electric flue dampers?? pros/cons?

jpf321

In looking at my flue temp recently, and realizing how cold it got for just a few minutes with the fluebox open...i've started giving more thought to the idea electric flue damper...it makes perfect sense, keep the hot air in and the cold air out .. i'd hate to think what my living room would feel like if the fireplace flue damper were left open ..



so what's the deal? do people feel there are important? save money? are headaches? does anyone with a Lascar datalogger have a motorized flue damper? can they be advanced-DIY installed?



thanks.

Charlie from wmass

Are you not installing a new boiler soon?

A damper is of some value but the after market ones can be a major headache, literally and figuratively. If installed properly they can save standby heat loss, but if they are not installed well or fail they have the potential to fill a nice home with loads of soot and CO. both are not fun to have. Also their use on oil is even less welcome as the higher stack temps and solids in the combustion product make for an even shorter life of the units.

jpf321

i'm working on it ..

i'm working on the new boiler .. I have had 3 gentleman through to provide a quote in the last week .. so far one of them seemed most trained at "the art" and professed that he had been an alumni of Dan's schoolnight(s) .. he's also the only one that said "ok can we go up now and measure your rads?" .. of course then I just handed him my worksheet printout and smiled .. most of them are a little taken aback when I suggest what I want and why while donning my Dead Men Pride Hoodie .. and that I would like them to use my vaporstat and low pressure gauge, you can forego the auto-feed (i can add it later), what about the SlantFin TR-30? oh yeah and leave my glass pipe :-)



thanks for the feedback on the flue damper .. i'll not have that on my list anytime soon.

Jamie Hall

We had

electric stack dampers on our oil fired units.  They're gone.  This was some years ago, and it is possible that the newer units are more reliable -- but the ones we had would fail to open rather frequently, which caused no heat, and the resulting hassles were much more of a problem to us than the potential heat loss up the chimney (at that time the museum was unattended at nights and on weekends).  They also failed open now and then.



If you should be inspired to put one on -- which I from our experience cannot recommend -- it absolutely must be tied into the burner controls so that the burner cannot fire unless it is fully open.  Otherwise they are a major safety hazard.

jpf321

thanks ..

i would have assumed that they only way to install them was tied into burner controls for obvious reasons .. but maybe there isn't .. thanks for your comments .. 2thumbs down so far.