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Vented heating from insert stove


Acoustic
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There was already an insert multi-fuel burner fitted into our house when we bought it.  The previous owner explained the grille in the chimney breast and vaguely described trunking in the loft to feed hot air into other parts of the house.  We only had the fire lit a few times last winter but didn´t really notice any heat in any other parts of the house, although there are ceiling vents in the hallway, kitchen and bathrooms.

However whilst organising a satellite dish we have been into the loft and notice that, as well as metres of silver trunking everywhere, there appears to be some sort of electrical unit connected to the system.  Does anyone know the principle of how these systems work?  Should there be a switch somewhere to turn this unit on and off?  The vent in the kitchen is somewhat different to the others, larger, directly over the hob and with a pad of filter material.  Any ideas on that one?  Is it just another version of the other vents or intended to work as an extractor in some way?  The electrical unit I mentioned is in fact more or less above this particular vent too.

If this is some sort of vented system it seems to be inherently inefficient surely if hot air rises anyway?  Or should the pump be forcing it into the rooms?

 

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The circulation unit should have a breaker on the circuit board, and come on automatically when the fire is up to temperature.

In the kitchen, it sounds like an extraction unit, there should be a motorised unit behind it, you should be able to see it in the loft if  the house is single storey.

 

 

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I agree with gosub.

We have the same set up here. The VMC ventilation system takes air from kitchen and toilets and vents it outside. Air is, in theory, drawn in from vents above windows/shutters in living sleeping areas. It is designed to be on all the time with no off switch, just a switch which changes the power of the fan unit in the loft from very small suck to large suck.( well technical here) e.g. for when you are cooking.

I have put an on/off switch on ours as well as I thought it was stupid to have it on all Summer when half the windows and doors are open...

That also sounds to me what you have in the loft. Is it on? Can you hear anything at all from the unit? There should be a switch somwhere to change the power of the unit as I described. Is there not a switch in the kitchen. Maybe it is disconnected at the tableux.???

Seperately, from our insert /cheminee there is a vent going up into the roof space which at the moment just terminates. It could be used for the vented heating system if we wished. This would mean buying another (normally available in a kit) fan motor, joints and sufficient piping  to vent the warm air and grilles for the rooms where the air is going to.

Danny

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So do I!

You could actually have 3 systems! a) The VMC, as detailed by others. b) An extractor for the hob - these are not normally run through the VMC. c) The heat distribution system for the poele.

Does the fire have a (electrical) switch on it? These systems are normally fan-assisted and work superbly - we have one in one of our properties which heats the dining room, 2 of the bedrooms and the kitchen.

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Firstly can I say thanks very much for all this help - I really appreciate it!

We have been into the loft.  There appears not to be any sort of pump/motor from the fire itself - just ducting.  This is somewhat torn/split in places so presumably not much use anyway until we repair it or replace it.  So a pump etc specifically for the ducting seems to be required from what has been said so far.  The insert fire itself does not have any sort of electrical switch anywhere near it.  The only thing we have never managed to work out a purpose for on the fire is a little black knob in the top right hand corner just above the glass door which appears not to do anything and although it appears it should perhaps pull in and out actually hardly budges at all. 

The electrical unit I mentioned before has VMC P written on it and is then connected to a junction box mounted on a roof beam.  The trunking coming into it comes from the kitchen and toilet.  Nothing from the original bathroom vent and the second bathroom seems to have been converted from another room anyway and has no ceiling vent.  We can´t see any switches on the unit and it makes no noise, however it had fallen onto it's outlet so stood little chance of working anyway as the outlet is not vented anywhere and so seems to just empty into the loft space.

I have been looking at the fuseboard and once again I'm a little lost as quite a few of the words are obscured or faded.  There is one 10A fuse which seems to be for something which could say "venti famon" although the second word is practically unreadable and I can't imagine what it should be.  I´ve put a new fuse in just in case it wasn't working and we will go back up to check for any signs of life in the unit tomorrow.  As a matter of interest, the "converted" room which is now a second bathroom seems to be referred to as Debanas on the fuseboard.  Can anyone hazard a guess as to what that might actually mean?  I think we'll take the opportunity of labelling the fusebox up more clearly while we are at it!

Unfortunately, going into the loft uncovered our next problem so now I´m off to post again.  Thank heavens for this forum is all I can say...

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The little black knob above the fire door is the lever which opens and closes the vent just at the top of the insert. This is used to control the draw of air through. It shouls br open to start the fire and then once it is alight properly you can close it to stop the fire burning too quickly and to keep a lot of the heat going straight out and up the chimney.

Can't shed any other light on things. You seem to have got the gist of the other things. Our VMC just vents into the roofspace but there is a ventilation tile just above it.

it sounds like you have a bit of sorting out to do there.

More info on VMC on this page http://www.ideesmaison.com/La-VMC-ventilation-mecanique.html

Some info on hot air distribution http://www.brisach.com/fr/cheminee/repartiteur_air_chaud

Be careful with this as I imagine it should be well installed to avoid any possible fumes. PS I don't have any pro knowledge at all - just a worry if I was lying in bed and slowly having the bedroom filling up with Carbon Monoxide from a faulty pipe leak. I don't even  know If CO is produced from wood burning stove or not!

Danny

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Thanks for that suggestion, sounds about right - junk room!  We´ve also decided that venti famon is in fact ventilation spread over two lines (also very badly written and faded so it doesn´t help).  Also thanks for information on the knob on the insert fire.  It seems to be jammed in the "in" position.  No wonder we couldn´t find a way of making it work very efficiently last winter!

Back in the loft today to see if there are any signs of life in the VMC unit.  Then on to the problem of hanging ceiling fans etc from a tiled ceiling.  It looks as if we have to devise some sort of system of blocks attached to the underside of the joists so that they will fill the gap which is currently there, then screw through the tiles into the blocks.  It seems that we manage to solve one problem only to uncover 10 more!

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Jane and Denny

If you have a gas cooker then you are not compling with the gas regulations

It is not allowed to fit an on/off switch

The VMC is supposed to run all the time to extract the products of combustion from the cooker

Cooker extract hoods do not count as they have grease filters which can block if not maintained

Le Plombier

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