Going back to open fires

Nightshade_2

Hi guys and girls,

I'm in an old terrace with no central heating. We've been costing up putting CH in and even with my brother in law as a plumber, it's still so expensive. I'm struggling to bring myself to borrow so much.

I'm toying with the idea of going back to open fires, but could use some advice. My living room still has a chimney breast, but has been sealed off. One floor down in the cellar (ground floor as built into a hill) there is an old fireplace. I had an adventure tonight and pulled off the board covering it to see if it would pull smoke.
Here she is

h ttp://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/nightshade1814/IMAG0430.jpg

Rats, I'm not allowed to post a link
It's much bigger than that photo, all lovely marble, but painted over. No idea why you'd do that.
I now know it's not capped as it pulls smoke. I've got my Brother in law coming over with some smoke bombs to check if it leaks back into the house. But I'm not sure if it's useable or repairable - see the missing lower right section. Also there is no slab on the floor, though there is a grate?
Any ideas? I've no idea about putting a fire into the living room, and is there anything I should be considering when going back to open fires?

A._Badger

Seriously, find a local sweep and ask his advice.

Over the years I've had all sorts of 'professional' opinions on various fires and chimneys in houses I've lived in but in terms of simple, practical, reliable advice, the opinions of sweeps has always been the best.

After all, who sees more chimneys and does so without trying to sell you a product?

Obviously, don't pick one at random from an ad in a shop window. Try to find someone locally who can recommend one..

And no, I am not a sweep!

zday

I would say get a sweep to look at it too - good advice. I would have thought it repairable from the image - but definitely get more advice.

muckybutt

ahhh the old art deco style tiled marble fire place....I sweep loads of them.

To do a proper smoke test to see if the feathers are all in tact your sweep or brother in law needs to be on the roof, there he should cap off the chimney and do a pressurised smoke test - basically blowing a smoke bomb up the chimney and looking for signs of any leaking smoke.

Once thats done a good sweep is in order, if the chimney hasnt been used in a long time there will more likely than not just be dust and a few spiders come down.

Next will be any repairs needed to fire bricks or the throat of the fire place, some sweeps will do this but any builder should also do this as well, there would have originally been a tiled hearth in front of there as well coming out about 12 -18" and about 2 - 3" deep.

Once all that has been done and you have the fire place ready to go, start off with a small fire ONLY ! a chimney that hasnt been used in a long time will be cold ( sounds daft a cold chimney ) and will need warming up before it begins to draw properly, too much fuel to soon and you'll end up smoked out of the room ! start off with kindling and a few lumps of coal, gradually add a bit more small pieces of wood and a little more coal, do that over an hour or two for a few days to get the chimney back to a nice warm state.
Once warm it should draw well and you can then enjoy your fire, any problems and have a natter with your sweep, most of us will give free advice quite happily.

BTW I am a sweep , only tonight I had a customer wanting a bit of advice, had a good natter on the phone for best part of 10 mins about liners and sweeping, end of the phone call she thanked me and left a happy customer who I know will get me back to sweep in the future, and shes in the womens guild so potential referrals as well - do a good job and you get repeat work and refferals.

Owain_Moneysaver

Big drawback with open fires is they are so inefficient, so much heat escapes up the chimney (to be replaced by cold draughts coming into the house)

Closed stoves are better, but unless they are room sealed with a duct for incoming combustion air still need to have air vents in the house.

If you have mains gas but can't afford central heating then a couple of wall gas heaters such as the Baxi Brazilia might be an interim solution. They're room sealed / balanced flue so don't need room ventilation and fit on most outside walls.

Owain_Moneysaver

Also worth checking Energy Saving Trust for help with insulation. In a few circumstances there may be help towards installing a new heating system.

Antispam

We have a open fire which we got when we bought this house and we never use it as its very inefficient and messy few times we tried to use it. We got instead a woodburner which is far more efficient abet at a cost. If it was a choice between GHC and woodburner assuming you dont have a cheap source of fuel then it would be GHC every time. Woodburner is nice but it will not heat your whole house unless its supper insulated/small

Here is your picture

suisidevw

We have an open fire in one room and soon to have a woodburner in hte other. Both are great for different reasons although I have free wood, but if you're looking to heat your whole house as has been said, get GCH!

muckybutt

Antispam wrote: »

Woodburner is nice but it will not heat your whole house unless its supper insulated/small

Not quite true, that I can vouch for.

Our house is Grade II listed so we are very restricted on everything we do hence no DG etc...draughts everywhere, which is why we went for a stove with boiler.

Even before we had the boiler stove we had a 5Kw stove and if we left the doors open in our large two up two down cottage it would heat it through, like wide in the dinign room there is still the original cooking range which I have now got working that kicks out a helluvva lot of heat so to say open fires are inefficent is not quite correct either if you ask me.

Antispam

Well I can vouch for it wont heat my house up not comfortable and the fitter was the one who initially said this to me and he was right. Mine kicks out 8kWh on full even with a eco fan on top the heat up stairs is not enough to say it comfortable. Like I said unless your house is super insulated or small ]

My house is a 3 bedroom semi late 1920 with DG and loft insulation but solid walls

Mine kicks out a lot of heat problem is heat doesn't move around much I still have to use GCH

muckybutt wrote: »

Not quite true, that I can vouch for.

suki1964

Although I cant say that one stove will heat a house = 2 stoves here in mine keeps it so toasty I dont need the oil

And mines 220 sq metres detached in a middle of a field on the NW of NI Ireland with new double glazing but 15 year old insulation