Blanced flue gas fire

Jan 12, 2021 Last reply: 5 years ago 19 Replies

Hello



I am after a balanced flue gas fire. Can anyone please suggest a good place to get one from? It is for an old cottage so Ideally I would like a mock wood-burner style one (I assume you can get balanced flue ones in that style). In terms of size 5 KW+. The alcove it would stand in only has an external wall on the one side, so it would have an elbow in the flue.



Thanks.


GAZCO. Made in Devon.

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you will be lucky if you can find a gas engineer willing to install it...

Why? Not flueless.

I can certainly find installers offering quotes.

Could explain why balanced flue gas fires are no longer being fitted?

well here is a quote from a gas safe installer I contacted recently......"I'm sorry to say we, like most gas fitters have decided not to fit flueless or conventional gas fires as the rules make it very difficult".....

Reading between the lines this is the result of some young girl being killed recently by a fire...and all the air dilution tests etc that need to be carried out...I just think they don't want to blamed for the next death ....

To my mind there are three different types aren't there:-

Conventional - with a flue going up a chimney or similar, draw air from room

Balanced Flue - Both air in and fumes out go via a hole in the wall, no need for chimney, doesn't draw air from room

Flueless - No flue of any sort, draws air from room, exhausts to room. Needs careful design to be sure gas fully burnt to CO2, needs good ventilation.

+1

and I'm surprised "most gas fitters" are refusing to fit fires with conventional flues when they are still in demand for Victorian terraces

- and they used to charge a fortune

I remember buying a flueless heater for our first house 1960s. by 1970, I'd installed central heating with a balanced flue boiler.

Yes - that is exactly what I am aware of.

The one I find difficult to understand them not installing is the balanced flue. After all, they are not that different to some boilers.

ISTR - from 50+ years ago - that tehre were various requirements about distance from opening windows, doors, etc. It may be that with smaller houses they are becoming very difficult to fit and comply with the rules. There might be a lot of paperwork, too. And then there's cutting quite a large hole in the wall. not really a plumbing job.

As with most plumbing and wiring jobs, much of the work comes under a general category of house bashing. So any plumber / gas fitter will be well equipped for jobs involving cutting holes in walls.

Do such things exist? BF boilers with fan assisted flues are common and allow long terminals. Not sure the demand for BF fires is great enough to make it worth the effort designing one.

You'd think so. Last year we had our garage converted to useful living space, and because we wanted it done in our lifetime, we hired an electrician and plumber recommended by our architect. When it came time to install the extractor fans (one in the shower room, one in the utility room), the electrician said that wasn't HIS job, it was the plumber's. The plumber said, no way, it's for the electrician to do. We finally got the mason to do it...and for any future work, we won't be hiring that plumber and electrician. There were other issues, with both of them.

I wonder what the electrician would have said if there was no plumber on site?

Understandably!

I did ask why an electrical installation, not connected to either the plumbing or the heating, needed a plumber to drill a hole in the wall.. Didn't get a sensible answer, though.

Many years ago, I re-wired a colleague's 'new' house, before he moved in. He'd had several quotes, and I gave him a price based on the information he'd used for those. I beat those quotes and made it clear I could only do the work on days off from my proper work.

On arrival to start, was grabbed by the plumbers installing the CH. 'Glad you're here - can you get the wiring for it done ASAP as agreed by the client"

Each time I got there, there'd be a note asking for an additional socket/light/whatever.

Big argument at pay time. He expected the original quote to be honoured.

Gazco, Devon. Read the whole thread.

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