Alternative to flueless gas fire - with no chimney?

SailorSam

In our last house we never had a chimney and couldn't have a balanced flue fire 'cos the garage was attached to the house where the fire would have gone. So i fitted one of these,
Chimney and Flue Supplies - Buy chimney flue supplies including stove pipe, chimney liner and twin wall insulated flue on-line at fluesystems.com
I had the pipe going through the wall into the garage and then out through the garage roof, but one of my neighbours used the same pipe to go straight up through the bedroom then out through the loft.

rustyboy21

hi all

You cannot change a flueless fire to run with flues etc, as they were designed to only work with the cat fitted in them.

Balanced flue fires will be your best bet and they are 'silent(ish)' running and dont let any draughts in your room. Take into account however most if not all balanced flue fires will have a maximum length of flue of around 660 mm, so if our walls are thicker than that you will have problems. You cannot add onto this, as the fires are rated by advantica ( BG) to this max flue depth, any more and you will stop the flue gasses escaping. Balanced flue fires have a glass front, which is secured by spring bolts which will open up if the flue was blocked and gasses couldnt escape. This would stop the glass shattering. Balanced flue is your best option.

Fan flued fires are a bit of a nightmare TBH with you. They are open fronted ( so look like a real fire), but the fan unit on the wall also lets cold air in when not in use. Also if you live somewhere noisyish, you will alos hear noise through it, even bird song.

Balanced flue fires do not need any additional vents fitted ( unless you live in Ireland) as the gas input is less than 7kw ( usually round 4kw in maybe a bit less) Just take into account that you will get more convected heat than radiant heat from BF so you wont have the 'Burn the back of your legs' you get with normal fires. There are some lovely ones out now and you can get some nice styles. Major co's who make them are Valor and Gazco, look at their sites.

Bit of gossip for you, heard the other day that flueless are not 100% efficient as they say in the brochures. Because to use them correctly you have to have additional heating ie rads on to warm the air up firstand air vents ( fixed open) fitted, The Govt body has rated them at 57% efficient taking into account the fuel used for the rads ! Electric came out worse at 27% efficient as you lose 2/3 of the electric as it travels to your house down the cables. So with balanced flues at 80%+ they are cheaper to run.

ninjaspy2000

rustyboy21 wrote: »

hi all

Bit of gossip for you, heard the other day that flueless are not 100% efficient as they say in the brochures. Because to use them correctly you have to have additional heating ie rads on to warm the air up firstand air vents ( fixed open) fitted, The Govt body has rated them at 57% efficient taking into account the fuel used for the rads ! Electric came out worse at 27% efficient as you lose 2/3 of the electric as it travels to your house down the cables. So with balanced flues at 80%+ they are cheaper to run.

Additional heating is only recommended and is to increase the background ambient temperature to prevent condensation in the room.

sunshinetours

SailorSam wrote: »

In our last house we never had a chimney and couldn't have a balanced flue fire 'cos the garage was attached to the house where the fire would have gone. So i fitted one of these,
Chimney and Flue Supplies - Buy chimney flue supplies including stove pipe, chimney liner and twin wall insulated flue on-line at fluesystems.com
I had the pipe going through the wall into the garage and then out through the garage roof, but one of my neighbours used the same pipe to go straight up through the bedroom then out through the loft.

The biggest downside of this unfortunately though is the cost of the stainless steel flue and the fact you may also need planning. It is however the only way to get a "real" fire as you say.

Some of the cost will be recouped by having cheaper woodburners available rather than the expensive balanced flue fires

In the OP's situation I would first look at draught proofing the vent. There is a difference between fresh air and draughts. The air vent was the biggest downside to me when we looked at flueless