Failure of CO2 tank?

[warrenmichaels]

I'm thinking of putting together a setup with a CO2 tank that will be located in a basement. At night, my cat sleeps in the basement and is prevented from entering the rest of the house by a closed door. My concern is that if the CO2 tank ever fails and releases its contents all at once, my cat will be asphyxiated.
Is this a valid concern? If so, is there anything that I could do to mitigate the risk? Thanks.

 

[Member No. 1]

While it's a possibility, I doubt it happens to offen.
Depending on where you bedroom is located in relation to the CO2 tank, I would believe you would hear it as it's quite loud.
If you're that worried, you could install a CO2 monitor in the cellar. Between the two, I'm sure you hear something.

 

[warrenmichaels]

Just what I needed to know. Thanks.

 

[sfdan]

Just for some simple math, a full 20LB co2 tank is about ~160 cubic feet of co2. Let's imagine a basement that is 20ft x 20ft x 8ft = 3200 cubic feet. This means if the entire co2 tank was let out, the air would go from about 0% CO2 (normal levels) to about 5% CO2. According to OSHA (for humans), 0.5% isn't considered dangerous at all, 4-5% CO2 is potentially dangerous and 7-10% can be lethal (though 20-30% is where it really becomes lethal).

So basically, if you have a small basement and a full 20lb CO2 tank, maybe you have something to worry about in an extreme case. If you have a large basement and/or a smaller CO2 tank, you have nothing to worry about.

I did this math for my basement which is about ~5000 cubic feet and figured out I have nothing to worry about if my 20lb tank emptied all at once.

 

[Windy2]

Get rid of the cat.

 

[ReefInterest]

...or use a paintball CO2 setup in your stand.