Worst case? How long will my air last in a small enclosed space?

I have an area within my home in mind for a sanctuary in a worst case scenario, and I have been wondering how long my air will last with me, my wife, my three kids and my dog.

I would hate to have the perfect survival plan only to 'wake up dead' two days in, from CO2 poisoning.

Is there a scale or something for oxygen consumption?

Carbon dioxide is produced by all animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms during respiration and is used by plants during photosynthesis. This is to make sugars which may either be consumed again in respiration or used as the raw material for plant growth. It is, therefore, a major component of the carbon cycle.

Wiki link

If I am growing food in my sanctuary I need to allow for more CO2 release.

Restricting movement, exercise and even speech and breathing patterns may be a factor.

Does anyone know of a portable or battery operated device to warn of unsafe oxygen levels?

Can anyone think of anything else to consider on the oxygen consumption subject?

S_G

Nobody has picked up on my question here over the past few months.

I was wondering if there is anyone here who could give me some advice?

Regards S_G

Aprox 1 minute for every foot squared of total space.


This is a rough estimate but close enough.

reply to post by xSMOKING_GUNx


have you considered scrubbers? quite easy to make. watch apollo 13, they had a situation where they were running out of air and cobbled together a scrubber to remove the co2. i believe fullers earth (charcoal) is the ingerdient to remove said gas. you could also rig up a battery operated filter for an external supply.

reply to post by xSMOKING_GUNx


Probably have it figured out by now but there wasn't an answer posted. Go to someplace like this www.nuvair.com... . They make O2, CO2 and other breathing gas analyzers.

Along the scrubber line of thought, look into rebreather technology. Calcium hydroxide isn't that hard to get.

Originally posted by bismarcksea
Aprox 1 minute for every foot squared of total space.


This is a rough estimate but close enough.

From my diving training this is how you do it.


Calculate your litres of air per minute (consumption rate) and then calculate your total volume of the room (air reserve).

Divide the air reserve by the consumption rate and you'll get your total breathing time.

To work out your consumption rate a scuba set is required along with a timepiece.
Calculate the total litres of compressed air inside it by multiplying the psi by the size of it (usually the size vary's from 3 to 15 litres).
(Watch the dial go down over a minute and however many bar / psi it loses you use that figure, multiply it by the size/capacity in feet / litres and you'll get your consumption rate.)

So a 200 bar x 12 litre tank = 2400 litres of air.
Say you consume 2 bar in one minute
2 x 12 = 24 litres of air per minute.

Note: Obviously this is at a rest state, if you want to calculate a 'working' rate you need to do some macho moves / excercise etc then breathe down the tank for a minute.

reply to post by WatchRider


You are correct as far as breathing from a finite source, like a tank. The situation is quite a bit different when you are working with a room. On SCUBA, your exhaled gas is lost. In a room, you are exhaling back into your environment a gas that is still about 18% O2. The more critical factor isn't loss of O2 but the gain of CO2. This is more like a rebreather situation than SCUBA. Especially if you add a CO2 scrubber and a small bottle of O2 to the mix.

You could probably add canisters to increase the amount of oxygen in the room. Basically scuba canisters, I guess. Along with a scrubber could greatly increase survival time.