Stop draughts through a ventilator?

new2012

My daughter has recently moved into a large old draughty house with the gas boiler in the large kitchen and a large grill type ventilator on an exterior wall.

This ventilator had been installed by the previous owners just before they put the house on the market, on the advice of British Gas, as the boiler suddenly needed extra ventilation before the house could be sold.

Even though there was enough ventilation when the boiler was installed 15 odd years ago.

This means that when the heating goes off the kitchen cools down quite quickly and the kitchen door needs to be kept closed at night and when the heating is off, to stop the rest of the house cooling down as well.

She blocked the vent off, which made a difference to the heat loss but when the British Gas engineer came to service the boiler he refused to do anything and said he would have to turn the boiler off if the vent wasn't unblocked.

He then proceeded to lecture her about CO poisoning and how she was putting the whole family at risk.

She pointed out to him that she had a CO detector installed, along with a combined CO and smoke detector, so 2 CO detectors, but he said that did not make any difference, what if they failed.

He then, after she removed the piece of cardboard and destroyed it, serviced her boiler.

And wrote on his notes that she had covered the vent.

At present she has put another piece of cardboard back over the vent, with a little hole in it and a note that it has to be removed and hidden if ever a British Gas engineer calls.

So to the point of this post.

Are there any vents that can be fitted that satisfy British Gas but do not allow the heat to escape to the outside when the heating is off?

nickj_2

you need a black hole ventilator , http://www.limestonefires.com/vents.html

new2012

It's amazing what you can find out on the internet. I never knew such a thing existed.

I suppose it will still lose some heat through it but the draughts will go.

Thanks

27col

The whole point of a ventilator is to allow the movement of air through the wall. If the boiler is not a balanced flue type then it requires adequate ventilation, and to even think of blocking it off is foolishness.
The unit shown in the link seems to be just what you are looking for.