Reducing updraught in a chimney

[Peter Hawkins]

My house is Oil Fired CH but the living room also has an open grate. The problem is that in the winter there is a huge draught up the chimney when the wind blows. This draught is so strong that it has bowed the living room door from the air being drawn from the hall. It is also strong enough to allow me to burn fuels like Phurnacite, typically used in glass fronted fires.

Obviously this makes the room very hard to heat with a radiator. Is there any sort of baffle or cowl which can be installed on the chimney to limit the draught. I still want to burn the occaional fire but I want to reduce the draught.

[news]

I shove a big bundle of newspaper up my fireplace to stop draughts

beware, tho, don't do what I did once: came in drunk, set a fire and lit it without removing the newspaper !

I bult the fireback and installed the fireplace and at the time I thought about making a flappy damper like the one displayed here

it was I couldn't be bothered.

HtH

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 09 Aug 2005, news wrote

I made a quick-and-dirty damper for one of our houses out of sheet material with some draught-proofing brush strips on either side; it rested on a few masonry nails on either side (which acted, in effect, as a couple of side battens).

It was a bit messy -- you had to be careful taking it out, as there was invariably a small shower of soot sitting on top of it -- but it cut the draughts out.

(Like you say, though -- don't forget to remove it before lighting a fire. Messy....)

[andrewpreece]

I have an inset firebox that burns wood. It is open fronted, and has a built in damper. If I'm not using the fire, I close the damper ( it won't seal off 100%, but that would be a bad idea as you need a little air going up your chimney to keep it dry ). Perhaps you can buy a damper, or make one yourself?

Andy.

[Chris McBrien]

Where is the air coming from that is sufficient to bow a wooden door?

It might be of an overall benifit to find the source(s) of this air. Close all other doors behind the one that has bowed. Burn some Joss sticks and trace the smoke path.

I placed some "night lights", candles, on my stair case to see where a draught was coming from. All upstairs doors shut and I still had a draught. It turned out to be due to the shape of the room. The ceiling was about 15 feet high in the middle, the lounge was like a Church Hall. The heat from the fire rising up the wall, along the high ceiling and then cooling to come down the stairs. There was a weather pattern in the room. Two years ago I replaced the original ceiling/floor that had been removed in a previous modification. Now I have a convention height room and another upstairs bedroom built from the wasted space AND no more draught circulation.

Chris.

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[andrewpreece]

I did a similar test with a candle and found the fire was mostly drawing its air from the underneath of the living room door: when shut the door still has a 20mm gap underneath ( bare floorboards - no carpet ), and if you were sat on the floor between the door and the fireplace a cold draught used to swirl over you!

I think I will fix this this winter by cutting a vent into the floor near the fire, probably either side of the superimposed hearth, so it can draw its air from the ventilated underfloor area. Of course, it need a gauze across it to keep out the creepy crawlies, and it'll need to be closeale when not in use.

Andy.

[maureen1066]

Ideal case for a multifuel stove - when not in use chimney is all closed off with no draught at all.