VENT FREE GAS LOG HEATER
Put a natural gas log setup in my originally wood-burning home fireplace
This is an entirely different deal than a vented one, but I can tell you a story about one (two) that cause a dangerous situation
In my days as an HVAC/R tech, we got a call from friends of the boss, these people own a big glass company in town. They have a split level home with a basement, and had two "70%" atmospheric burner furnaces in the basement. The upper level "rec room" had two fireplaces, and these had not been used much at all, and were kept with the dampers closed
"Another outfit" installed a gas log in the fireplaces. As per code, they had blocked the dampers open. Here is what happened:
With the gas logs OFF, the furnaces let's say, "turned down" a bit as evening progressed, and the family setting down, no doors or windows were (being) opened. With the fireplace dampers now blocked open, a constant draft was going up those two chimneys.
Meanwhile, the furnaces, as evening wore on, people going to bed, THE VENTS GOT COLD as the furnaces cycled less and less. At some point, later, the furnace(s) called for heat, and COULD NOT OVERCOME the COLD DRAFT FLOWING DOWN THE VENTS for the furnaces
These were both older furnaces, and had no "spill switches" (by design / manufacture) on the diverter hoods.
So the furnace(s) fired, and VENTED INTO THE BASEMENT. After firing for a period of time, the OXYGEN began to be DEPLETED by the vent gases dumping into the basement. This caused an "oxygen starved" situation at the burners WHICH BEGAN GENERATING CO (monoxide)
This family spent a VERY sick weekend before someone wised up.
"The fix"? Improve the furnace venting by adding some height, adding combustion air inlets into the basement through the sill, and running duct down near the floor/ burners, and INSTALLING AFTERMARKET SPILL SWITCHES on the draft diverters................And bought a CO detector
