# Chimney and Energy rating



## GreenFlag (31 Jul 2009)

Hi

Im about to get 2 seperate houses assessed. from what I have seen of advisory reports my friends have got re BEr certs  - chimneys are bad.

when is a chimney not a chimney? in other words one house has an open fire so assume that is a chimney. The other has an electric fire inserted where the fireplce should be  - is that achimany or beacuse the chimney is not open is not classed as one?

whta im thinking is if I inserted an electric or gas fire in the first house will that hyelp?

Thanks


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## GreenFlag (4 Aug 2009)

anyone with anty experience of BER Assessments that can advise on this?


Is a chimney still recorded as a chimney even if there is an electric fire/ gas fire in it?

appreciate any feedback.


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## sydthebeat (4 Aug 2009)

a chimney is considered as a flue >= 200mm

and open flue is smaller... less impact on BER

in general, a chimney in an open fire is considered a chimney
a chimney for a gas fire is considered an open flue..

if you are putting an electric fire insert in, and sealing off the chimney, then its not considered a chimney any more...


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## BarneyMc (5 Aug 2009)

Hope you don't me asking here Greenflag? Syd, is a sealed solid fuel stove considered as a chimney and if so what impact has it on BER?


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## sydthebeat (6 Aug 2009)

a room sealed stove would not be considered as a flue at all..... but what do you mean 'sealed'..
a room sealed stove has a separate independent external air inlet duct....


only the following are considered chimneys / flues......

For the purposes of the DEAP a chimney is  defined as a vertical duct for combustion gases of diameter 200 
 mm or more (or a rectangular duct of  equivalent size). Vertical ducts with diameter less than 200 mm should  
 be counted as flues. The following are also  counted as flues: 


 a chimney for solid fuel appliances with  controlled flow of the air supply; 

 a chimney with open fireplace having an air  supply ducted from outside to a point adjacent to the 
 fireplace; 

 a flexible flue liner sealed into a chimney;  

 a chimney fitted with a damper;  

 a chimney fitted with an open-flue gas fire  where the flue products outlet is sealed to the chimney; 

 a blocked up fireplace fitted with  ventilators (if ventilator area does not exceed 30 000 mm²


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## GreenFlag (7 Aug 2009)

thanks a mill.

in relation to DEAP but slightlty different query. Ive now also discovered that there is no insulation around the shaft of a roof light to upstairs bathroom (the shaft is in the attice).

will the 4 uninslulted sides of the shaft be counted as heat loss walls or how will that scenario ne included in and affect a BER rating potentially?


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## buyingabroad (7 Aug 2009)

I was thinking about this recently. If you replaced an open fire with an inset stove (gas, multifuel or whatever) in a living room area but didn't use it while the central heating was on, would there be heat loss up the chimney? If so, how does one stop this loss?


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## BarneyMc (10 Aug 2009)

sydthebeat said:


> a room sealed stove would not be considered as a flue at all..... but what do you mean 'sealed'..
> a room sealed stove has a separate independent external air inlet duct....


 
Yes by sealed I mean the air is supplied from outside and there is no air from the room lost in fueling the fire. In practice how well sealed are these stoves?


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## sydthebeat (10 Aug 2009)

BarneyMc said:


> Yes by sealed I mean the air is supplied from outside and there is no air from the room lost in fueling the fire. In practice how well sealed are these stoves?



thats down to quality of product and workmanship at installation....


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## wexford dude (10 Aug 2009)

If you are interested it is possible to do your own energy rating by using the SEI website.This would give you an idea of where best to spend money on improvements in order to gain maximum benefit for your energy rating.This is not an official energy rating of course but it should be within reason - I rated a house as B2 and an official assessor rated it as B3.
The route is  -> BER -> EPBD -> DEAP.


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## fmc (14 Aug 2009)

sydthebeat said:


> thats down to quality of product and workmanship at installation....



Agree with this but an inset stove will never comlpetly seal up a chimney even with all air vents closed. At a guess I would say you have stopped 90-95% heat loss up the flue when the appliance is not in use. You may also experiance some whistling with inset stoves while they "settle in" but they are the future imho and are selling well for us at present even in these challenging times.
Blog posted about them a while ago if your interested.

http://cosystoves.blogspot.com/2009/02/insert-stoves-no-boiler.html


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