Yes,I'm hoping to know if anybody has their heating based on kerosene burner installed outdoors? I believe we have a problem with exhaust fumes getting somehow inside the house . The exhaust pipe from the burner is only two metres(maybe even less) or so from the outer wall of our bedroom.I've tried to find some regulations or directions on the installing but can't seem to find any. It is not our house so I must be a little shy about it . I don't want get booted from the house :-) Cheers,Wes
Building Regulations: Part I (letter I not number 1) covers combustion appliances. (Google "Approved Document odpm" should find a copy.)
Section 4 covers oil-burning appliances (I assume by 'kerosene' you mean oil). diagram 4.2 shows permitted locations of flues relative to building openings.
If the boiler has a fan going when it's running it's probably a pressure-jet burner type. Distance N would seem to apply, but note these are only guidance:
4.6 The outlet from a flue should be so situated externally as to ensure: the correct operation of a natural draught flue; the intake of air if a balanced flue; and ensure dispersal of the products of combustion.
4.7 A way of meeting the requirement could be to follow the guidance in Diagram 4.2. The separations given in the Table to Diagram 4.2 are minimum values that may have to be increased where there is a risk that local factors such as wind patterns could disrupt the operation of the flue or where a natural draught flue would not be tall enough to clear the products of combustion of an open-flued appliance.
- so if products of combustion are entering the building then the installation is not OK whatever the distances are.
BS5440 (can't remember if it's part 1 or 2 that covers flues) is actually the canonical reference; unfortunately BSes cost £££ and most libraries don't have them, but the Building Regulations seem to be derived from them (pretty much a cut & paste job :-). Anyway it's the Approved Docs (aka Building Regs) which your friendly local Building Control Officer (and Environmental Health Officer I guess) will refer to.
Mine is indoors but I service a number of outdoor units with their own weatherproof casings (dog kennels )
Its very unlikely that fumes could penetrate brickwork so unless you have an opening window or a ventilator within a metre or so of the flue termination you won't have such a problem. Your brickwork would have to be practically falling apart for penetration. If the problem is down to a ventilator or window being too close the flue/boiler or the ventilator/window may have to be moved. What is the root of your suspicion that you have fumes getting into the room?
Thank you both for your nice answers. My root of suspicion...is here: I get severe headaches being in the room and it smells like unventilated car garage. It is a sort of leady smell. And,seriously :-), it can't be odours from human being,we don't sleep in that room. Also the issue seems to be at it's worst when the boiler is on .From that ,little by little,the smell goes away but never completely . Only to be back when boiler activates again. The room doesn't feel too moist and I really don't think the oily smell could be from mold . It's,of course,easy to suspect/suggest that it's just me goin mental and givin' way for my imagination but the smell isn't fiction . What causes it? I'm not sure.
"Wes" wrote | Thank you both for your nice answers. My root of suspicion...is here: | I get severe headaches being in the room and it smells like | unventilated car garage.
Get a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm URGENTLY - they are in diy sheds and even many supermarkets now, for about £30. You want the ones with a siren that will wake you up, not the little patches that merely provide additional evidence to the pathologist.
See your doctor ASAP - you can get a blood test for CO poisoning.
Since modern or even "fairly old" pressure jet oil boilers are very difficult to persuade to produce more than a trace of CO in their flue gases before making fantastic amounts of soot, and a discharge into atmosphere will dilute this trace to almost immeasurably small concentrations, I'd say your comment can only be taken as VERY unlikely! An old vaporising oil boiler running off tune would stink the house out to an unbearably offensive level so anyone using such would turn it off before getting to the stage of producing enough CO to cause a problem within the house (or have absolutely no sense of smell at all)
seem to do a number of them. I did see one which fitted into a electricity meter sized cupboard once. No idea who makes them or even if there still available. the benefit being that the boiler is really within the wall so little actual space is taken up, inside the house or outside.
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