What powers draft in a chimney?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Highbeam

Minister of Fire
Dec 28, 2006
20,902
Mt. Rainier Foothills, WA
In another thread I had proposed that as the room temp air is colder and colder, the draft would get stronger for a given chimney and outdoor temp.

Doubt was cast by Joful below:

What am I missing, here? Draft is a product of the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors . As that difference approaches zero, draft stops. In cases where it's cooler indoors than outside (your barn on a warm spring day ), draft reverses.

I'm not sure. I know that temperature differential does not drive draft since I have set up more than a few stoves in wall tents with success and draft despite equal temps indoor/outdoor.

I've also never had a flue reverse despite it often being warmer outside than inside.

I know that pressure is lower with altitude but why would that matter? since the air in the flue sees no difference from outdoor air at each end.

It just works, smoke goes up. Does it go up faster if the room air is colder?
 
I'm no scientist or engineer, but I do carry a gun at work... ;-) none of which qualifies me to answer the question.

But, from experience.

My house lives in the shade, it's often warmer outside then, inside.

I have a tall chimney connected to one of my stoves, the Jotul f602cb

When it's cold outside, this stove will draft so hard I have to often use a flu damper.
So I thought, hey, it will always draft right?

Well I quickly learned the hard way. One spring day, 68 outside, 60 inside, I wanted to take the chill off.

What happened next scared the hell out of the wife, the stove went into reverse draft and was pouring smoke into the house.

I don't really know the science of it all, I just know what it did..
 
  • Like
Reactions: jiminri
Draft is not the difference between the temperature of the room and the outside, its the difference in the temperature of the flue gases and the outside. If it where not, then we would never see the draft strengthen as the fire heats up. And outdoor fireplaces/chimineas just wouldnt work. Common sense

You can get back drafting down a cold flue because the inside of the flue is the temp of the inside of your room before you light the fire, but usually once you get the flue heated up and a fire established you the problem is eliminated.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: STIHLY DAN
The way I look at it is that draft is air flow. Air can only flow with a pressure difference. A pressure difference can exist without a fire if the pressure at the top of the stack is less than that at the bottom, which should typically be the case ("ambient draft"). Indoor/outdoor temps would affect that. But pressure differences can exist from a number of causes. Temperature differences are one. Typically, once you start a fire, the temperature differences take over any other factors, but you can still get negative pressures that cause backdraft issues when the temperature differential is not enough to overcome other causes.

Just my take.
 
Last edited:
Sprinter has it right... air pressure decreases as you go up in the air column and it's this differential that powers a chimney. That's the reason the height of the chimney is important. Temperature does come into play as the flue is heated. And obviously conditions (wind, negative pressure in the home, etc.) can overcome ambient pressure differential that drives the chimney.
 
Sprinter has it right... air pressure decreases as you go up in the air column and it's this differential that powers a chimney. That's the reason the height of the chimney is important. Temperature does come into play as the flue is heated. And obviously conditions (wind, negative pressure in the home, etc.) can overcome ambient pressure differential that drives the chimney.

Yes, and the pressure differentials are caused by temperature. The hot flue gasses are less dense and thus Lowe pressure than the surrounding air which gives it buoyancy.
 
Altitude causes a pressure differential regardless of temperature, like in a plane gaining altitude or as you dive underwater. How does that pressure differential drive a movement through the chimney though? Since each end of the flue is at equilibrium. If the differential pressure was enough to create the draft then we would see skirts in the air all the time since there would always be an updraft outside.
 
Density. Think about a hot air balloon. Yes, it's inextricably temperature related, but it's the difference in density (weight per unit volume) of the gases involved (flue gas & outside atmosphere) that matters.

Jump to section 4 of this wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney
 
http://woodheat.org/outside-chimney.html

Gulland is pretty much the expert on this stuff and uses the simple:
"A chimney is an essentially vertical structure enclosing a space full of air and/or exhaust gas. When it is operating, the contents of the chimney flue are warmer than the outdoor air. Because of its buoyancy, the warm air and/or exhaust gas rises, creating the desired upward flow in the chimney. The flow and the force that cause it are referred to as draft."
 
  • Like
Reactions: Woody Stover
As to answering the initial question:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/chimneys_an_unexact_science/
http://www.thefireworks.co.za/chimneys-aninexactscience

Bottom line - so many variables that statements like that are difficult to make!

As one example - take a non-cat EPA stove and hook it to a very short (10-12 ft) straight up insulated chimney. In my experience, it will work to beat the band.

Take the same stove and hook it up to a 28 ft tall masonry chimney which is outdoors - the customer will likely call and complain about slow starting and chimney reversal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ashful
I think what makes it a complicated topic is that, while temperature is the primary driver of pressure differential in chimneys, it sometimes gets overwhelmed by other forces caused by mechanical means (fans, etc), wind across the chimney, geographical (down in a valley), so you can get downdraft problems and insufficient draft even when you may have a fire going.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ashful
It is all too easy to take the easy way out and think about it when there is a fire. At that time the flue is full of hot gas, easy for most to understand it will rise.

