I am thinking of fitting a multi-fuel stove, probably around 8kW.
At the moment a standard open fire place exists. It has an "ash box" beneat h the grate with vents in it that are supplied with air from the underfloor void by a tube under the hearth. The fireplace and flue depth is 9 inches and the back of the flue is only a half brick thick, but is made of blue en gineering bricks and does not seem damp at all. The flue is open - no liner of any sort. The rest of the wall is solid 9" brick. The fireplace is on an exterior wal l. Fire surround with be traditional wooden painted white. I will have a carbon monoxide detector for obvious reasons.
I have some questions. Hopefully this does not seem too lazy - perhaps a se ction could be added to the wiki eventually ...
- Assuming a non-balanced flue stove, where is the air drawn in ? Can the inlet be connected to a duct so that it takes air from below the floor (whi ch has air bricks !) thus avoiding need for an exterior vent in the actual room ?
- Is a flue liner required ? Is so what type of liner (rigid / double wall / insulated etc) ? What size ? (for say, 8 kW stove)
- The chimney breast is not very deep and build partly into the wall (rear of flue only half brick. Is it OK for the stove to stick out proud of the non-combustible fireplace opening (possibly further than the fire surround also) ? How high above the stop of the stove must a painted timber fire sur round and mantel be ?
- Do you need to fill around the liner in the flue with insulating materia l (presumably held in with a register plate) ?
- The half brick back to the recess will need to be insulated in some way. Is celotex covered with some type of cement fire board be OK for regs ?
- I will have to widen the fireplace from the 16" fire box. How much wider than the stove does the opening need to be ?
- Is it safe to operate the stove with the doors open for short periods of time ?
Thanks, Simon.