ARmy Rumour SErvice

**vinniethemanxcat** · 16-06-2012, 19:35

Open fires are not a good idea.

I've put a wood stove in my house, but the air supply can be virtually shut down when the fuel is burning properly, so the efficiency is as good as a non- condensing boiler.

With an open fire it would be like a stoker on the Titanic keeping it supplied with wood.

Plus there's the fact that someone else touched on........a chimney breast can serve easily four fireplaces, they can be 4ft wide, but inside, you get 4 by 9in square flues, side by side as they reach the chimney.

When the house was built, there was no waste allowed, so all the crap bricks and part bricks, were used in places like the leaves separating the flues, not tied in to the outer walls, just gobbed in with cement, which is now perished.

This will lead to the products of combustion migrating, possibly in to a bedroom..... as part of my fire servicing, I have to burn a smoke bomb in the flue I'm testing, and in older houses, you often find smoke coming out of the other chimney pots, or the brickwork of the chimney itself.... Immediately Dangerous.... shutdown.

**Fox-and-horses** · 16-06-2012, 19:37

Wood burning stoves are an excellent idea.

**bobthedog** · 16-06-2012, 21:12

Originally Posted by Fox-and-horses

surely you mean COMBUSTable
and NOT Non -combustible in your first sentence.

No I meant it as it is written, I fitted a wood burner into my living room fireplace, and with it a back boiler that helps to warm the water in the summer (its not primarily a water heater). When I went through the regulations (20 years ago) there were certain distances that should be maintained in front of the fire grate, IIRC at least 30cm of tiled/concrete hearth.
In some older victorian era houses there was little if any stone hearth fitted in front of the fireplace, the fire was protected by using a hearth plate usually made of cast iron. This was removable to allow for cleaning. I guess different era and different standards applied.

**EX_STAB** · 16-06-2012, 23:04

All very interesting. So can anybody point me to these so called "regulations"?

**O2 Oxygen Thief** · 16-06-2012, 23:35

Originally Posted by Fox-and-horses

If you live in a rural area and have no Mains Gas supply but you have access to windfall logs, then wood can be free, all you pay is your time in collecting the wood.

Urban Softie southern myth M8.. I live on the edge of exmoor, have oil central heating, additional calor free standing fires and a medium size log burner to keep a 300 year old stone building warm..believe me windfall logs..me and 150 others are fighting for them..unless you have a log fire you've no idea how much they consume and the preparation(chain sawing/splitting/stacking/drying that goes into this..whatever anyone else says its 'bollocks'

**bobthedog** · 16-06-2012, 23:36

Originally Posted by EX_STAB

All very interesting. So can anybody point me to these so called "regulations"?

I think this covers it:

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/upl...F_ADJ_2010.pdf

**putteesinmyhands** · 17-06-2012, 00:54

Unless the fireplaces/chimneys etc have been installed since the building was constructed, I think you'll find that there are no relevant regulations, grandfather rights supersede most things unless you've got gas fires installed.

That said, I wouldn't advocate the use of open fires in bedrooms - people tend to leave them burning while they're in bed leading to the potential to sparks setting fire to carpets/bedding etc.

I was brought up in a house that had coal fires. We never used the fires in the bedrooms. Mostly it was sufficient to use one or two of the downstairs fires which would warm the whole house by virtue of the flues built into the bedroom walls - as Vinnie mentioned, a lot of the heat goes up the chimney (but it's not all waste). When it was particularly cold, we had paraffin heaters that we put in the bedrooms - and often had headaches in the morning - but then you're dealing with the lesser of three evils - hypothermia, carbon monoxide inhalation or burning to death. I'm led to believe that carbon monoxide poisoning is the most pleasant of the three ways to go...

Being a rented property, I supect that your landlord's reticence to let you use the upstairs fireplaces is more likely down to insurance restrictions, rather than legislation.

**jarrod248** · 17-06-2012, 00:59

Thanks for reminding me of the delights of parrafin heaters, what a lovely smell.

**cloudbuster** · 17-06-2012, 01:05

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Thanks for reminding me of the delights of parrafin heaters, what a lovely smell.

Ahh, the memories of lugging 5-gallon cans of Esso Blue 2 miles through three feet of snow from the nearest filling station, aged eight. Yes, happy days indeed.

**jarrod248** · 17-06-2012, 01:10

Originally Posted by cloudbuster

Ahh, the memories of lugging 5-gallon cans of Esso Blue 2 miles through three feet of snow from the nearest filling station, aged eight. Yes, happy days indeed.

When ours was retired it went in my Grandads greenhouse.