Vent Free

NewGC

I am building a house that is using geothermal force hot Air, but the great room has 27ft cathedral ceiling, so was going to put a supplemental LP 40,000 btu fireplace in. Do to the layout, venting will be a challenge, so considering vent free, the great room is open to the dining room, kitchen, foyer, upstairs hall, so in all, about 14,000 cubit feet, well in excess of the 10,000 cubit feet required for a heater this size. Will have carbon monoxide detectors in rooms. Anyone out there see a problem with the vent free? Personally I like the direct vent, and have never used the vent free.
thanks,

greghvacguy

Thay put alot of humidy in the air

Dr Heat

If you do a search on long term low level Co exposure you will formulate your own answer.

But I know several people who use them and they are efficient. Considering you are using geo I would be concerned if you thought you would use it as backup heat. be sure you use a vented or electric backup

jerzeedivr

I have tested a friends wall mounted gas heater with the plaques in. My meter read 4 ppm CO throughtout his 20' wide row home. If you don't mind absorbing carbon monoxide into your blood stream go for it. This is a low level but I prefer to breathe fresh air. I know osha sets the levels around 40-50 ppm in the work place. I'll pass on the head ake!

mrmike

Hello neighbor, I have had both & i can tell you I would not ever use a vent free again. I know what they state about them but that is probably in perfect conditions. I got some "bad" propane, if there is such a thing, maybe with some impuritys or something & my stove started acting up after my tank was filled & it actually blackened my walls & ceiling, and I was breathing this in. I quit using it then.
I installed a direct vent in the house I live in now & fresh air is brought in from outside for the combustion instead of your room air. It worked well. But because of the cost of propane I switched to a pellet stove which has been just great. It is a 40k to 50k btu model. If you don't mind lugging 40 lb bags it is the way to go & the good thing about it is , the pellets are from the USA or Canada...........

loneframer

I had a direct vent in my house and hated it, it let in a lot of cold air when not in use. I wish I had done vent free. They do put out a lot of humidity though, depends on the amount of use it will get. If it will be used as a regular heat source you might not want ventless.

mrmike

Are you sure you didn't have a B-Vent ?? They just have an exhaust. A "B" vent does take the air out of your house for combustion & wasn't as efficient.
If you had a direct vent,the firebox and the venting are sealed from the "shell" the firebox is built in. You would have to have air leaving the fireplace for fresh cold air to be coming in the vent. When the fireplace is off no air should be leaving the firebox and no air should be entering the firebox.
once again, this is a "sealed combustion chamber" usually cold air coming out of your fireplace is a installation issue. If this were not true, then NO ONE would be happy with their direct vent fireplace.
I installed both my Gas & pellet inserts & did not have any cold coming in anywhere. You have a 4" air intake pipe & a 4" exhaust which are hooked into the firebox. You have to seal around these at top and bottom on an insert to stop any air loss.

If you read the directions to any vent free & it will tell you to leave a window open, so what does that tell you?? Direct Vent here with no worry about any fumes.

loneframer

I agree with the statement about the opening of a window, but my unit was intended for limitted use to set a mood, not as a source of heat, personally I think boiling macaroni on the gas stove is= in co emissions with a recirculating range hood. As far as the sealed combustion chamber, my stove had one,but I could lay on the floor and look straight out the back of the unit to outside, and let me tell you when the unit was off you could feel the cold five feet away from the unit.