ventilation

[Steve]

I was just reading the back boilers-legal or not thread, where ventilation was brought up.

The flue on our worcestor combi was classed as "not to current standards" a couple of years ago, by BG. No work was ever done to it - before or after. They blamed it on a change in regs in 2005 - they had never told us it wasnt to current standards before.

Apparently there are new regs in August 2008 that mean some will be "at risk"? What criteria are changing?

For info, the flue in question is on an outside wall. Theres a window 20cm to the right, which has an opener 90cm from the flue.
There's a plastic drain pipe running horizontally above the flue (from the bath), which is shielded by a rusty metal shield.
The soil stack is about 20cm away on the left.

Would this be at risk? The flue is an old square mirrored-front one with the vents on 4 sides.

 

[Gasguru]

It appears to be a natural draught balanced flue. Most of these require a 600mm clearance all around the flue. However 90% of the ones I see don't since it would be impossible to install this type of flue in a typical property.

Regarding the fault category it is often down to the judgement of the individual. Unless the safety of the boiler is affected or their is reason to believe combustion products would enter the building, or the pipework is in close proximity and could be a fire risk then clearances less than the requirement are just notifyable to the owner and classed as "Not to Current Standards"......it is often impractical to remedy the situation.

The only regulations currently coming into force are those concerning ventialltion of open flued appliances, that's on the 1st June.