back boiler AND open fire

prosaver

hallogallo wrote: »

ok, thanks prosaver, that quote does sound good and gives me some hope, that's what i was thinking of having done, if possible, just connecting up to the system that's there, the radiators etc seem fine and the people renting the place before had said they'd not had a problem with any of the heating system, so i trust the pipe work and rads are all sound....we do have british gas coming out to have a look, but that's not for another 3 weeks, i signed up for a quote in time for a half price boiler. i phoned bg to get a rough idea of what our options were and thought after that i could chase around and see if i can find a better quote

dont get britisH gas t ,they will say its unsafe and tell you to get a all new system... (there con men, well know)
you could still let him give you a quote..
and get 3 quotes from local gas fitters ,
I got a local one and hes really friendly and cheap and honest.

(However I do check what he says on the internet though, better to be safe..):)

phil24_7

BG are extortionate with their quotes. Get a local, reputable plumber to give you a quote.

phil24_7

casper_g wrote: »

You said the two rooms/fireplaces share a single "chimney", but do they share a single flue?

Posters are generally assuming that you mean they share a single flue, but if there are actually two separate flues leading to two chimney pots that just happen to be on a single chimney stack then this is normal and you'll have more options!

I thought the same. Never heard of 2 fires sharing one flue but I've only lived in 4 properties and 3 of them were Victorian!

hallogallo

casper_g wrote: »

You said the two rooms/fireplaces share a single "chimney", but do they share a single flue?

Posters are generally assuming that you mean they share a single flue, but if there are actually two separate flues leading to two chimney pots that just happen to be on a single chimney stack then this is normal and you'll have more options!

this is what i'm unsure of myself....when we had a look around in the loft the two meet there...then go up onto the roof where there are two or three chimney pots

as i'm a new user it won't let me insert a picture or a link

prosaver

hallogallo wrote: »

this is what i'm unsure of myself....when we had a look around in the loft the two meet there...then go up onto the roof where there are two or three chimney pots

as i'm a new user it won't let me insert a picture or a link

you have to save it on photo bucket
or any other photo saving site
then click on the -picture- right hand button select ''copy address path'' click on'' insert image''liitle icon above (when your on writing to ''reply to thread''.
)then left click on mouse
click on right and paste
then click ok
phew

Feral_Moon

You can certainly replace just the boiler and connect a new boiler to existing pipe work and radiators. If you go for a condensing one you may also need to replace the water cylinder (we needed to) but if you go for a combi boiler you can get rid of the cylinder completely but you'll first need to check with the plumber that you have sufficient water pressure to run it efficiently.

As far the chimney goes, it's likely to have two separate flues within the single chimney stack. We have a similar arrangement but share the chimney with adjoining neighbours.

hallogallo

ok, so. By flue you mean a metal tube that runs up the chimney?

If we stick with the back bolier which I assume has a flue would we then need to fit another flue from the fireplace in the front room? or would it be ok to have the smoke from the coal fire rise up the chimney alongside the flue from the back boiler? This is all assuming the chimney is fine for a coal fire in the first place. The bit I want to know is, can you have both share a chimney? would the hot smoke rising around the back boiler flue affect the performance of the back boiler in some way? Here's a pic of what our chimney looks like in the loft.....


damn thing won't let me post any links even when using the image tool....please copy and paste this into another window :
grosvenorbuilderslondon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/north_london_builders_4-2.jpg

casper_g

hallogallo wrote: »

when we had a look around in the loft the two meet there...then go up onto the roof where there are two or three chimney pots

That all sounds perfectly normal. Our house has two chimneys each of which has two flues (for the ground floor and first floor fireplaces), then the chimneys merge in the loft so there are four flues leading to a chimney stack with four chimney pots (well, eight actually as it's a semi and the neighbour's fireplaces are back-to-back with ours).

Unless you have solid grounds to suspect something peculiar is going on your house is almost certainly similar. In a 20th century ex-council house I'd be astonished if there were somehow two fireplaces connected to one flue as the potential for smoke backing up into the wrong room would be very worrying!

prosaver

click on that to insert photo

hallogallo

i did that initially but it still says the same as a new user i can't post images or links because i might decide to spam the place