To do without heating

[Cronesquerness]

My home is rented from a housing association and heated by a coal/wood burner. The chimney was swept by their contractor a couple of months ago and was passed as safe to light. I lit it on Friday and the chimney is clearly blocked as the house filled with smoke and I mean FILLED as no smoke at all was being drawn up the chimney. We all have sore throats and stinging eyes still. I evacuated the DC and crouched on the floor trying to empty the fire blindly. Eventually cleared the fire and waited for the house to clear of smoke. It stinks and is uninhabitable really. I've rung the housing association who say as the fire was passed as safe to light there will be no further action. I have no choice but to accept this and now look forward to a winter [all winters to come unless next year's sweeping makes a difference] with no heating, the fire heats the water and radiators. I shall have to buy plug in radiators I suppose. Do people live with no heating? Not sure what my AIBU is, just ranting I suppose.

You don’t have to accept what they’ve said. Make a formal complaint, you’ve probably only spoken to a customer service advisor with a computer says no attitude.

Get the wood burner checked again. Ours has a plate thing inside it, which can get knocked upwards (particularly if someone puts too much wood in at once). If it is out of place, smoke cannot draw up the chimney. It happened the first time we lit it this year. DH has repositioned it, no more problems with smoke.

Formal complaint in writing. Also call again, and tell them you'll shop them to (whoever HA's are shoppable to, I dunno) for risking complete death to your entire family.

Oh, yes. Do Once's thing first.

Check the wood burner.

Also open all the doors and windows and light it. If the flue is full of cold air and can’t get a drought then the smoke won’t go up the chimney properly.

If the doors and windows are open that should draw in enough air to make it go up the chimney and once the flue is warming it’ll draw fine.

blog.swedesweep.com/fireplace/priming-the-fireplace-flue/

Op do a test, light a piece of paper and see if there is any draw...if there is the smoke will be pulled up the chimney....if there isn't it comes into the room...to fix it, open a window in that room /or door a crack and if the smoke starts going up the chimney normal again then you have found your issue and solved it...

If the smoke still comes in the room then you need to hire a chimney cleaner that has a camera (some have an I detriment with a camera so they can see up your chimney while.they clean and they can tell you for sure if you have a blockage ...e.g a dead bird or birds nest could be lodged)

What blackoutblinds said. Once the chimney gets going then it's great. But by not being used to for ages, they can take a while to work properly.
If that fails, get your own chimney sweep out and bill the landlord.

I gather from here that HA's are a law unto themselves but this is unspeakable.

check the plate and then raise serious formal complaint.

BTW CO monitor? Smoke alarms? Legal EPC? All the other things private landlords are legally obliged to do, or are HA's exempt from that too?

I can't believe a rental with this primitive system is acceptable.

Some fire brigades offer home safety checks. It might be worth finding out if you can get a visit? Do you have a carbon monoxide alarm? That would worry me as much as the smoke, to be honest.

Primitive? She does have radiators. Lots of homes in my area have coal heating still. We recently upgraded to LPG

Did you open the dampener? If that was closed it can cause those issues.

A set of brushes is about £20 on Amazon

I live and learn - and this is MN where no-one can cope with the idea of no mains gas...

PoisonousSmurf her radiators are heated by the wood burner. Without that functioning, they are decorative wall features.

Yes yes to opening the dampener. All the vents need to be open til it’s well caught.

Do you have a small portable electric fan heater ? If so, use it to warm up the chimney first .

Get in touch with environmental housing (or something similarly named) at your local council. Contact Shelter, or the CAB if you need support, and if you get no joy, ask your local councillor to intervene.

Specialsubject how is tgat helpful?

That must have been quite scary OP. Was the fire burning enough?

You can buy smoke test things cheaply enough. They burn with coloured smoke so you should be able to check.

It is also possible there was a downdraught and that can cause the smoke to come back.

Do a smoke test and if its blocked get back onto your HA although im flabbergasted they haent sent someone to check

I've been lighting this particular fire for twelve years and before moving here always had either an open fire or a wood burner. I checked throat plate, it has been somewhat perished for several years but HA won't replace it due to cost. There is nothing I did differently when lighting the fire. I looked online and one cause is that the sweep might have damaged the chimney liner but HA aren't sending anyone out to have a look. There is a newly installed carbon monoxide alarm, [installed by HA] which was not visible due to the amount of smoke but which made no sound. I am so annoyed at them.

There are many reasons why a wood burner would fill your house with smoke. It doesn’t mean that your chimney is faulty. It can be something as simple as the direction of the wind when you were lighting the fire.
And your home being uninhabitable😂 Don’t exaggerate.

You need to get back on the phone to the HA, speak to a manager, and insist they send someone. Threaten to go to your MP if they don't. If you have tried everything people have listed below and it's made no difference, then they need to fix it. Good luck!

I had made a 15 second video of the smoke coming from the fire and I've sent it to the HA via messenger and someone has now got back to me and is going to get on to repairs about the seriousness of what happened. They mentioned complaining too. Hopefully now it will get sorted out. I was feeling so peed off, thanks for your suggestions.

Do your neighbours have similar systems? Might be worth asking for some advice from them.
It sounds to me like the plate is closed, blocking off the chimney. Stick your arm up inside to see it you can feel an obstruction. There is usually a lever that opens the plate at the top of the stove. Any faults would have been picked up by the chimney sweep, and it is very likely he closed the plate after cleaning. Sweeps also smoke test chimneys after sweeping, so it must have been okay then, surely. You should either have, or be able to have sight of, the certificate that all sweeps now give out after cleaning a chimney. This certificate is to prove that the chimney and fire are safe to use. Your HA should also have a CO alarm fitted.
If you think you have cleared the obstruction, just light a little bit of paper in the stove to see if it's drawing. Go outside and have a look at the chimney to check for smoke,
I have lit a stove with the plate closed - it is very unpleasant. I'm sorry you have got a mess to clean up.

Billben the house stinks of acrid smoke, it wasn't just a blast of wind down the chimney sending a bit of smoke out of the burner, NO smoke went up the chimney and the entire house filled with smoke, bedrooms, bathroom, everywhere, not just the living room. I'm certain you wouldn't put your kids to bed in a house which it is difficult to breathe in.

We have that issue sometimes too. It’s usually linked with an issue iwth the difference of temperature (of the pipe form the chimney outside) so the smoke goes inwards towards the room rather than up.

What works for us is

• to open a door/window to create a draft in the house
• warm the wood burner (yes I know...) before using it.

I would try that first before assuming it’s an issue with the chimney.

Sorry Xpost
Good to know thatbthey are sending someone to have a look.
Hopefully you will get an answer (and will be able to heat your house again!)