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Replacing Gas Fire with Electric Fire

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  • 20-09-2010 11:24am
    #1
    hamstervision
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭


    Hi,

    We were getting a really awful smell from our gas fire (in Charlesland Wood) so we had Bord Gáis out to take a look. The guy serviced our boiler but said that he'd rather not touch the flueless gas fire as it's really dangerous and would much rather that we just got rid of it altogether. He said they're really unsafe and that we'd be risking carbon monoxide poisoning, etc. He said he felt so strongly about it that he wouldn't charge us for servicing the fire and would much rather we put the money towards installing an electric fire instead.

    So, has anyone replaced their gas fire with an electric fire? If so, who did you get to disconnect the gas fire or was it all part of the package? Any recommendations, etc?

    Thanks,

    -Michael
    Tagged:


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    #2
    ciaran67
    Registered Users Posts: 1,578 ✭✭✭ciaran67


    hamstervision wrote: »
    Hi,

    We were getting a really awful smell from our gas fire (in Charlesland Wood) so we had Bord Gáis out to take a look. The guy serviced our boiler but said that he'd rather not touch the flueless gas fire as it's really dangerous and would much rather that we just got rid of it altogether. He said they're really unsafe and that we'd be risking carbon monoxide poisoning, etc. He said he felt so strongly about it that he wouldn't charge us for servicing the fire and would much rather we put the money towards installing an electric fire instead.

    So, has anyone replaced their gas fire with an electric fire? If so, who did you get to disconnect the gas fire or was it all part of the package? Any recommendations, etc?

    Thanks,

    -Michael

    That was nice of him. Always wondered about the gas fires. They do smell strong.


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    #3
    Mullie
    Registered Users Posts: 258 ✭✭Mullie


    I've recently been told by one of my neighbours that the fires used in Charlesland have been taken off the market in the UK for safety concerns!
    Gonna look into it and see what I can dig up. Any idea what the manufacturer & model number is?


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    #4
    hamstervision
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭hamstervision


    Mullie wrote: »
    I've recently been told by one of my neighbours that the fires used in Charlesland have been taken off the market in the UK for safety concerns!
    Gonna look into it and see what I can dig up. Any idea what the manufacturer & model number is?

    I'm not sure what make/model it is but this guy told me that the reason they were installed in our estate was exactly because they were taken off the market in the UK. They were allegedly offered to the builders on the cheap, as they were still legal in Ireland at the time, to get rid of them. This is all according to this Bord Gáis repairman. Anyway, he was very, very against the use of flueless fires in general and said that they'd caused lots of deaths in the UK, hence them being outlawed over there. Scared the bejaysus out of us, enough for us to start looking for electrical alternatives.


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    #5
    caji
    Registered Users Posts: 93 ✭✭caji


    I'd be really keen to find out how much it costs to replace them. If you find out let us know!

    I was also told by gas service guy that they are not the safest, expecially if you have kids.


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    #6
    loyatemu
    Registered Users Posts: 14,920 ✭✭✭✭loyatemu


    you should have a carbon monoxide detector if you have gas heating anyway - they sell them in Woodies. silent killer and all that...


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    #7
    dr ro
    Registered Users Posts: 970 ✭✭✭dr ro


    we got a funny smell from ours last year and we thought that our 3year old had put something down the vent at the top, especially since he was calling it the postbox! There was nothing there. I did a basic examination of it and found that the catalytic converter was very degraded and apparently not doing it's job. It was an excelsior flueless inset fire. A lot of safety restrictions for installation and use, including the two large holes in the wall that let all the heat from the fire straight out of the room. I hated that fire. We used to notice ourselves drowsey alot more than normal! We stopped using it completely and blocked up the vents and by just using the rads the heat stayed much longer. I got a friend who's an rgi registered plumber to disconnect it and remove it. He took a picture off the 'chimney breast' to show us the staining caused by the fumes, which was an eye opener. I bought a dimplex electric fire for 300 and installed it myself. Not too much hassle, cable feed under skirting board to behind tv, can't see anything. Looks neat. We wanted to get a real fire but the builders decided to not build chimneys in these houses. Even though there are pots on top of the houses. Too much work to feed a pipe out the sitting room wall. There's a bit of an audible hum off it but it's better than being dead!


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