Neighbour's flue gases disperse under our bedroom window

[Aus K]

we have just purchased an upper floor flat in a standard, London, victorian terrace.
over the past few days we have noticed an odour throughout the flat condusive to inhaling fumes when near a gas barbeque or patio heater. we have discovered the neighbour's flue is located in such a postition that the fumes are vented the standard 2m, only to then rise directly under our bedroom window. There is another flue directly below the said window (97cm below) which belongs to the tennant below me. a corgi engineer has placed a CO meter in the bedroom and recorded a reading of 9ppm within 1 hour he could not readfor other gases.
Transco can only request the neighbour to refrain from using the boiler. The corgi engineer, who installed the neighbour's boiler, has inspected it and could only pontificate that it is installed within guidelines and ratled off facts and figures.

Can anyone please advise as to the effect of long term exposure to these flue gases and how best I could procede.

are there any guidelines relating to the location of flues in relation to neighbouring vents/windows above.

Regards
Kieron

Ps the bedroom will have us sleeping in it in 1 week and our first child in 6 weeks.

 

[oilman]

Sorry but this will probably be of little help, but it does illustrate the stupidity of today's approach to heating.

You live in a flat with a boiler.
The people below you live in a flat with a boiler.
The people either side of you live in flats with boilers.
Anybody above you will have their own boiler.

If "property developers", the greedy grabbers, had some other attribute, such as thoughtfulness, they could install an integrated system that had one flue above the highest window. (OK rant over)

You could speak to your local environmental health department.

I suspect it would be possible to shift the outlet of the flue by adding a flue extension to take the exhaust to a more suitable place, but this will open the door to the "you can't possibly do that for all these (spoof) technical reasons" brigade.

Is the 9ppm CO figure different from results obtained in other rooms? You need to establish that the CO is definitely a result of the flue below your window, and it seems surprising the boiler is on for long enough to give this result.

 

[big-all]

if its worrying you that much

could you not have a fan blowing out the window
when you have your window open for ventilation
not a solution but may reduce the smell
and give you peace of mind till a better solution
comes allong

good luck


big all

 

[TexMex]

I don't mean to worry you, but there was a case some time back where a young man died from CO poisoning from his neighbours flue. His bedroom was sited above an alley between two houses.

The neighbours flue vented into this alley, percollated up through the ceiling, and then into his bedroom through the floorboards. It turned out that the whole estate had been done like this and the local council had a big job on their hands getting the changes made.

Would it not be worth getting in touch with your environmental health officer at the local council. Within guidlines or not, if it's a hazard to your health, something should be done about it!

 

[oilman]

TexMex, can you give a bit more information about this case? Date, location etc. We get lots of anecdotal information about some disaster or other, and in this case I,d be surprised if enough CO got from the outside through a ceiling, then the floorboards, then the carpet (if any), since CO from smoking and sitting in traffic queues is reputed to give higher concentrations than domestic boilers.

This case is along the lines of gloom and doom about the consequences of not having a remote operated fire valve on oil installations.

 

[TexMex]

It was a report in a national newspaper. I'll see what I can dig up. It would be nice to see how things have developed.

 

[TexMex]

I've done a search on the Daily Mirrors web site and found this. You'll note the date reported was March 6th this year.

 

[oilman]

Thanks for the link. It seems the flue exhausted into an allyway where Aus K's problem was a flue on an outside wall. Into the allyway is contrary to building regs, as the allyway is an opening in a wall.

Aus K's first step is the environmental health dept.

The effect of CO at 50ppm in air is not defined, but there is a recommended max exposure of 8 hours, and 200ppm is likely to cause headaches after 7 hours resting or 2 hrs exertion. This means the 9ppm is not dangerous.

 

[ollski]

No not at the moment but if the downstairs neighbour develops a problem with the boiler and it starts creating co at high levels that is when the nightmare scenario begins.

Although there are definitive measurements for all flue terminals there is also normally a line such as 'the flue should not discharge products where they will affect neighbouring properties'.

 

[oilman]

This is the benefit of oil, at least it tells you when there's not enough air by producing horrid thick black soot, and it stinks.

 

[Slogger]

u dont say what type of flue it is below the window ? natural draught or a fan flued type then again we can assume transco know what they are doing yes ? and i wouild be particually concerned with my window open in the bedroom and another in a dif part of the house/flat as if it is ever windy (pressure zones )you could get a serious influx of products of combustion into your bedroom albeit in a diluted form i bet you can get this sorted if you get a corgi rep in as flues have to take into account adverse weather conditions too

we all hear what co can do so take this as high as u can



no spull chekers werhe hurt makin this

 

[namsag]

Providing the boiler is burning properly the fumes won`t cause you any harm as the products of complete combustion are water (h2o) and carbon dioxiode (co2) . There should be no CO at all given off unless incomplete combustion occurs. Chemical formula is

1 Volume CH4 + 2 Volumes O2 When burnt becomes 1volume CO2 + 2

Volumes of H2O

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

If it's causing you a nusiance make them do something about it.