Before the fire, when it matters, that's the hard part. Will the smoke be sucked up my this magical force called draft? or not? Will the draft be strong enough? Does room temperature matter? In what way?

Don't cheat and jump to a heated flue scenario. Like a campfire with no chimney the smoke will go up. We're trying to magically vacuum cold smoke up a pipe here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ashful
It is all too easy to take the easy way out and think about it when there is a fire. At that time the flue is full of hot gas, easy for most to understand it will rise.

Before the fire, when it matters, that's the hard part. Will the smoke be sucked up my this magical force called draft? or not? Will the draft be strong enough? Does room temperature matter? In what way?

Don't cheat and jump to a heated flue scenario. Like a campfire with no chimney the smoke will go up. We're trying to magically vacuum cold smoke up a pipe here.

The smoke is not cold.
 
It is all too easy to take the easy way out and think about it when there is a fire. At that time the flue is full of hot gas, easy for most to understand it will rise.

Before the fire, when it matters, that's the hard part. Will the smoke be sucked up my this magical force called draft? or not? Will the draft be strong enough? Does room temperature matter? In what way?

Don't cheat and jump to a heated flue scenario. Like a campfire with no chimney the smoke will go up. We're trying to magically vacuum cold smoke up a pipe here.

The smoke is not cold.

Heat rises. So the heat will try and find it's way higher. As Dave said above, the smoke is hotter than the surrounding air.

Here's another link to another explanation.......

http://www.csia.org/homeowner-resources/how_your_chimney_really_works.aspx
 
It is all too easy to take the easy way out and think about it when there is a fire. At that time the flue is full of hot gas, easy for most to understand it will rise.

Before the fire, when it matters, that's the hard part. Will the smoke be sucked up my this magical force called draft? or not? Will the draft be strong enough? Does room temperature matter? In what way?

Don't cheat and jump to a heated flue scenario. Like a campfire with no chimney the smoke will go up. We're trying to magically vacuum cold smoke up a pipe here.
I start a fire in a different stove, different chimney, and a different home a few dozen times a season. Only 2 times have I had trouble getting a good draft established. 1 was a high eff. ZC fireplace and 1 was an insert with a liner, both times it was MUCH warmer outside than inside. Like 75 outside.
New houses old houses, inside or outside doesn't seem to make a difference. Only the Temperature difference between the inside and outside seems to make a difference in my experience.
 
Heat rises. So the heat will try and find it's way higher. As Dave said above, the smoke is hotter than the surrounding air.

And if that was all there was to it, smoke would just come straight out of an open stove door, rather than trying to force itself up the tight constriction of a chimney. A good chimney SUCKS smoke, that's draft. As someone who has owned two naturally downdrafting houses, trust me, chimneys are way more complicated than hot air rising.

TE
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ashful
If it is 10* out side and 65* in my basement And the stove or furnace is cold, cold are is dumping into my basement. When I removed the oil boiler to heat exclusively with wood, I had to plug the brick chimney to stop freezing air from pouring into the basement. My chimneys are 30 ft, they always have a down draft until I light a fire, then they updraft like a train need a bdr to slow the draft down or it wood suck the fire out of the secondary's.
 
And if that was all there was to it, smoke would just come straight out of an open stove door, rather than trying to force itself up the tight constriction of a chimney. A good chimney SUCKS smoke, that's draft. As someone who has owned two naturally downdrafting houses, trust me, chimneys are way more complicated than hot air rising.

TE

Did you read the link that he posted?
 
Only the Temperature difference between the inside and outside seems to make a difference in my experience.

And if that was all there was to it, smoke would just come straight out of an open stove door, rather than trying to force itself up the tight constriction of a chimney. A good chimney SUCKS smoke, that's draft. As someone who has owned two naturally downdrafting houses, trust me, chimneys are way more complicated than hot air rising.

If it is 10* out side and 65* in my basement And the stove or furnace is cold, cold are is dumping into my basement.

Wow, I'm glad I am not alone. Seems there is no conclusion on what makes a cold (before using) chimney suck. Once the chimney is warm we almost never hear of it running backwards or not working.

I do believe it is pressure differential causing the chimney to suck. That differential can be caused by many things such as temperature or elevation.

We have strong experience based knowledge on what will work and that is going to have to be enough.

Thank you all for your thoughts. I've read a couple of the links and I'll read some more of them now but if anybody asks, I say it is magic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ashful
I think Mike's link covered it the best, natural air flow in your house with make up air coming in low and the warmer air rising and leaving in the upper part of your house (no fire I am talking about) tighter houses will have more of a problem with this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.