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General: Chimney Heat Loss

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorStuartB
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    We have a fireplace with a glass door that can get very cold and draughty when we don't have a fire going. We are in a fairly exposed position and the wind can whistle down the chimney, does anyone have a simple solution to stop this heat loss?
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    Stuff an old pillow up it!
    • CommentAuthorStuartB
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    I suppose I did ask for simple! Any other solutions that will allow us to light a fire??
    •  
      CommentAuthornigel
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    are you talking an open fire here or a stove?
    • CommentAuthorStuartB
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    Its an open fireplace and standard chimney but with a glass door on the front. We can burn logs or coal. Can't remember the manufacturer of the top of my head but it begins with B. Something like Bertax!!!
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    There are such things as flue dampers, effectively a choke, when turned through right angles will open or close the flue. You would need to get one specially made and fitted though.
    •  
      CommentAuthornigel
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    Have a read of this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/dec/13/ethicalmoney.leohickmanonethicalliving

    I think you should get a stove and then you can control the flow of air up the chimney otherwise you will never get comfortable or burn efficiently.
    • CommentAuthorStuartB
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    Thanks Nigel - that's an eye opener. I really didn't realise how inefficient an open fire is.
    • CommentAuthorjonathan
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    I'm afraid your chimney has the wrong profile. It may simply need a throat-brick, which are often taken out when alterations are done. Reach up under the mantle and your hand should meet a narrow obstruction which restricts the volume of air passing through: the Throat Brick. I think chimney profile is a huge unrealised problem in this country where fireplaces have been built as show pieces for too long. Chimneys and flues should heat a house more than the actual stove.
    The skills of the pargiter are lost.
    Any chimney can work on ambient warm air, but they need to keep the heated air around long enough to impart it to the thermal mass of the chimney. Stove fitters make it worse by sticking a liner all the way up the chimney. One should always get a length of exposed liner in the room to exchange heat. It is often better and cheaper to fit a stove onto a new flue, through a new hole in the wall, and avoid lining the chimney.
    • CommentAuthorhowdytom
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2007
     
    what do you mean by "standard chiminy" is it one of the old open, huge types (manor house) or a more modern clay lined ?
  11.  
    I'm intrigued by the idea that the chimney _should_ heat the house more than the stove. My chimney can get very warm indeed, passing upstairs through the bathroom where clothes can be quickly dried due to the heat. I'm not sure however that the old design is particularly efficient, or in the long term suitable for burning wood. That's why I was going to get my chimney lined when I get a new stove. I'm concerned that over time, even with a large open chimney, tar will build up and catch light one day.

    Tom
    • CommentAuthorskywalker
    • CommentTimeNov 30th 2007
     
    Jonathan I'm confused!

    With my stove the advice to line the chimney was I thought related to the correct flue size for the fire. Having the correct flue size allows for the correct flow of gasses and the maintenance of appropriate flue temperatures to ensure efficient burning (nearly smokeless when burning wood & minimising creosote formation). The liner was insulated (vermiculite) I presumed for the same reasons ie to keep the temperature of flue up to where creosote deposition was not occuring. There is a short length of metal flue (500mm) from the top of the fire to the bottom of the liner.

    Once the fire is up and running we only need to leave the air intake open a crack for the fire to continue burning well and to maintain a good flue temperature (as monitored by the standard magnetic temp guage on the flue). Thus the flow of air through the fire is minimal, heat isn't just being sucked up our flue willy nilly and the majority of the heat is emmited out of the fire (the hearth and surrounding fireplace aslo become very warm of course). No throat brick will ever give you that level of control. Open fires should be confined to history.

    I'm not confused about the next bit!

    The problem with treating the heating of the whole chimney stack as a good thing is that in terms of the existing stock of detached properties the stack is either within or sticks out of a outside wall. In the rest of the stock the chimney flue is nearly allwasy in a party wall, next to impossible to re-parge and be sure of integrity in both cases (you could of course break in and insert a new ceramic flue but the cost and mess as well a benefit over a stainless flue are barely worth it. if I heat my chimney stack my hard work cutting down trees chopping logs and carfully stacking & then seasoning for 2 years will be half wasted warming my neighbours car or house &/or possibly gassing them in the process.

    On a new build I appreciate that the story could be very different and you could get much more clever with the routing of the flue but not on the vast majority of old houses. Even so I would never suggest an open fire was a valuable feature in a new build - has to be a stove.

    Suggesting that it is "often better' to just run a new flue outside the property is actualy practically impossible on most of the housing stock, so I don't believe it.

    S.

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