Urgent chimney question

J

junglistmatty

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Location
Cambridgeshire
Country
United Kingdom
Our neighbour is an old lady and when we moved into the house she told us there was some problems with the chimney leaking and that the previous owner wasn't compliant with getting a smoke test done. So we agreed with her to get a smoke test done in August, the chimney sweep guy sealed up the outer pot and the fireplace and put three or four smoke pellets in the base. We checked in our rooms and loft and couldn't see any visible smoke, even after about 15 minutes of it being sealed.

The chimney sweep guy said the chimney was fine and we could use it. So as the temps have got a bit colder we've wanted to put a fire on, but the neighbour has started moaning again that her carbon monoxide monitor is going off in the early hours of the morning of the nights we've had the fire on.....

Friday - 5.45am
Saturday - 4am
Sunday 5.30am
Monday 3.40am

When we have the fire on, we light it about 6pm and goes cold by midnight; flames stop about 10pm (glowing embers stop glowing about 11pm).


Now I'm very confused, because the alarm is going off hours after the fire has gone out. What can we do? I don't really want to poison our neighbour.... I'm going to order a carbon monoxide monitor as a first step to see if it goes off in our house.

NOTE: She is a very "moany" person, and anything, even the smallest thing, she will kick up a fuss about - i am beginning to appreciate why the previous owners didn't get on with her at all.
 
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Probably not a constructive answer - but in the longer term, have you considered changing the open fire for a stove? (Multi fuel or wood.) Expensive I know, but we've had both open and stove, and I'd not now go back to an open fire. You get so much more heat with a stove, and its a little more controllable.

With the stove you can then have a flue dropped down the chimney, so there is no way your nagging neigbour could get the gases or smoke she complains of.
Personally, I'd get it done on the quiet without telling her exactly what you're doing. Then if she continues to moan you know that she's making a fuss over nothing. ;)

Expensive I know, but would get one over on her :!: :) :)
 
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Was going to say the same ^

It's probably her boiler trying to gas her as her heating kicks in.
 
Hugh Jaleak said:
Are you sure its your fire thats setting her CO alarm off? What fossil fuel burning appliances does she have?
Click to expand...

This is my thought considering the alarm is going off about 4-5 hours after the fire goes out.... Is there any possibility carbon monoxide would be from our fire because I don't think so; doesnt' seem to add up.

What makes it strange though is that she only moans when we are having fires, so either she can tell the fire is on or its complete coincidence?


...I would like to get a stove rather than the open fire, my parents have a stove and the heat output is a million times better than open fire... Plus there's no draft as you can shut off the chimney but you can't with our open fire, so we'll hopefully change it, but have to pay for a kitchen first!
 
I've ordered a Carbon Monoxide monitor with LCD screen with live monitoring figures so I'll check the levels in our house before I do anything, but if it gives higher than expected readings I'll have to call in the experts.
 
If your flue is clear, I really cant see how your fire could be producing sufficient CO to set the neighbours alarm off... :confused: The whole idea of the chimney is to draw the products of combustion away, but would really need a HETAS expert to say for sure though.

It may be possible she can tell you've lit a fire by the smell of smoke if no-one else local has an open fire, or she's actually sad enough to keep going outside to look at your chimney!

CO is produced when fossil fuels are burned with insufficient oxygen, I would still put money on her having a badly maintained gas appliance in her home...... :eek:
 
Hugh Jaleak said:
If your flue is clear, I really cant see how your fire could be producing sufficient CO to set the neighbours alarm off... :confused: The whole idea of the chimney is to draw the products of combustion away, but would really need a HETAS expert to say for sure though.

It may be possible she can tell you've lit a fire by the smell of smoke if no-one else local has an open fire, or she's actually sad enough to keep going outside to look at your chimney!

CO is produced when fossil fuels are burned with insufficient oxygen, I would still put money on her having a badly maintained gas appliance in her home...... :eek:
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I thought.... When we first moved into the house (1st May 2012) we lit a fire or two and immediately she told us of this problem and that she had sent letters to the estate agent but we were never told until we moved in (and by her).

At this point, we agreed with her to let a chimney sweep smoke test our flue and he told us quite clearly there was nothing wrong with our chimney and that it wasn't leaking.

So we decided we'd ignore her, and since it's got colder had a few more fires but she is still complaining away so we've stop lighting it for now as we don't want to kill her if there is a problem.

However, I'm really baffled as to how it could be our fire and she is the type of person who would complain about anything (she's on the village council).

The terrace we live in is 150 years old and all the houses have fireplaces and you can smell wood burning when you go outside as the other houses burn their fires; but only outside.
 
junglistmatty said:
[What makes it strange though is that she only moans when we are having fires, so either she can tell the fire is on or its complete coincidence?


...!
Click to expand...
Start burning smokeless fuel :idea: she`s probably nipping out and looking to see your Lum Reeking :mrgreen:
 
Any ideas how the neighbour does actually heat her place? I'd go with Nige, burn some smokeless fuel, Homefire or similar and see if that shuts her up! :LOL:

I think the acid test though would be to light a fire first thing in the morning one weekend, see how long it takes for her to come round complaining. Then ask to see the CO alarm she claims is going off. If CO is getting through into her house, then the smoke should be too, you'll smell it. If she comes round at the usual time, and you've had a fire going all day then it surely cannot be your fire. :confused: It has to be something in her house.
 
Hugh Jaleak said:
Any ideas how the neighbour does actually heat her place? I'd go with Nige, burn some smokeless fuel, Homefire or similar and see if that shuts her up! :LOL:

I think the acid test though would be to light a fire first thing in the morning one weekend, see how long it takes for her to come round complaining. Then ask to see the CO alarm she claims is going off. If CO is getting through into her house, then the smoke should be too, you'll smell it. If she comes round at the usual time, and you've had a fire going all day then it surely cannot be your fire. :confused: It has to be something in her house.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll try that Homefire stuff, will have to find where to buy it.... Good idea about the daytime test, I'll try that this weekend and see what happens; hopefully my monoxide monitor will arrive today or tomorrow so I'll go in each room of our house to check the levels as it has a real-time LCD display to show CO levels.

Cheers for help so far chaps,
 
Hugh Jaleak said:
Let us know how you get on please. Curious now..... :confused:
Click to expand...


So at 3am this morning, I heard an alarm going off in her house that woke me up, I'm assuming it's the monoxide alarm (sounded like a smoke alarm). Haven't lit our fire this week, so I'm fairly certain now it's not our chimney causing an issue.
This is strange though because I've never heard the alarm go off before and she gave us a list of the nights when it has gone off and neither myself nor my girlfriend got woke up (The walls are 150 years old so let through a fair amount of noise).

I'm going to go with the fire test tomorrow morning though just to check, if her alarm doesn't go off in the afternoon, then I know for sure it's not our chimney causing her the problem.
 
Whilst it is clearly a ball-ache for you it might be worth telling her to get her boiler checked as clearly something is letting out potentially deadly CO in her house.
 
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