Open Coal Fires

[lizzylemon]

Advice please: I have an open coal fire, it's been cleaned (21 Nov) and so far it's been just fine. Today, t'wind changed direction (coming across side of house rather than back) and every now and then (quite often actually) a puff of smoke is forced out of the fire place.

Does anyone know how I can stop this from happening and are there dangerous fumes (I know about Carbon Monoxide & Gas Fires) that I need to worry about?

No one seems to know and I'm sitting here with a big head ache and feeling a bit distant (shhhhh Mr RT)

Thanks lots. xxx

[carlseawolf]

what you need is a -DOWN DRAFT COWL - fitted to the top of your chimney and this will stop it happening and also keep out birds.
The cowl costs about 80 pounds for a good stainless steel version and the extra cost of a roofer to fit it , or you can fit your self as it is just a band that needs fastening around the chimney pot.

[RedThorn]

Me‽ lol. with the winds we're having, I'm not all that surprised though! What Carlseawolf said...

[Jeanied]

Lizzy I grew up with a fire that behaved like that! (and this is no carbon-monoxided ghost typing here) - how about getting your chimney sweep back to advise - they usually know what's what and who would be a good person to fix things for you. The worst of coal smoke is it is so dirty- so until it gets fixed, why not try some wood? The smoke, to me, seems a lot less 'chemical'.

[Headfry]

Does it happen when you first light the fire and the chimney is cold? or all the time?
cold chimneys suffer from lack of 'suck' draft once they get hot the the fire works better as it were.
A cowl if it happens all the time I think!
ours blows back when chimney is cold, then sorts it's self out when hot!

[Mac]

The chimney at our last house did that, but it didn't have a "granny" on the top (that's what the down draft thingy's are called up here!). Our new house does have one fitted and we've not had any problems and have had gales from pretty much every direction!

[lizzylemon]

Thanks everyone - I feel very rest-assured that we wont flake out on the sofa due to CM poisoning (although I can't guarantee OH wont flake out if there's a dvd on) and I did wonder if the pots needed 'hats' as it where.

Unfortunately, this is a rented house and they still haven't fixed the leaking ceiling after 3 years of asking (don't get me started) so I won't hold out for a hat x 5 pots.

[lizzylemon]

Ha! I think baby Ryan must be using all your energies up at the mo - missing an opportunity to make a cheeky comment or ten about wind or confused states of mind - you must be tired.

[lizzylemon]

Does it happen when you first light the fire and the chimney is cold? or all the time?
cold chimneys suffer from lack of 'suck' draft once they get hot the the fire works better as it were.
A cowl if it happens all the time I think!
ours blows back when chimney is cold, then sorts it's self out when hot!

Excellent piece of info - it actually answered a question I hadn't even got to asking and completely explains why the kitchen fire started spewing soot / ash everywhere but is now behaving fine (unlit = volcanic impression / hot = well behaved fire). I had to open the kitchen window to reverse the draft until the fire got going.

I would love to change over to wood and I've just seen a sign for someone local selling seasoned wood but I need to check out his prices. I feel very bad about burning coal - I know the environmental impact, but, and I hate saying this, coal is cheaper and more local to get and we don't have any other heating in the 2 downstairs rooms so it's an evil necessity at the moment

[dexterdoglancashire]

Not sure about your problem, but am more than willing to move down (permanently?) with OH and Dexy and the cats and the chucks..............when can we move in?

[smallblueplanet]

Don't know if this is pertinent but when we moved into this house we had the chimney swept about June time, then by New Year we were getting lots of poor fire-burning situations...even set the smoke alarms off! Thought it might be due to 'atmospheric conditions' but anyway called in another sweep who swept the chimney again and commented on the amount of soot - the 1st bloke (even tho a NICS member) hadn't swept it properly!

[lizzylemon]

Pack up then gal and yer sels down here. I'm down to 2 chooks so they'd love(?!) some more ladeees. The cats wouldn't know what to do 1st, chase mice, rats, rabbits, dig over my veg patch or flake out in front of warm (if slightly smokey) fire and pooch has nothing but open fields to explore and a fire in the kitchen.

Might be a rush for the sofas though

[sewer rat]

Not really specific to this thread but friends of ours lost their house last night - a log fell out of their open fire after they had gone to bed - no fireguard in position - house burnt to the ground - both of them and their two dogs are okay - but he has lost a collection of rare whiskies and all his irreplaceable Celtic memorabilia, as well as all their personal items. Not good at any time of year but especially hard at this time of year.

[SarzWix]

Oh Rat, that's just terrible Poor, poor people. So glad they got out safely.

Makes me even more determined to get a stove in here as soon as possible. We had a bad batch of coal once that fired lumps of almost molten 'fool's gold' out at such velocity that they knocked the spark guard over. We put an extra wide hearth in after that. Open fires are lovely, but have to be treated with respect/caution. A house fire is one of my worst nightmares

[lizzylemon]

Very dreadful indeed. My heart does go out to them, poor people. Such devastation physically and emotionally.

I have a spark guard up all the time and also a child guard too but I also make sure it's died down and cover it over with some ash before going to bed. It keeps the embers underneath alive for relighting in the morning but no fire as such.

(It's also the thing to do if your fire's blazing out of control - always have a bucket of sand or ash in the shed on stand-by)