Adequat ventilation for a wood burning stove?

[Katymac]

Apparently we need a hole 3 inches square in our lounge wall to feed air to out wood burning stove

Why?

Can we avoid it?

I hadn't heard that. We're getting a stove soon and no-one has told us this either. I can understand you need a vent with gas but I am surprised at needing it for wood. Surely that is what the flue is for?

I haven't heard of this either. We haven't got holes in the wall and we've two stoves.

Maybe it's a new building regulations thing?

I don't want a hole in my lounge

This website is quite good for explanations and how to do it guides for wood burners - we went and had a chat with them a fortnight ago:

www.sussexwoodstoves.co.uk/faq.htm

This is from their site:

Free-air supplies For these stoves there is currently no legal requirement under 5kW, but 550mm2 per kW over 5kW - over-window, under-floor, under-hearth, or through walls and impossible to close. All stoves need air-vents if rooms are hermetically sealed. We strongly suggest that you have a builder fit a sleeved air-brick whenever a stove is going to be installed.

DH has now removed our old firesurround (tasteful 1950s brown/cream tiles) and smashed out the fireplace, so the front room is full of rubble. Wood burner arrives next Saturday!

There seems to be no option but for there to be a hole 7 cmsq in my lounge wall

Just because there is no legal requirement for ventillation, doesn't mean that it's a good idea.

People die every year of CO poisoning, it's bad stuff. some of these are from installations that originally conformed to regulations but were later blocked. Thus putting the vent behind a bookcase runs both the risk that the free flow of air is poor, but also that you don't notice it getting blocked.

What you need is a CO detector:
CO Patches