Hello all. Another day another question. We have just had the chimney sweep sweep the flue, etc, in our wood burner. It’s a Godin Colonial which was installed in 2002 by a proper company who provided and installed it. There was less than half a palmful of ash. Our bois de chauffage is very well seasoned wood.
The boss of the chimney sweep business, there were 2 people, one doing the work while one supervised, told us that we should have an air vent in the exterior wall as it’s the law and we don’t have one
For our woodburner in the UK we also don’t have an exterior air vent in the wall as the installer over there deemed it not necessary as the room had sufficient volume of air so it was not necessary
Over here inFranvce we have an open sitting room and dining area opening onto an office and we would never have considered that we needed a vent as well. Any thoughts on this please?
As an aside…if you have a room sealed burner then the need for external vents into the space you’re trying to heat goes away, as well as being more efficient.
You should really have some ventilation that allows fresh air to enter the room as the fire is burning oxygen from the room and that needs to be replenished from somewhere.
You should also have a carbon monoxide detector suitably placed in the room.
We have both à carbon monoxide detector and a smoke alarm in the sitting room and a smoke alarm in the hallway too. We don’t have double glazing we do have quite a few drafts and a cathedral ceiling. I understand all the points for having an air vent in but don’t understand Badger’s description of a room sealed burner. Perhaps he could enlighten me. Thanks.
Thanks Badger. I clicked on the link you sent, didn’t really see it the first time I read through your post. It’s very informative. I can see that the new woodburners are very efficient in a way that my old Godin Colonial may not be but it’s worked very well for over 20 years now. We had the sweep in today to clean it and all was well with it. By the way when I queried him about the certificate of ramonage he pointed to the facture he had given us and marked paid that that was it. Are they one and the same thing? This was a new company and used it for the first time.
From what I understand we shall indeed need an air vent to comply with french regulations. When viewing a diagram of where the vent should be positioned it shows it should be in the wall corresponding to the direction of the prevailing wind which is normally west for us, not all the time of course. The West wall for us is the kitchen end of the house. The sweep indicated that the north wall of the house was where it should go. The chimney in the house, the open hearth and the wood burner face towards the west in the house. A vent would be easily possible in the north wall which would be close to the fireplace. Any ideas on where it should be located? Will an ordinary builder do this or someone else?
Well I wouldn’t, north = cold = cold drafts. The caveat would be if the exit hole (internal) was saying under the fire so you don’t feel the cold air (when its lit obviously). A builder should be able to do the work but that’s without knowing your building.
Surely that’s just psychological - the air temperature should be roughly the same all around the house, and if there are winds at a lower temperature, much will depend on how sheltered the vent is.
Well roughly yes but north side of a building doesn’t get the warmer air of the south by example. If you have weather compensation on your boiler or heat pump it is recommended to fix the sensor to the north facing wall so the system doesn’t keep cycling on and off as the sun comes out from behind a cloud for example.
On my house, I work on the car in the afternoons as it’s noticeably colder in the mornings.
Usually an air vent for a fireplace or stove is positioned low down in the wall, since air rises as it warms you don’t want a high level vent as that could suck warm air out of the room instead of pulling fresh air in.
If the house has a suspended floor the vent can go in the floor rather than a wall, as long as air can reach the underfloor space - our bungalow has this arrangement. This is easier to install obviously as it just requires cutting a hole in some floorboards or OSB underflooring.
I would think any builder or handyman could fit a vent for you, depending on the materials your walls or floor are made of. If it’s thick stone then that would need a specialist drill but a local maçon is likely to have the right kit anyway I would have thought.
If the stove is against an outside wall you can have the incoming vent fitted alongside it so that the “draught” from the vent doesn’t cross the room under your feet.
I don’t think it matters whether the wall faces north south east or west. Though if it faces south there is probably a slightly higher risk of a penguin infestation.
