Fireplace vent

[Chuck52]

A while back I posted asking about fireplace inserts for a through-the-wall fireplace I have....that is, a fireplace that opens to two rooms. Looks like big bucks for such a thing, and I am unlikely to go that route. However, over the weekend I was watching some home improvement show with only a small part of my brain actually functioning...I do that a lot. Anyway, on this show they were using a dual layer fireplace flue pipe which passed the smoke up through the inner pipe and drew air for the fire down the outer part. That sounded possibly useful for my situation. My fireplace is all masonry, and drilling some kind of vent hole to allow outside air to be piped into it would be a problem. On the other hand, if I could install this dual flue, I could just add air-tight (or nearly so) screen/windows to the fireplace and get some net heat gain instead of the net heat loss I now have when I use it. I assume this stuff has some kind of cap which prevents just drawing the smoke back down the vent. Is this new, or just something I haven't heard of? I did some searching on the net but found nothing on it.

Chuck

 

[woodlot]

What you most likly saw was the installation of a "direct-vent" gas fireplace. They use a pipe like that, Simpson dura-vent is one brand. I have two of them, and love 'em. I'm thinking about adding another one in the basement. I don't think wood fireplaces use that kind of pipe.

 

[Chuck52]

You're probably right, since I've heard of that stuff. It does seem like some adaptaion of that idea might work for wood-burning fireplaces where it would be difficult to pipe in air.

Chuck