We have a living flame gas fire in our front room. I only ever use it in desparation and then only on low.
I am about to put a radiator in that room which will complete the central heating I started nearly 15 years ago! I wonder how much of the heat from the rad is simply going to dissapear up the chimney, I am guessing it will be quite a bit.
Anyone any real life experience of this? I have looked at numbers on the net but these are from people selling solutions.
Ta.
I have an open gas fire and have constructed a custom-made board, backed with foam, that lodges against the flue plate, supported at the back by a hinged "leg". I have now used it for about ten winters and am convinced it is worthwhile as I can feel the draft when it's removed. Obviously there needs to be a safeguard, such as a bright red stripe or hanging ribbon possibly, to ensure no one uses the fire with it in place. In fact, if there was children in the house, I doubt I would use it at all. Also, blocking a chimney can cause condensation and so it important it's removed once winter's over. I have had no problems whatsoever.
Andy C
Last house we had exactly what you describe and I used to use the fire on the rare occasions we fancied that extra warmth and a bit of a cosy glow. Otherwise....I made a template from cardboard and then used that to make a thin plate from steel to slot above the fire and close the chimney off. Edged it with double sided tape and pieces of draught excluder to make a better seal and it worked a treat. A lit candle held in the fireplace showed no flicker of movement. And yes, I did forget about it once and lit the fire and yes, I did then yoink it out after ten minutes and burnt myself.And broke a crystal glass from a wedding present set when I dropped the thing like a, a, a hot plate. Go figure. As they say.
If the flame effect fire is on...
- 65-85% of the fire kW input goes up the chimney
- In so doing the air feeding combustion must be replaced
- In heating the chimney it will tend to draw more air also
- So drawing cold air into the house & into that room
If the flame effect fire is off...
- Block the chimney with a tiny vent set on a panel
- Ensure you have a rain-cap on the chimney pot
You need to limit rain ingress - 250cm annually. LCD TV w/ flame effect picture might pay for itself in a year :-)
we fitted stoves in place of our open fires- so not direct experience per se BUT I do remember an inflatable chimney bung that would do what you want - can;t remember the tradename tho - sorry!
From memory you inflated it with a bike pump and it was supposed to seal it all up nicely - when you want to use the fire let it down and out it came. Had a red ribbon to remind you it as there...
it may help cheers JimK
A lot, but even more if you turn the fire on.
"chimney balloon" will turn up various models...
One of the links is to Money Saving Expert, apart from tales of CO posioning from fires used with the chimney blocked, there is the use of a bin bag suffed with loft insulation.
I've filled a carrier bag with those polystyrene packing beads and stuffed it up the mouth of the chimney. The ignition mechanism is beneath the fire, so we put a warning note next to the ignition switch - out of view unless you're actually lighting the fire.
I'm not as mad as I thought then, I had the idea of sticking summat inflatable up there.
When I did my calcs, I recall seeing 1kW suggested as the heat loss up an open flue (when no fire alight).
Unless you remove the fire and cap off the gas, I'm pretty sure you will be forbidden from blocking the flue off in any way. Comes under the "how to die fast" heading.
If using a board, stick a battery powered Heat Alarm (or Aico mains as they last years on battery).
That way a lit fire will very quickly deafen you :-)
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