Not enough draw on chimney

newbuild06

Hi folks
Hopefully someone can help us with our problem. We have an open fire in our sitting room and rather than going up the chimney the smoke is starting to come back in to the room.

We have fire bricks around the opening and a basket inside it as oopposed to a fireplace and i think the reason there is not enouigh draw is the basket is too far down from the flue. We have proped the basket up on bricks to get it a bit higher but if we go any higher now it will destroy the look of the firplace.

We have fitted a chimney cowl to the top of the chimney but this is only drawing up so much smoke.

Does anyone know what else we could do to help with this.

Thanks
NB06

ircoha

newbuild06 wrote: »

Hi folks
Hopefully someone can help us with our problem. We have an open fire in our sitting room and rather than going up the chimney the smoke is starting to come back in to the room.

We have fire bricks around the opening and a basket inside it as oopposed to a fireplace and i think the reason there is not enouigh draw is the basket is too far down from the flue. We have proped the basket up on bricks to get it a bit higher but if we go any higher now it will destroy the look of the firplace.

We have fitted a chimney cowl to the top of the chimney but this is only drawing up so much smoke.

Does anyone know what else we could do to help with this.

Thanks
NB06

all sorts of issues here, trees, height of chimney above ridge, buildings next store etc.

A solution that always works for me is to fit a fan at top of chimney

Mellor

Do you have the sitting room door closed?
In my parents house, when the fire is lit and the sitting room door closed, the room smokes up slowly. Its because there isn't enough air getting in.

A 225 wall vent is there to provide required air changes for the room alone. If there is a fire, ideally the fire has to have a stand alone air supply.

Try keeping the door slightly ajar when the fire is lit.

John mac

you could fit a stove. it would keep the heat in the room while concentrating the airflow to the fire.

I put on in last summer and the difference in heat in the room is unbelievable.

how high is your chimney?

newbuild06

Hi folks
thanks for the replies, after speaking to a chimney specialist yesterday i think we might have a number of issues.

Firsty our chimney does not go above our main roof (it is on the side part of our house which has a lower roof) so it might not be high enough.

Secondly when our builder fitted our flue gatherer he inserted it too high up so there is too much distance between it now and the basket, we either have to raise the basket which we can do but to get it to the required height would make the fireplace look very odd. Or we could lower the flue line by getting an insertion for it, dont know where we would get this though. Woudl anyone have any ideas or suggestions.

Thirdly, because we have a hrv unit in the house it may be taking the air from the chimney that it needs to draw properly. However i thought the hrv unit pumped air into living rooms and extracted it from kitchens, bathrooms etc, must ring the lads who fitted it.

So we are hoping to get someone out to look at the various factors and give us a solution. At present we may have to fit an electrical fan on top of the chimney but i only want to do this if i know if it is going to be a success.

John Mac i suggested fitting a stove to the boss but she like s the look and feel of a traditional open fire. i know a stove would be so much more efficent but that idea is probably the last option at present

Thanks for the advice and tips so far folks

John mac

I thought for a heat recovery unit to operate correctly the house had to be sealed. ( ie no open fire.)
or am i wrong?

sydthebeat

you are correct...

to have a HRV system as well as an open fire is complete folly..
i hope you dont have vents in your walls as well.....

newbuild06

hi sydthbeat and john mac

When we got the system orignally i asked our supplier about it and an open fire and yes he said for a house to be totally energy effiicent he would not reccomend an open fire.

However since it was something we wanted in our house he suggested we use something like the chimney balloon to reduce the heat loss. Now Although this means it is not totally sealed up its is sufficent enough for us.

By the way HRV unit is working just fine with this.

nb06

sydthebeat

The chimney balloon will make a moderate difference when the fires not lit, but when it is lit..... you have too ventilation routes fighting against each other.... the chimney wants to exhaust up and out yet the HRV system pulls it back into the dwelling.

its not the ideal situation

sinnerboy

Was told the other day a tale by a HRV supplier . Client wanted HRV + open fire .

Because HRV relies on sealed internal environment to function properly , client was advised against , but did it anyway .

Client would turn off HRV when using fire and would block fire with damper when using HRV .

So client goes away for weekend . Forgets to block fire and leaves HRV on .... and returns to find soot has been dragged around house - decorations ruined .

bg

I have downdraft problems too, fire hard to light, and will blow back on windy days.. are the spinner cowls noisy? i imagine it would be if it is spinning in the wind all the time. It would be going on my open fire in living room.. Any other suggestions for down draft ? any info on the H type,
Where can i get these cowls anyway?