"Harvey Van Sickle" wrote in message
...
On 09 Aug 2005, news wrote

Peter Hawkins wrote:
My house is Oil Fired CH but the living room also has an open
grate. The problem is that in the winter there is a huge draught
up the chimney when the wind blows. This draught is so strong
that it has bowed the living room door from the air being drawn
from the hall. It is also strong enough to allow me to burn fuels
like Phurnacite, typically used in glass fronted fires.

Obviously this makes the room very hard to heat with a radiator.
Is there any sort of baffle or cowl which can be installed on the
chimney to limit the draught. I still want to burn the occaional
fire but I want to reduce the draught.

I shove a big bundle of newspaper up my fireplace to stop draughts

beware, tho, don't do what I did once: came in drunk, set a fire
and lit it without removing the newspaper !

I have an inset firebox that burns wood. It is open fronted, and has a
built in damper. If I'm not using the fire, I close the damper ( it won't
seal
off 100%, but that would be a bad idea as you need a little air going
up your chimney to keep it dry ). Perhaps you can buy a damper, or
make one yourself?

Andy.