back boiler AND open fire

hallogallo

thanks casper, it is standard built, and i assume that you would be correct, it's just that the whole back boiler thing had me baffled of how it fits and works and effects the other...i had thought it'd be perfectly normal or it'd be a right pain in the !!!! for different houses sharing the same chimney area...so we should be cool to eventually sort out an open fire in the front room, whatever we decide to do with the backboiler in the back. obviously we'd get a professional in to advise us at the time.

hallogallo

for those saying about british gas, i was just getting them in to see what they said about our options, being in a fairly new area i wasn't sure who i could particularly trust, but once those options are there for me i'm happy to shop around

edgex

stator wrote: »

If you remove the backboiler you can have whatever fireplaces you like as it becomes a normal chimney.

If you leave the backboiler in you are severely limited.

I am in the same situation as you, just bought a house with a BB. Personally I think you should leave it alone until it breaks. Start saving up for a new GCH boiler located elsewhere.

It might be cheaper to redecorate your entire house with that retro 70s look

Had a backboiler & gas fire-front replaced a few years ago, & the choice of fire's is much better than that picture illustrates

This is the fire, it's a 1950's property so the style is right

edgex

hallogallo wrote: »

thanks casper, it is standard built, and i assume that you would be correct, it's just that the whole back boiler thing had me baffled of how it fits and works and effects the other...i had thought it'd be perfectly normal or it'd be a right pain in the !!!! for different houses sharing the same chimney area...so we should be cool to eventually sort out an open fire in the front room, whatever we decide to do with the backboiler in the back. obviously we'd get a professional in to advise us at the time.

A chimney can contain from one to many flues, each flue should service a separate firebox (not fire, as you could have a stove or boiler in a firebox).
These flues should be separated from each other, so smoke etc can not move from one to another.

phil24_7

That looks like a pretty standard chimney stack. If it is a victorian/georgian house then originally you would have had a fire in each room, the flues from these would have angled together to give you 4 (usually) flues in the one chimney stack giving rise to 4 or 8 chimney pots (depending on whether there was a neighbour that side) coming out at roof height.

Many of these pots would have been closed off now I suspect.

prosaver

edgex wrote: »

Had a backboiler & gas fire-front replaced a few years ago, & the choice of fire's is much better than that picture illustrates

This is the fire, it's a 1950's property so the style is right

how much did it cost, if you dont mind?
do you still have to have those draughty air vents in the room?:(

stator

edgex wrote: »

Had a backboiler & gas fire-front replaced a few years ago, & the choice of fire's is much better than that picture illustrates

This is the fire, it's a 1950's property so the style is right

I don't think anyone makes backboilers anymore, even Baxi gave up on it.

prosaver

What a con man British Gas..Quote:
Q
During a recent British Gas annual inspection of my central heating system I was informed by the engineer that my 20-year-old Baxi back boiler was working well, which was fortunate as should it require replacement I would be unable to replace it with another back boiler as they are now banned. This is rather worrying as I would be hard pressed to find the space elsewhere for a replacement boiler. Is this statement by the engineer correct regarding the banning of back boilers? BB, Prestatyn

A.


No, this is not correct at all. Your British Gas engineer must have been misinformed. New boilers are supposed to conform to a certain standard of energy-efficiency, effectively limiting the choice to a condensing boiler. It happens that, at present, all the condensing gas (but not oil) boilers being manufactured have balanced flues, and thus need to be mounted against an outside wall - unlike conventional boilers, which take their combustion air from within the room and vent the waste gases up a stove pipe or lined chimney.

prosaver

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not sure how old this is

hallogallo

edgex wrote: »

Had a backboiler & gas fire-front replaced a few years ago, & the choice of fire's is much better than that picture illustrates

This is the fire, it's a 1950's property so the style is right

that's a really nice fire, i would be happy to decorate my kitchen/diner around that.

so regarding the back boiler...what i'm thinking , now that i know i can eventually put a fire in the front room, is that i'll get the backboiler capped off/isolated/made comletely unusable and then just board it up. i won't need to have a fire in that room, it's a kitchen/diner. that'll save me the hassle of having it all ripped out. i'll then just get a combi/conventional boiler fitted elsewhere.

if that still works out too much for my budget then i think i'll say !!!! it, i'll live with the fire and go on holiday!

thanks for all the advice and ideas...if there's any more help/advice then i'll gladly take it