I am very new to Eribas and somewhere I read that you should always have the roof up when sleeping. Does anyone know if this is correct.

Zitat

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is this correct.

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No, if there is a lot of road noise etc I put the top down so I can sleep. If you are worried the windows have a second catch so you can leave some open a crack, I don't bother though, mine (triton 430) has a vent in the roof above the bed.

Officially the Hymer Eriba manual says that the roof must remain up when you are in the van. It states that there is a danger of suffocation due to an increase of CO2 levels.. Alarmist words which are from the manual and not me..

It is imperative that a caravan has a CO2 alarm especially the Eriba because of its compact size, I have had my CO2 alarm activated when using the gas hob in bad weather when we had all the Windows and poptop vents closed.

I always carry a CO2 alarm and a smoke alarm with me in the van, when at home they live on the worktop in the kitchen, about 5 feet from the cooker and below the boiler for the central heating.

Like Hob, we have also closed the pop-top when its too windy or noisy. We have both gas and smoke detectors in the van and also our door has air vents at the bottom.
Further to the CO2 problem...we were discussing with some others at the meet about the air vents in the pop-top. We said we only had 3 and they said that was correct as you don't have one on the side of the gas flue due to the possibility of gases entering the van. The following day while walking around the campsite we noticed one van (Troll) had 4 vents and another van that looked like the pop-top canvas may be on the wrong way round as they had only 3 vents but one was on the side of the chimney. Does anyone know the reason for only having 3 vents???
Chris

I have a Carbon monoxide (CO) alarm. Do I then also need a CO2 alarm to be safe and if so where can you get them from and what do they cost? thanks

Where is all this CO2 coming from that many appear to have concerns about? You'd have to be sleeping alongside a couple of elephants to be lying in an environment where there was enough CO2 in the atmosphere to cause you any harm over say an 8-10 hour sleeping period. That is of course assuming that you haven't blocked off any of the ventilation points in the van such as under the bed, around the door and window, and the roof vent over the sleeping area. In short, you haven't created for yourself a 100% airtight room and even then CO2 intoxication leading to death is doubtful over that period.

Additionally, CO (Carbon Monoxide) doesn't appear out of nowhere and is the product of incomplete combustion of certain fuels of which Propane is one. So having a regular service of any gas appliances (mostly the cooker in a caravan) and observing all common sense rules associated with the use of gas appliances one can reduce the risk to almost nothing. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a CO detector - belt and braces sort of thing - but the question arises of where to fit it because if not in the optimal position then the thing is as good as useless. I have read umpteen brochures and leaflets contained within detector packaging etc but not one offering advice/suggestions as to the best position in a caravan. That is because the usual rules and layout of a house do not translate easily to our little boxes where we are often sleeping close to the gas heater itself, air currents caused by normal ventilation and of course the percentage of CO in the air when combined with the atmospheric air. For this reason, I myself have opted not to have a CO detector but instead opt for the sure-fire way of preventing a build up of CO in the first place i.e. by not burning propane without adequate ventilation, not at all during sleeping hours and finally, ensuring gas appliances are regularly serviced with pipes and regulators being replaced at the end of their stated service lives.

All of the above is of course stating my own viewpoint in addition to accumulated experience of training and working in atmospheres not conductive to sustaining human life including the gas which have been mentioned in this thread.

I used mine all last winter and so called 'out of season' hence the roof down due to weather. I have a roof vent near the seating area and crank the window slightly and all is fine. Although at that time it was always on EHU so we did not use gas other than the cooking.

Quote: hob wrote in post #4

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I always carry a CO2 alarm and a smoke alarm with me in the van, when at home they live on the worktop in the kitchen, about 5 feet from the cooker and below the boiler for the central heating.

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Thanks everyone for the replies and advice.

Quote: Deeps wrote in post #7

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Where is all this CO2 coming from that many appear to have concerns about?.

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Quote: Poptop320 wrote in post #11

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I have my carbon monoxide detector on the wardrobe over the sleeping area.

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Quote: Deeps wrote in post #12

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Which, when one takes into account the properties of propane gas itself, the density when mixed with air, the point of origin of the leak and lastly, the movement of air around the area of the pop-top, locating the detector on top of the wardrobe is probably one of the worst areas to locate it. At or close to sleeping head height I personally would recommend and at least 1 metre away from the source of the gas i.e. the heater although with some Eriba layouts this is difficult to achieve.

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Zitat

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Carbon monoxide is not heavier than air - in fact it is slightly lighter as CO has the RMM of 28 whereas air is slightly more than this. It is therefore almost neutral density. However in a normal room, thermal convection current dominate transport of gases in a room.

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So my advice is to situate it close to where you sleep at head height when laying down. (this is my personal conclusion)

Hi Chris, (campansnooze)
Great meeting you and your wife again, at the last meeting. You kindly brought to our attention the three vents on our pop top, and queried it may be fixed on the wrong way, as the middle vent was on the side of the chimney. Since being home, I sent an e mail to Dom Fox, Cameron, at AL, and also the good people at Jandi.. Dom rang straight back, and said he had sold 21 Puck L and most had their pop tops this configeration. Cameron said he had sold quite a few with the top this way, and also Jandi replied, they all said that as long as that vent is closed and the chimney extension put on, should be safe.i suppose there is always the danger that one might forget, to close vent and forget the chimney extension, (as mentioned by Jandi). On observation, the Puck L chimney is on the corner, and is just as near to the front vent if not nearer than the middle vent, so even if we turned the canvas round, we would still have the front vent near to chimney.(if that makes sense)😀😀😀.
We have the van serviced yearly, use the fire rarely, with roof vents shut, and chimney extension on,never leave on at night, and have a carbon monoxide alarm, so I hope we are ticking all the safety boxes. Would be interested in feedback..
Thanks to you all.
Sally

Zitat

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We have the van serviced yearly, use the fire rarely, with roof vents shut, and chimney extension on,never leave on at night, and have a carbon monoxide alarm, so I hope we are ticking all the safety boxes. Would be interested in feedback..

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Sounds like you are doing all the right things