We have an open fireplace in our sitting room. It's a little like a very shrunken inglenook, maybe 3ft high, 4ft wide and about 3ft deep. We have an iron log basket in it and we have nice cheerful log fires in the winter. (When we're not using it, we blank it off with a carpet covered board with a rather nice Art Deco glass panel in front of it. But I digress.)
But ... after my efforts in draughtproofing the house, it doesn't really draw properly, so now we have to have the sitting room door open and it sucks in a chilly gale from the hall. And it was always the case that I suspected it actually cooled the house down by sucking nice warm oil-heated air out of the sitting room and blowing it up the chimney.
So, I'd like to arrange for it to draw its combustion air from outside, if possible. We rented a house once that had an open fireplace with a vent in the hearth that ran outside, so something similar would be perfect. I was thinking about renting a core cutter and drilling a 4" hole through the wall behind the log basket. But, how do we stop the rain, creepy-crawlies and a roaring draught coming in when we're not using it?
Or ... I was also thinking about a wood-burning stove. Can you get those with an arrangement to pipe their air in from outside? And how much do they cost (installed)? You have to sleeve the flue, don't you?
Woss fink, you lot?