Vent pulling in from fireplace smell
bopfletch
13 years ago
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Comments (7)
weissman
13 years agobopfletch
13 years agoRelated Discussions
cost, energy issues B vent or direct vent fireplace
Comments (9)Yes, a direct vent gas fireplace can be put anywhere in the house if the vent lengths and turns meets the rules of the manufacturer which are shown in the form of charts & diagrams in the installation instructions. It can vent horizontally to an outside wall or vertically through the roof within those rules. The roof termination would be an exposed metal pipe. Fresh/combustion air is drawn into the outer wall of the vent and the center pipe acts as the exhaust for combustion byproducts. A B-vent gas fireplace can only vent to the roof and draws combustion air from the room (or through a separate outside air duct). It can have a glass face or bi-fold doors. Either unit might have heat recirculating louvers or not. If you find the roof termination unattractive you can add a fake masonry or wood surround. Roof leaks shouldn't be an issue if the roofer knows how to flash a roof penetration. Be sure to use Ice & Water Shield self-adhering flexible flashing in addition to the factory metal flashing. Click on one of the direct vent gas fireplace installation manuals and see if the vent tables will work for your installation. It's a lot of design work if the vent travels horizontally and vertically. Here is a link that might be useful: installation manuals...See MoreSmell from heating vents / also gas furnace closet not vented....
Comments (3)"The closet the gas furnace is in, is not ventilated. The closet does not have a roof, but opens up into the attic. He does not think there is enough fresh air making it down to the furnace, and he does not think the fumes from the furnace are making it up into the attic." the closet is actually very well vented if it is open to the attic at the ceiling (roof?) of the closet. "He has instructed us to nail some gutter pipe (gutter pipe, because it is square, and will fit the limited space better than round pipe, but to mee gutter pipe seems awfully small diameter) into the closet to increase circulation. One peice going 12 inches into the attic, and another peice 12 inches off the floor. To me this seems awfully suspicious, I cant see how this will work, and I'm scared." I usually install a ceiling in gas furnace closets using ductboard (doesnt burn) from inside the attic. Usually a 5 or 6" vent pipe from inside attic..12" above insulation with a bug screen. the pipe goes thru ductboard ceiling to where the air intake of the gas furnace is located. I've started putting an inline manual damper..open when furnace is in use..closed for cooling season. "He also noticed that someone has stapled fibergalss insulation to the inside of the closet door, and we should remove that. That the entire door needs to be replaced with a very tight fitting door." Someone was trying to overcome the temp transfer from top of heating closet being open to attic. Bat insulation is not a good idea..but ductboard works well. and door should be weatherstripped. while the venting will supply the air needed for the furnace, it won't vent fumes. there shouldn't be any fumes if furnace is operating properly..there are vent pipes attached to the equipment that vent out of the roof. as for the smell...it could have been a sealant that he used or many things. I would call the original person who did the install and tell him your concerns. Granted there are better materials to use but it sounds like he/she was on the right track. better to close in ceiling and make it air tight and bring fresh air to the furnace than to leave the ceiling open to the attic. just my experience here in hot humid La. it may vary if your area is different. best of luck....See MoreSewer Smell/Plumber says not in Vent
Comments (10)You must understand that you are asking us to resolve a problem sight unseen and with very limited information to work from even though you have already had a plumber on site and he/she was unable to find the problem. In my previous post I was not making any assumptions, but rather I was pointing out a potential source of your problem based upon current code approved construction methods. Having now ruled out attic vent termination we must then turn to other potential, although seldom noticed sources. The four principal gasses that make up sewer gas are Hydrogen-sulfide, Sulphur-dioxide, methane and carbon dioxide. Of these four gasses carbon dioxide is odorless and while hydrogen-sulfide has a very distinct odor, it also causes an anesthitation of the olefactory nerve in rather low doses. This means that while hydrogen-sulfide is readily noticeable at very low concentrations, as the level of concentration increases it will shut down your ability to smell it rather quickly. It must also be noted that hyrdogen-sulfide and methane are heavier than air gasses so they tend to stratify at low levels in any given space. This means that it could be in a rather high concentration at the floor level in your basement, yet you will not smell it when standing erect in the room. The problem here is that most HVAC units have an updraft air flow, which means the air intake is rather close to the floor where the sewer gasses would concentrate. Once the gasses are pulled into the HVAC unit they will then be distributed throughout the structure by the normal HVAC air flow. You also stated that this structure is only 5 years old so it would be safe to assume that it was constructed with a very tight envelope and knowing state of the art construction it is highly unlikely that there is a source of outside air into the basement. Under these conditions when an HVAC unit is running they will often cause a slight drop in normal atmospheric pressure in the basement, especially if the return air ducting is sized critically or if any opening to the return air duct is even partially obstructed by furnishings or personal belongings. (one prime indictation of a reduction in air pressure in the basement when the unit is running is a basement door that is left open but slams shut when the HVAC unit runs). We must also keep in mind that normal atmospheric air pressure is 14.96psi at sea level and nature abhors a vacuum. Any reduction in atmospheric pressure, no matter how slight, will immediately cause air to infiltrate in from any possible source. Further understanding that all sewer and drain lines are vented to atmosphere it would then stand that if the air pressure in the basement drops even slightly air might be infiltrating into the basement through floor drains, laundry standpipes or utility sink drains. The rate of infiltration through these drains may not be enough to even effect the water levels in the traps, other than to cause them to dry out quicker than usual. One way to test this problem is to keep the basement door open a couple days and see if the problem still persists. If not then the permanent solution would be to install a small makeup air intake into the basement....See MoreMusty smell coming from Range Vent
Comments (6)Small critters are a very real possibility. The house we just bought sat empty for several months, and we are just now getting the mouse problem under control. When one died in the ductwork it was mysterious at first, and worked up to RANK! within a week or so. It was recommended to us by our house inspector that we have the ductwork cleaned, because the PO never used a filter in the furnace (true story!) and there was dog mung everywhere. They found the dead mice, cats took care of the rest....See Morecreek_side
13 years agoweissman
13 years agokaseki
13 years agoweedmeister
13 years ago
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