Draughty chimney and open flame gas fire.

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Hi all, I'm posting this here as on searching there seem to be a few other chimney related questions and some good responses.

We've moved recently. The new house is 1908, large Georgian pile, V-nice etc... Has double glazing all round, quite well sealed etc.

Last night we were in our living room which seemed a little cold in comparison to the rest of the house, despite the CH being on.
Turn on the nice open flame gas fire my better half says! So I do, thinking that there's a bit of a draft coming out of the chimney? The flames are all disturbed and literally being wafted out into the room! After ten minutes of head scratching and ascertaining that it's not windy outside, and noone's left the front door open or any windows upstairs etc, the room is roasting hot and we're getting a bit headachey!
We depart the room of silent death and head for the kitchen!!

This morning the weather is dead calm, and there is still a flow coming down the chimney. It's a surprise as we ran the fire a few weeks back and didn't have anything like the same problem. Maybe there was windflow then which somehow mitigated the problem?

Is this a common problem? What can be done? Do we need to fit a special cowl to the chimney stack or similar?

Your comments would be much appreciated.
 
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A Spinning cowl will cure most cases of down draught. As you know a chimney behaving like yours can be lethal so be very wary of using it till repair made or made safe so it cannot be used.

If it was gas fire and done it during a visit it would be labelled up and told not to use and cut off with your permission
 
I will go and see what's up there, I have to admit that I'm not sure offhand as we are still new to the place and don't have a full mental map of what's fitted where! :)

It was a surprise as we'd used the fire before and it behaved quite normally. Perhaps the still conditions have accentuated the problem? Maybe a degree of wind over the existing chimney stack is enough to create an adequate draw, but still conditions reverse the flow?
 
Cold flues are prone to not pulling correctly and a heat up time is usually recommended. However, in your case I would seek expert advice before being confident in using your fire and even then would fit a CO detector.
A Spirovent terminal may not cure the problem and are expensive. It would be prudent to also look at ventilation to provide some relief air into the room.
We do seal our houses quite well these days and forget the vent requirements.
 
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I have had a look and the chimney stacks are just plain terracotta things with an open top from what I can see.

I have removed the inappropriate screw that was preventing the flap at the back (Storm flap?) closing, so now the room can be sealed from the draft, albeit without the opportunity to use the fire. I will instruct the rest of the house not to use the fire in the meantime. We will probably be fine as the CH is pretty good and the house warms up quickly.

I've seen fan driven stacks advertised, although they are pretty costly. Is that the sort of thing that has been developed to circumvent this kind of problem?
 
I have removed the inappropriate screw that was preventing the flap at the back (Storm flap?)
That flap is probably a damper and it MUST be permanently disabled and fixed in the FULLY OPEN position, when a gas fire is fitted. Just make sure people don't use the fire until the flue issue is rectified. Stay safe.
 
The flap is at the opening of the fireplace into the chimney. The fire is a mock-Georgian modern thing. So it's fairly obvious that the fire shouldn't work if the flap is closed. However, I can't see a cut off valve in the gas piping in to the fire so I might remove the knob so people can't turn the fire on in the meantime as well as tell them.

Since I shut the flap about an hour ago, the room has noticeably warmed up with the warmth from the CH rads. I think it will be fine for the time being on the CH but I would like to rectify the problem in the future as it would be nice to ocassionally turn on the real flame fire!
 

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