Hi All,
I have a vent in my front room that at the moment is letting in a huge draught. Unsurprisingly I would like to block it up however I suspect it may have been installed because of the gasfire that is located near it. I recall many instances where I have seen rooms with gasfires and no vents so am I going to make a big safety no-no by blocking it up?
Thanks
Potentially a very big safety no-no with possibly fatal consequences. But not necessarily - is the fire open to the room, or room-sealed with a through-the-wall balanced flue?
You'll need to find the installation instructions for the gas fire and see what it says before you do anything to the vent, but the chances are that it was installed because it was required, either for that or some other gas appliance.
If you don't use the gas fire and the vent is not also providing fresh air for some other gas appliance like a back boiler, get a gas a CORGI gas installer to permanently cap off the gas supply to it (which should be a quick cheap callout), and then you can legally close off the vent.
It's really hard to say. If the type, model and specification for the fire are known it might be possible to guess.
Essentially the fire will have to be the only gas appliance in the room and under 7kW input. Some are flueless and others are on the front of a back boiler either of which will make the vent important.
Almost certainly a no-no:
I suggest you put up with it for now and get it replaced with a post-Jurassic appliance as soon as you can.
Cheers Guys, I thought as much. The fire is relatively modern (I'd say circa
1990s) and the central heating boiler is in the kitchen so I'm pretty sure there's no back-boiler. I have a feeling that the chimney flue is open but haven't had that confirmed......
So, what if you had a back boiler and matching gaping hole in the lounge wall, but had the boiler removed and replaced by a standard gas fire, the new boiler now having it's own ventilation in the kitchen? Can I just half fill the hole as long as I carry out the smoke tests as described in the fire's installation instructions? Or do I have to get her to knit even more woollies?
Stuff up the hole with woolies? :-)
Should be OK if that's definitely what the hole it was for and the fire has the manufacturer's specified ventilation (probably nothing for yer average gas fire) and it draws all right with no spillage when tested with doors & windows closed and any fans in the room running.
If the boiler's been replaced hopefully the replacement is room-sealed and doesn't require ventilation from the room.
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