Reducing updraught in a chimney
 

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.

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 bult the fireback and installed the fireplace and at the time I thought
about making a flappy damper like the one displayed here

http://www.rumford.com/segflyerplan.gif

as it was I couldn't be bothered.

HtH

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 bult the fireback and installed the fireplace and at the time I
thought about making a flappy damper like the one displayed here

http://www.rumford.com/segflyerplan.gif

as it was I couldn't be bothered.

I made a quick-and-dirty damper for one of our houses out of sheet
material with some draught-proofing brush strips on either side; it
rested on a few masonry nails on either side (which acted, in effect,
as a couple of side battens).

It was a bit messy -- you had to be careful taking it out, as there was
invariably a small shower of soot sitting on top of it -- but it cut
the draughts out.

(Like you say, though -- don't forget to remove it before lighting a
fire. Messy....)


--
Cheers,
Harvey

"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.

Where is the air coming from that is sufficient to bow a wooden door?

It might be of an overall benifit to find the source(s) of this air. Close
all other doors behind the one that has bowed. Burn some Joss sticks and
trace the smoke path.

I placed some "night lights", candles, on my stair case to see where a
draught was coming from. All upstairs doors shut and I still had a draught.
It turned out to be due to the shape of the room. The ceiling was about 15
feet high in the middle, the lounge was like a Church Hall. The heat from
the fire rising up the wall, along the high ceiling and then cooling to come
down the stairs. There was a weather pattern in the room. Two years ago I
replaced the original ceiling/floor that had been removed in a previous
modification. Now I have a convention height room and another upstairs
bedroom built from the wasted space AND no more draught circulation.

Chris.


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"Chris McBrien" wrote in message
. ..
Where is the air coming from that is sufficient to bow a wooden door?

It might be of an overall benifit to find the source(s) of this air. Close
all other doors behind the one that has bowed. Burn some Joss sticks and
trace the smoke path.

I placed some "night lights", candles, on my stair case to see where a
draught was coming from. All upstairs doors shut and I still had a
draught.
It turned out to be due to the shape of the room. The ceiling was about 15
feet high in the middle, the lounge was like a Church Hall. The heat from
the fire rising up the wall, along the high ceiling and then cooling to
come
down the stairs. There was a weather pattern in the room. Two years ago I
replaced the original ceiling/floor that had been removed in a previous
modification. Now I have a convention height room and another upstairs
bedroom built from the wasted space AND no more draught circulation.

I did a similar test with a candle and found the fire was mostly drawing its
air from the underneath of the living room door: when shut the door still
has
a 20mm gap underneath ( bare floorboards - no carpet ), and if you were
sat on the floor between the door and the fireplace a cold draught used to
swirl over you!

I think I will fix this this winter by cutting a vent into the floor near
the fire, probably
either side of the superimposed hearth, so it
can draw its air from the ventilated underfloor area. Of course, it need a
gauze
across it to keep out the creepy crawlies, and it'll need to be closeale
when not in use.

Andy.

Ideal case for a multifuel stove - when not in use chimney is all
closed off with no draught at all.