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Chimney Not Required

By Steve Barson, managing director, Burley Fires

Have you ever considered how much heat disappears up the chimney?

With an open flued gas fire or a solid fuel fire, more heat is lost up the chimney than actually goes into the room.

Fuel prices have increased dramatically over the past few years and these increases are predicted to continue. By wasting energy into the environment, gas fires are adding to global warming, and customers are paying unnecessarily high fuel bills.

Consider instead a flueless lp gas fire. No chimney or flue is required, so all the heat generated goes to warming the room.

Flueless gas fires have a long history in the United States, Australia and Japan, where there are around 40 million. They were introduced to the UK relatively recently by Burley, and are now available at most reputable fireplace stockists.

Burley’s flueless lp gas fires and stoves are designed to burn extremely cleanly without a flue. Burnt gases are then passed through a catalytic converter. The only requirements are a supply of lpg, an air vent and a minimum room size. No chimney, flue, fireplace or electricity supply is needed.

Flueless lp gas fires are not designed to be the sole source of heat in a room, they are supplementary to central heating. Insufficient ventilation or background heat can sometimes cause condensation to form on colder surfaces.

A chimney or flue drags a huge amount of air out of the house – warm air that has already been heated by central heating, which is then replaced by cold air from outside, leaking in through the gaps around windows and doors. A flueless fire works in the opposite way. A vent supplies air into the room that is being heated, and the heated air dissipates away from the fire and circulates around the house.

The air vent does not create a cold draught. The tiny amount of air that the vent does draw is a fraction of the cold air that a chimney or flue drags into a house and will be compensated for many times over by the extra heat provided. The vent is primarily to maintain the correct level of oxygen in the room and is required under Part J of the Building Regulations.

Burley flueless lp gas fires provide an exceptional level of safety because they have been designed to burn extremely cleanly and do not have to rely on a chimney to remove the combusted gases.

Chimneys and flues are fraught with potential problems, all of which will stop a flued fire from operating safely. The fabric of the chimney could collapse, a nest or debris can block the flue, and atmospheric conditions or open doors can create a down draught.

Extractor fans can create a draught to reverse the pull of a chimney, causing it to spill the products of combustion into the room. This makes flueless lp gas fires particularly popular and safe for use in pubs and restaurants.

Every Burley flueless lpg gas fire is bench tested for at least 30 minutes before leaving the factory. Once installed, an oxygen depletion sensor within the fire constantly monitors oxygen levels in the room. If this should fall by as little as 1.5 per cent, the flame is automatically extinguished.

A flueless lpg fire can literally be fitted in minutes. It is a simple and problem free operation provided the Gas Safe Registered fitter follows the installation instructions. If it is to be fitted into an open chimney, the flue must be blocked and one of Burley’s cavity boxes fitted. Apart from that, the fire just needs connecting and testing, and the air vent fitting.

Bear in mind that building a chimney on a house would cost at least £1,000. Restoring a damaged chimney would probably cost a lot more.

Installation instructions should be read before undertaking any structural preparation work. As with all lp gas appliances, fires must be serviced annually.

Contact Burley Fires on 01572 756956 www.burley.co.uk

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