some toxic substance you're coming in contact with.

Here's a good story...

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2016/03/29/terminix-pay-10m-using-pesticide-hurt-del-family/82393262/

serialCereal wrote:

luv2run wrote:

This might not be that crazy. We had a guy bring a CO2 monitor into a gym and measured the CO2 with no one in it (overnight). It matched the atmosphere at about 0.03%. Then we looked at the numbers with a dozen or so people working out (gym is about 7000 sq ft) and the levels increased to 0.08%.

0.08% is perfectly healthy.

Sure, no one is going to get carbon dioxide poisoning from that, but it is indicative of poor ventilation. 800ppm suggests a fresh air ventilation rate of 20cfm per person. That's a good amount of ventilation for a home or office, but there should be more in a gym.

No Way wrote:

serialCereal wrote:

0.08% is perfectly healthy.

Sure, no one is going to get carbon dioxide poisoning from that, but it is indicative of poor ventilation. 800ppm suggests a fresh air ventilation rate of 20cfm per person. That's a good amount of ventilation for a home or office, but there should be more in a gym.

800 ppm is perfectly healthy.

overAnalyzing wrote:

No Way wrote:

Sure, no one is going to get carbon dioxide poisoning from that, but it is indicative of poor ventilation. 800ppm suggests a fresh air ventilation rate of 20cfm per person. That's a good amount of ventilation for a home or office, but there should be more in a gym.

800 ppm is perfectly healthy.

No one said it isn't.

Very tight dwellings are supposed to have ventilation to make up for it. If the builders haven't included it, they f*#%ed up.

Another possibility: since it's a new build, there's always the chance that there's some latent new construction chemicals in the air that haven't yet dissipated. If ventilation is poor, they might be hanging around a bit longer than they might have otherwise.

No Way wrote:

overAnalyzing wrote:

800 ppm is perfectly healthy.

No one said it isn't.

I was merely pointing out the rise even in a large area. 2m x 3m is 6 m(2) or about 40 sq ft. So one person in poorly ventilated area could be getting a decent build up.

And yes, ventilation is a serious issue. We often prop open the doors to compensate.