Asthma

My sister and brother in law, have a vent free gas fireplace in there family room down stairs. My 8 year old nephew is having alot of problems with Asthma. I am wondering if the fireplace could be contributing to his health problems. My question is since I know nothing about gas fireplaces, since it is ventless,where does the products of combustion go, It has to be offf gasing in your home. For example a gas furnace has to have a fresh air supply, as well as an exhaust outlet, to get rid of the products of combustion, so how does a vent free fireplace do this safely.

There's a post on here now : Ventless or Vented... I think that will answer your question.

Okay I belong to the pellet side of town, so I missed it, let me go through and see if I can find it.

Sorry , I believe it was in the gas side of town

basically, in a vent free... for each gallon of propane burned... there will be 0.8 gal of water and 0.6 gal of CO2.. that is with a properly operated burner

Try a Hepa filter in his bedroom. That is what I have and it works for my allergies/asthma from pollen and dust.

I would look somewhere other than the gas log for asthma irritants.... My wife is an asthmatic.... we live in a 150 year old home with a smoke dragon for heat.... since we removed the monitors and went (back) to wood.... her breathing has improved immensely. We have a Sharper Image HEPA machine going 24/7... and an Ionic Breeze... also going 24/7...

with the direct vented monitors... my wife was on her inhaler constantly.... once we went back to wood... with a simple 4 quart pot full of water on top.. she's down to once a week... maybe...

Thanks everyone, I will tell my sister to put a hepa filter in his bedroom, and just as an experiment, turn off the gas fireplace for 2 weeks, and see if there is any improvement. I know he is my nephew but he is the best little guy, and it kills me to see him go through this.

Try the hepa filter and turning off the fireplace separately; otherwise if it gets better you'll never know what did it.

Theoretically ventless devices produce only water vapor and CO2... but that's if they're burning clean dust free air. In the real world, they're burning (and exausting the smoke from) dust and any other pollutants that may be in the air.

This. You have to be super concious about cleaners, etc that you use. Aeresols are a big no-no for instance.