Neighbours Boiler Billowing Out Smoke Next To Kids Bedroom

[roses2]

My neighbour has their boiler flue outside my kids bedroom. When it's on it blows out a lot of smoke.

The window has an air vent and I have a carbon dioxide monitor.

Is this a dangerous position for her boiler?? What fumes are my children being exposed to?

It’s just steam isn’t it? Water vapour.

yeah its steam, they all do it

It’s steam.

It's not smoke, it's steam, which is basically the same as comes out of your kettle!

It isn’t smoke. It is just the steam from the air temperature changes. Like when you breathe out on a cold day and your breath comes out as vapour.

Yes, unless they are burning solid fuel then it’s steam. All boilers do it.

Thanks all! Reassuring to know it's not poisonous gas.

It's water vapour and that's what boilers give off.
Is it it not a carbon MONoxide detector you have?

It's a condensing boiler and it will be condensate.

It’s steam. Lol

You can read about boiler flues here: https://www.boilerguide.co.uk/boilers/flues/regulations

Under the boiler flue position regulations, the flue has to be positioned a certain distance from any parts of the home that can be opened up such as windows and doors. How far this is will depend on the size of your boiler but is typically between 30-60cm above, below or to the side of an opening.
These measures help to prevent harmful gases from entering the home, after all a boiler flue is there to make sure that they don't go into the home in the first place.

I agree it's steam. I would be inclined to have a CO detector in her room, my boiler would vent outwards if CO leak, it would easily dissipate into the atmosphere so really unlikely to go into her room, but my rule of thumb is better safe than sorry

As others have said it is just steam but I remember freaking out when I got my new condensing boiler thinking it was something wrong.

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but it's steam not smoke.

😉

It is (mostly) water vapor and CO2.

There will be trace amounts of other more unpleasant gases mixed in like NOx and CO depending on how well serviced the boiler is. Some emit more than others.

There are rules about how close flues can be to your boundary and how they can vent. Not surprsingly you neighbours are not allowed to vent nasty gases into your property. You should look up on the net. The allowed distance of the flue from the boundary varies I think depending on whether it faces the boundary (longer) or is parallel to it (shorter).

Edit : And it is unlikely you have a CO2 monitor, more likely a CO monitor.

The distant of a flue from an ( opening) window used to be 300mm , not sure if it’s changed. Don’t think there is any distance from boundaries as I’ve seen them on boundary walls. If they are low down or discharging onto a neighbouring property then a plume kit can be fitted to add some height and Angle it away .

Just because you've seen them on boundary walls doesn't mean they necessarily comply with regulations.

My belief is that you are not allowed to vent on a boundary wall, and you would have to install a vertical flue and vent inside your own boundary, even if it is a relatively small distance away (happy to be corrected though).

It makes obvious sense (to me anyway) that you aren't allowed to pump noxious gases directly into your neighbours property.

It this case it is hard to see where the flue is, how it is positioned wrt to the boundary and windows etc so needs more detail and an expert to look at it to see whether it is compliant as a pp suggested. IMO anyway. The expert can also advise on the most appropriate course of action if it is non compliant.

Thanks all, I will ask my plumber when he next services my boiler.

I worry because it is right outside my kids bedroom.

As others have said, it's not really 'smoke'. The flue gas from a well maintained gas boiler shouldn't contain much of concern. It's visible because of the water vapour content, and you see it more with a condensing boiler because it cools the flue gas to the point where it at least approaches the point where it condenses from dry steam (invisible) into 'wet' vapour/mist (visible). It's also more visible in cold conditions, like we've had this week.

The main substance in the gas from the flue will be nitrogen. This makes up 79% of the air around us and still 79% of the flue gas, as it plays no role in combustion so passes through the boiler unaffected.

The next biggest component will be carbon dioxide at about 8-11%. This is present in the air anyway, but in much lower concentrations. It isn't particularly scary stuff - you produce it in your body and breathe it out. Don't confuse carbon dioxide with carbon monoxide, which is very different and is what your detector will be looking for. A well adjusted gas boiler shouldn't produce any significant amount of carbon monoxide. Even if the neighbours' boiler did produce some, it would quickly disperse outdoors.

The other gas coming out of the flue in significant quantities will be oxygen. This is obviously a good thing. We need it to live, and extract it from the air using out lungs. Air is normally about 21% oxygen. The boiler uses most of it to burn the gas, but there will still be about 2-6% oxygen in the gas coming out of the flue.

I can't personally see anything to worry about in the photo you posted. The plume from the boiler looks to be coming from a point that's not all that close to your window. At a guess I'd say it's at least a metre or so away, judging by where the boundary of the side return extensions sits.

By all means get someone to take a look and reassure you when you next have your own boiler serviced, but I'm sure you're just being understandably but unnecessarily cautious here.

It's not 'just' steam at all, go and stand near one and you can quite obviously smell combustion fumes coming from it as well.

Smoke haha sorry I did laugh

Aren't you a delight.

Remember that your windows will likely be closed on cold days when the boiler is most active. Hope that thought helps your anxiety a little.

I think they could just extend the pipe a little and put a bendy bit on the end to change the direction of the plume. It wouldn’t be expensive