Hi, I'm looking for some expert opinions on removal of a room-level air vent I had put in to serve an old DFE fire, but the fire was replaced a while ago and the docs suggest the vent is not required.
A little history first, sorry for the length; when we bought the house there was a DFE fire in an iron fire surround which to our knowledge was put in by the previous owners 5 years prior. The burner had no service tags, identification, branding - nothing distinguishing, so assume it came with the fireplace, so had no idea of what input rating it was or the specs, etc.
At the time we had BG heating cover and I had them take a look about a year later when they were "servicing" the boiler, at which point the BG engineer, through sucking teeth and shaking his head, proceeded to put an "at risk" tag on the fire, explaining there was not enough adequate ventilation - this was fair enough, as I didn't know how powerful it was so better to be safe.
So I had a brick-sized vent put in nearby to be sure. After a while the old fire started cutting out, being difficult to keep running. I figured it was getting old and unreliable and rather than try fixing it I decided to replace it with a newer fire - the fireplace surround is quite a small area, and the Mrs did not want to replace the surround and loves the decorative flame; despite being inefficient which I know.
So I had to find a burner tray that had the right height, size, shape etc.
I ended up getting a NuFlame N1 burner, as they did a tray shape that fit perfectly, and it's been installed and running for the past 2 years no problem.
I recently re-read the documentation and noticed that it is not a requirement to have additional ventilation, according to page 3 of the manufacturers documentation...
http://www.nu-flame.co.uk/products/The_Evolution_Burner/
http://www.nu-flame.co.uk/downloads/EvolutionInstructions_July06.pdf
In addition, the house is 1930's house and very drafty and the old fire worked fine without ventilation.
So, my question is, can I now block this massive hole in the side of my house which causes more drafts into the living room than I feel it's worth?
A little history first, sorry for the length; when we bought the house there was a DFE fire in an iron fire surround which to our knowledge was put in by the previous owners 5 years prior. The burner had no service tags, identification, branding - nothing distinguishing, so assume it came with the fireplace, so had no idea of what input rating it was or the specs, etc.
At the time we had BG heating cover and I had them take a look about a year later when they were "servicing" the boiler, at which point the BG engineer, through sucking teeth and shaking his head, proceeded to put an "at risk" tag on the fire, explaining there was not enough adequate ventilation - this was fair enough, as I didn't know how powerful it was so better to be safe.
So I had a brick-sized vent put in nearby to be sure. After a while the old fire started cutting out, being difficult to keep running. I figured it was getting old and unreliable and rather than try fixing it I decided to replace it with a newer fire - the fireplace surround is quite a small area, and the Mrs did not want to replace the surround and loves the decorative flame; despite being inefficient which I know.
So I had to find a burner tray that had the right height, size, shape etc.
I ended up getting a NuFlame N1 burner, as they did a tray shape that fit perfectly, and it's been installed and running for the past 2 years no problem.
I recently re-read the documentation and noticed that it is not a requirement to have additional ventilation, according to page 3 of the manufacturers documentation...
http://www.nu-flame.co.uk/products/The_Evolution_Burner/
http://www.nu-flame.co.uk/downloads/EvolutionInstructions_July06.pdf
In addition, the house is 1930's house and very drafty and the old fire worked fine without ventilation.
So, my question is, can I now block this massive hole in the side of my house which causes more drafts into the living room than I feel it's worth?
