Chimneys and Fireplaces       

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Despite all the convenience of central heating, you just can’t beat an open fire. I’m sure our fascination with it hasn’t changed since Stone Age days.

Until very recently houses were always built with fireplaces, in fact most houses in the UK have one or more chimneys. However, these days thanks to modern conveniences, a fire tends to be a special occasion thing rather than an everyday occurrence. But because the chimney remains, it presents another great opportunity for saving.

The problem is that without a fire burning in it, the fireplace becomes a net heat loss to the house. This is because of two things: Firstly the warm air in the house rises up the chimney taking a tailor-made short-cut to the outside – chimneys are designed to create this flow in order to suck air into the roaring fire.

Secondly, dense cold outside air falls down the flue into the house, effectively replacing the warm air that’s gone. Net effect, house gets colder and draughtier – and the heating has to run harder.

Really, a chimney is about as big a heat loss as an open window – and as such is a huge opportunity for making a difference. The more fireplaces, the bigger the opportunity. Take action here and the house will be considerably more snug as a result.

POSITIVE STEPS:

  Block up the chimney:

If you have a fireplace that you’re unlikely to use the fire in, best to permanently block the chimney draughts off. This might be with something as simple as some crumpled up newspaper, or you could use a chimney pillow. These are expressly designed for this purpose, come in a number of sizes and expand to fit the gap nice and tightly. You can see one here:

 

Worth leaving a note in the fireplace that you’ve put it up there… just in case someone does try to light a fire there sometime in the future!
 

 Wood burners:

However by far the best thing would be to replace an open fire with a wood-burning stove. These have standard flue pipes coming off them which ideally can be extended to line your chimney and duct all the way to the outside. All the surrounding chimney gaps can then be in-filled with appropriate fireproof material eliminating draughts.

The reason why wood-burners are such a win is that they have a much higher efficiency than an open fire. An open fire might be about 10 – 20% efficient, while a standard wood-burning stove can easily be 50 – 60%.

Basically much more of the heat actually makes it into the room with a wood-burner - rather than going up out of the chimney pot and warming the starlings.

There are some wood-burners that can even approach 80% efficiency, namely circulating stoves which draw air over the surface and return it to the room nicely warmed. Finally, you can get catalytic burners that extract even more heat from the unburnt hydrocarbons in the flue, making you stove an extremely efficient bit of kit.

Here’s nice little Stove-powered fan that can boost performance – it works off the thermo-electric principle, using heat to make it spin:

>> Click here to see

Whether you use it a little or a lot, a stove like this is a great back-up for heating the home. Central heating does break down and having another option is a good feeling.

If you’re going to put a wood-burner in, it’s well worth considering fitting a back boiler too. This allows it to link to the hot water system, meaning you can take nice, zero-carbon wood-powered showers!
 

  And finally:

Whether you’re curled up with a good book or just staring hypnotically into it, a log fire is of course the original carbon-neutral way of keeping warm.