Smoke from Next Door's Gas Boiler

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dubgem

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My next door neighbour - we are in terraced houses - recently installed a gas boiler on the ground floor. The pipe sticks out about 10 inches from the wall, at a height of just below the top of the kitchen window.

As the weather has turned cold the residents (they are renting) have had the heat on and clouds of light smoke are blowing past my kitchen window. There is no smell from it, but I'm not keen on the idea that if I open my kitchen window, or the window of the bedroom above, smoke will blow in (obviously even in cold weather you might open a window for ventilation, especially in a kitchen).

I'm also not keen on the idea that every cold day for the rest of my life I'll be looking out my kitchen window through a cloud of (light) smoke. I too have a gas boiler, on the first floor, but I've never seen any smoke come out of the outlet pipe.

I suppose my question is - is this unhealthy? Should there be that much smoke from a gas boiler? Am I going to have to live with it forever? Obviously the residents are completely entitled to heat their house. Am I just being way too fussy?
 
Sounds as though your neighbour has a condensing boiler, so what you are seeing is almost certainly water vapour (not smoke) from the condensing process. If you are concerned about the location of the flue, take a look at page 32 of this document:

[broken link removed]

Does the location of the flue appear to be in accordance with those dimensions and limits? If not, I'd be inclined to ask the owner/landlord about the installation, with a view to taking the matter up with .

Just my opinion, I am not a registered gas installer.
 
We have this on our boiler as well. Our problem is that this freezes very quickly and turns to ice on our wall. Then it falls off taking flakes of paint with it. Absolute nuisance.
 
The visible vapour that you see comming from the boiler is mostly steam but it also contains the exhaust fumes from the boiler. These fumes would include carbon monoxide. The fumes are also acidic. The regulations regarding condensing boilers state that the visible exhaust plume should not enter adjacent properties. You are right to be concerned about this situation.
 
I would definitely seek to get this contained, and piped upwards if necessary. Take a video with a camera of the fumes so that you have future proof...
 
Thanks all for the replies, food for thought! (Of course I haven't noticed it since I posted the question - the wind changed direction!)
 
Hi Dubgem did you get this sorted yet? Im having a similar issue with my neighbour..
 
Hi karll, no I haven't done anything about this yet. With the warm weather it's not an issue (as they don't have the heat on).

Also the house was only recently bought and I only met the new owners once, briefly (and did not get contact details for them) and then it was rented out immediately. So the residents are not the owners, and I haven't actually met them yet. I would have to go through them to get contact details for the owner, and I would hate our first conversation to be "complaint". Anyway I feel I have time until the autumn/winter when this would become a significant issue.

I am thinking that when I do approach them I will point out that the smoke/steam will blow in their windows too, depending on the wind direction, and that if it's unhealthy it's unhealthy for them too.

Would be interested to hear how you get on though.
 
Hear back from the RGII but they just confirmed the regulations, that the flue must be 600mm from any opening. Its all down to the manafacturers regulations which generally (depending on the make of the boiler) seem to suggest that the plume should not be a nuisance to neighbours but unfortunately these are not mandatory. Looks like its a grey area and a lot of hassle if your not on talking terms with the neighbours as in my situation! A plume diverter kit seems the way to go if it can be sorted out with your neighbour, good luck with it, I'll most likely have to throw up a fence panel to block the plume...
 
Thanks for the update karll. 600mm is not much, I'm pretty sure the outlet pipe is not within that distance of windows either in my house or their own, presumably your own situation is similar.

Putting up a fence panel seems like an excellent option, even if it is at your own expense, although I don't think it would work for me because of an existing (apparently not high enough) wall.

I looked up plume diverter kits and actually I've seen them around, so they seem to be quite common. The neighbours have had the heat on again - I don't, as I have excellent insulation so don't need to at the moment - and the sight of what looks like smoke blowing past my window is driving me mad, it feels like I'm living in an industrial zone or something. So I may revisit the idea of talking to them about it. I'll post here if I get any resolution.
 
Theres a post on boards.ie that will be helpfull to you, I tried posting a link to it but Im not allowed post links to other sites until I have 15 posts so just search for" smoke from neighbours condensing boiler" the information about the regulations might come in handy down the line...
 
Wow, thanks karll, that thread is almost a mirror this, but with more information as it's older (by only about a month). And I can post the link, it's here for anyone else who's interested.

Will print off some of the posts for when I talk to them.

Thanks again :)
 
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