Can one put a gas fire (eg a living flame one) on an internal wall?

One room in my house (well actually it's two rooms & a tiny bit of hall at the moment but the wall between them might get removed) is about 20' long and 9'6" wide. One end of it and an L-shaped part of the middle of it is currently the kitchen, with a door (in the middle of the end wall) leading to the garden.

I'm considering having the kitchen moved to another room in the house and having about 5' of the 20' space, at the end which has the garden door, turned into a small utility room - washing machine, tumble drier, sink, pulley etc).

The boundary between that and the remaining 15' x 9'6" space would just be a stud wall (or perhaps a little stronger if necessary) with a doorway in it at one side and a window at the other (I already know the window is a complication because the stud wall will bisect an existing window opening so that will need a fire-proof pillar put up through it so fire can't get around the end of the stud wall. It means that on both sides of the new stud wall there will be a small window (unless either or both of them get bricked up completely, though as the house is harled it's hard to see how that could be done without looking awful on the outside).

Is there any way that a gas fire could be mounted (perhaps in a fake hearth) in this stud wall? There'd be no way a chimney could be put in, at least not one going straight up (through the middle of the room above). But could it somehow vent horizontally (along the line of the stud wall) to the outside? The horizontal distance involved would only be about 4-5'.

If a gas fire's not possible, I presume a wood stove could be used (as it's not unusual to see a stove pipe crossing a wall) but I don't really want a stove. Of course there's other options - fake fires with fan heaters in them etc, but I don't really want one of those either.

Reply to
Jeremy Nicoll - news posts
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You can get (lowish output) gas fires with catalytic exhausts that don't require a balanced flue and hence can go on an internal wall providing there is adequate ventilation.

Reply to
John Rumm

Output doesn't need to be vast; it's more the combination of some heat and a focal point for the room that I'm interested in. I could just use a fan heater and an old laptop (if old enough it might generate some heat all by itself!) running a .gif animation of flames!

Ta! Do catalytic fires need the catalyst replaced? (I presume they convert CO to something safer?)

Since I asked I've seen some fanned-flue fires (online) which support flue ducts of up to 5-10m, so I guess that - for a price - something would be possible.

Reply to
Jeremy Nicoll - news posts

CO is converted to CO2. I'd be more worried about the extra water vapour though. I guess that's why they're generally low output.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Yes, as on cars, until the catylitic converter fails, when it starts emitting CO into the room.

Many gas fitters won't install them. Have a search in the archives on the DIYNOT forum to read all the sceptical, disparaging comments. I wouldn't have one, either.

Reply to
Onetap

Surely you needs stacks of ventilation to avoid condensation problems with these? I would guess a fan flued (?sp) gas fire is more what the OP is looking for.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

I think Dimplex already make LCD display 'fires'

With an aquarium for summer mode.

What's wrong with a telly as the focal point?

Owain

Reply to
Owain

That ventilation usually consists of a hole throught the external wall that allows more heat out/more cold in than the gas fire can compensate for:-)

Reply to
ARWadsworth

Having had carbon monoxide poisoning I would never use a non-flued gas fire. Even the headache is astonishing and then there's death to think about.

Reply to
Geoff Pearson

When we moved into this house (which had had a chimney added to the outside) we started falling asleep and getting headaches (not alcohol induced) and so ceased using the fire. After I took out the old fireplace the surveyor for the new fireplace and fire specified removal of quite a few bricks and a raised lintel.

As I understand it you need a pretty much vertical chimney that draws properly or

A balanced flue or

A non-flued fire that has a carbon monoxide detector that automatically shuts the fire off.

Balanced flue needs an outside wall

Chimney means downdrafts occasionally when the fire is not in use

Non-flued means a build up of water vapour and CO2 apart from the risks of CO

Reply to
Hugh - Was Invisible

Why can't you use the existing chimney? - I assume it's a living room being that size?

If no chimney, why can't the fire go on an outside wall?

You're asking for trouble putting a fire on this proposed stud wall.

Reply to
Phil L

Nope, it's the ground floor of an extension the previous owners put on the house, with what was then a study at one end and a kitchen at the other, though they met in a L/Z-zhaped wall, that also forms one wall of a very small entrance hallway. There's no chimney.

Now (not quite the right shapes, but an idea anyway):

WINDOW +-------------------------+-------------========----------+ | | | | | | | | KITCHEN \ W|| | \ BACK I|| STUDY | \ DOOR N|| | | D|| +--+---------+ | O|| | | | W| \ / | | \ / | | \ / | +----------------------------+ +------------------+ REST OF HOUSE

Plan:

WINDOW +---------------------------------------===+====----------+ | | UTILITY | | | | | | \ W|| g| \ BACK I|| g| \ DOOR N|| g| | D|| | | O|| | | W| \ / | | \ / | | \ / | +----------------------------+- -+-----------------+ REST OF HOUSE

"ggg" is where I was wondering about putting the fire.

Because the orientation of the room doesn't really work for that, for the things I'm considering using the room for.

Well, that's why I'm asking... to find out if/why it's a bad idea.

Reply to
Jeremy Nicoll - news posts

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Reply to
NT

Yes but even in my first post I did mention vents, and I've since seen installation examples of fires connected to quite long (eg 5-7m) ducts, eg with the ducts running through a garage to the outside.

If a fire was ducted or otherwise vented sideways from its location on the stud wall, is it /still/ a bad idea? Is there anything critical in the way the stud wall is constructed? - perhaps needing to be blockwork rather than stud?

Reply to
Jeremy Nicoll - news posts

If its vented flu then there's no longer any problem with CO, CO2 or H2O. Go for a room sealed system if you have that option, if a step safer again.

NT

Reply to
NT

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