by blogediter | Feb 27, 2019 | Chimney Plugs
Chimney Balloon product
Chimney Balloon USA provided a 9×9 Chimney Balloon to the editors of the popular Green Technology Website TomsGuide.com. We wanted their honest opinion on the Chimney Balloon product. They installed the Chimney Balloon, took some pictures, and like it! Here is a brief quote from their review:
“…With the Chimney Balloon in place, there was an immediate stop to the air leaking into my basement from my wood stove chimney. I anticipate this will also keep odors from soot at bay (I have not experienced any since it has been in place). The Chimney Balloon can easily be deflated for removal, and should I happen to forget it’s there when starting a fire, the balloon will deflate and fall out to allow for proper evacuation of smoke and heat…” Click Here to read the rest of the article.
Displayed image and text quote is property of TomsGuide.com, ©2009 All Rights Reserved by Copyright holder.
by blogediter | Feb 25, 2019 | Chimney Plugs
Q: Jason, See below. There doesn’t seem to be enough room under my damper to use the Chimney Pillow/Balloon. There is plenty of drafts. – SZ
A: SZ, Thank you for the pictures. they are very descriptive. With this application, I would tend to recommend to put the Chimney Balloon above the damper. I see you have what appears to be sufficient room below the damper if you open it up to get the handle out of the way, but I think the best route would be to measure above the damper with a folding carpenters ruler. I have attached a diagram of your chimney if it does have a smoke chamber above the damper in the flue, If you install it high enough you may even be able to close the damper after the Chimney Balloon is installed. I am just taking a guess that this fireplace does have a smoke chamber, but even if it doesn’t I think the best install location is above the damper. See the diagram below. – Jason
by blogediter | Feb 25, 2019 | Fireplaces
Fire Place sucksanim
On a cold winter eve who of us is not tempted to go to the living room and stoke up a fire in the fireplace and read a book in front of the fire? You may be thinking “I am doing myself a favor by supplementing the furnace with additional heat”, but in fact, you are making your house colder and could be contributing significantly to pollution depending upon how you burn.
The wood burning fireplace is a losing proposition
The air action that a wood burning fireplace initiates in our home is wasteful. The moment the damper is opened heated air begins pouring out of the top of the chimney. As the fire in the hearth accelerates, the combustion process grabs already heated air from your home and burns the oxygen and combustible gasses in it. The heat that is created in this combustion quickly rises and grabs more heated inside air and tosses it up the chimney. You can restrict the amount of inside air that the fireplace has access to by installing glass doors, but this will also severely limit the amount of radiant heat that fireplace can cast forward into your living space. This radiant heat is the heat you feel on your skin in front of the fireplace and is the only usable heat that the fireplace will produce since the combustion heat is pouring out the top of the chimney. In the meantime, the home is drawing in cold outside air from other places (i.e. windows, light sockets, doors, etc) to replace the air that is escaping the home through the chimney. This is referred to as the “stack effect”.
Loosing heat even while dormant
Even while the wood fireplace is not being used, the traditional metal dampers tend to leak air since they warp and degrade rapidly in the extreme heat and corrosive soot environment. The removable and reusable Chimney Balloon fireplace chimney damper available in assorted sizes inflates into place in the flue and seals it off efficiently to stop heat loss and the cold draft.
The good, the bad, and the pollution
If you burn a fast hot fire this creates very little smoke and pollution, and it can give you a noticeable amount of radiant heat gain in the room the fireplace it is in. However, it is using volume amounts of your already heated inside air for its combustion which exceeds your heat gain ratio. A slower fire is even worse since you are still loosing heated air out the chimney and getting very little radiant heat in return. This black type of fireplace smoke is a terrible pollutant and contributes to respiratory irritant for people with asthma and allergies.
Wood burning fireplaces are wonderful nostalgic centerpieces for many American homes. But a homeowner should be aware of the issues associated with fireplace use.
Sources:
US Department of Energy
WoodHeat.org
GreenBuildingElements.com
by blogediter | Feb 22, 2019 | Save Energy
Energy Audits
Last week I hosted a press open house at my home in Janesville to show how simple home envelope sealing like using the Chimney Balloon and adding insulation can save a homeowner money. I invite Mark Furst from Grading Spaces LLC and Bob Wilson from Janesville Insulation to come and show how they can help a homeowner save heat and energy. The Janesville Messanger wrote a story on the helpfulness of Energy Audits and used my home and testimony as an example. Below is a small excerpt from the article:
“After sealing up his home, Raddenbach decided to join the energy-efficiency industry. He was so impressed by the Chimney Balloon a device inserted into the chimney to stop fireplace drafts he wrote a letter to the devices manufacturer.
He now is the manufacturers sales representative for North America, and said the product continues to gain popularity.
Sales have just taken off, he said. More people are concerned about the same thing we were.” The above quote is witten By Sarah Zeller copyright belongs to CSI Media.
To read the entire article follow this link: http://www.janesvillemessenger.com/jm.html
by blogediter | Feb 20, 2019 | Fireplaces
Stone Fireplace
Q: Dear Jason, I have a custom made wood burning cobblestone fireplace in my cabin upstate. The damper was made by the person that built the fireplace 35 years ago. I have looked all over to find damper parts for this damper because the handle has broken off and the damper is so rusty it cannot be opened or closed all the way anymore. My chimney sweep said he can have a metals shop custom make damper parts similar to the old one that he can install for me, but the quote was $975! I found the Chimney Balloon on-line as an alternative to a damper. Would there be any reason I cant use a Chimney Balloon instead of a damper? – TU
A: Dear TU, If you have a location in your fireplace flue either above or below the current damper that has roughly parallel walls and is 6″ in height and is not obstructed in other ways with damper hardware or other hardware than I do not see any reason why you couldn’t use a Chimney Balloon with this fireplace. Custom Chimney Dampers can be very expensive to have fabricated as you noted in your email. The Chimney Balloon will also give you a far tighter seal that results in heat and money saved. – Jason
