Anti-downdraught cowl recommendation needed, please

[Tom]

Damn the wind!!! Went to light the stove this morning and the wind is blowing so hard it blew every bit of smoke down the chimney and straight into the living room!! Good job we're not living in there!! :shock: The whole scenario got worse and worse until the fire was hot enough to drive the smoke back up. I had to open all the windows and now I stink!! :roll: Thank goodness we have heat alarms downstairs, otherwise the whole system would've gone off.

So, I guess I'm going to have to buy an anti-downdraught cowl since wind like this is part of life around here. Can anyone recommend a cheap but good one, just to see us through to next year?

Oh yes, another thing. While I was trying to get the fire going, at one stage (while I ran round opening all the windows!!), I had the doors and all the vents closed but there was still smoke pouring out of the stove, from all around. It was difficult to tell from where exactly. Can this be right?

Thanks
Jaqy

 

[Gervase]

You might have something bunging up the chimney - crows and jackdaws are beggars for dropping stuff down the chimney.
A cheep and cheerful solution is an 'H' shaped top for the chimney, but there are more sophisticated cowls available, Have a look here or here for some examples. The rotating ones are very efficient, but they are expensive and prone to clogging if you burn a lot of tarry, unseasoned wood.

 

[Nemesis]

It may be that as you haven't actually got the chimney rebuilt, the lining pipes are not high enough clearing the ridge, and it was VERY windy last night too.

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/inform-chimneys.pdf

Also - even with vents closed, in order for the stove to stay alight there must be some air intake, it's not totally sealed? So air can get in and in the event of a bad wind day, smoke get out.

Chimney heights also are a bit of a black art to get right.

 

[Lime]

One thing for sure, if there is anything near that is higher than the chimney you will get downdraughts when the wind is blowing from that direction.
That's why chimneys are built higher than anything else.

 

[Nemesis]

They are considerbly lower than the ridge:

http://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9870

 

[skier-hughes]

The fire in Jo's office can be a nightmare to get going when very cold/windy, so I now use a quick blast of the gas weed burner, which was useless at burning weeds but ideal for getting the air moving up the chimney rather than down!!!!!!