Fireplace in Bus

[rip]

Since we are remodeling,my wife wants to put in a fireplace.My wife found a ventless gel fireplace which I know very little about.Has anyone heard of these being used in a bus,or has anyone have one in their bus and what type?
   Don

[cody]

Forgive me but that brought back a memory of a postcard I saw once of santa running as fast as he could to catch up to a coach that had a chimney on christmas lol.

[belfert]

Ventless will mean stink in the coach and condensation.

I have a vented natural gas fireplace in my stick home and it smells when I run it.  I rarely use in part because of that.  No CO as I have CO detector 5 feet away.

[cody]

We're using a ventless LP heater in our bus and we don't notice any smell or condenstion, doesn't seem to bother the detectors either.

[Lin]

Not to say that they do not have a place, but any ventless combustion can be dangerous.  I do not know what fuel this gel heater uses, but ventless heaters usually depend on a perfectly efficient, complete burn to make sure they are only producing carbon dioxide instead of carbon monoxide; the former can merely suffocate you, the later will poison you (As an aside, everyone should have a carbon monoxide sensor since CO from even a neighbors RV can get to you even if you are all electric).  There are lots of ventless heaters that are made for RV's.  These are generally flame-less and combust the propane in a catalytic mat that theoretically reduces the CO to an insignificant minimum.  Even then, there must be an cracked window as a fresh air source since the heater is still burning off oxygen and producing CO2 in a pretty confined area.  Although your plants could really love this during the daylight, you might not.  

You will also find ventless heaters that produce a blue flame.  They are legal in most states, but I doubt that even many of the manufactures would tell you to use them in an RV.  They will have an oxygen sensor to shut them down if the O2 falls below a certain level (high altitude could cause this too).  The blue flame is indicative of a more complete burn and should be producing minimal CO.  Any heater that has a yellow flame is giving off CO.  The joy of a fire place is its dancing yellow flames.  

I had a ventless fireplace in a house once.  For the most part it produced a blue flame that caused its "logs to glow reddish.  It was not a bad effect, but not really like a real fireplace.  However even this one did have some yellow tipped flames for atmosphere.  The house had a reasonable amount of air infiltration, and we never turned this heater up full and left it unattended.  One night that my daughter and son-in-law were staying with us, I was awaken by our German Shepherd who was in quite a panic.  It turned out that my son-in-law had cranked that heater up an went to sleep.  The CO alarm was singing, but we did not hear it in our sleep at the other end of the house.  The living room was quite toasty warm and quite toxic.  Since my daughter and her husband were in the room next to it, I think that we can thank the dog nothing serious happened.

Anyway, the point is even with a heater that in theory was designed to be ventless that had an O2 sensor, we had a potentially fatal situation.   Do a lot of research on this and be extra careful.  Have you seen those fireplace videos?

[belfert]

We're using a ventless LP heater in our bus and we don't notice any smell or condenstion, doesn't seem to bother the detectors either.

My fireplace is probably different than a heater since my fireplace intentionally has some yellow flame to mimic a real fireplace.

[cody]

Lin and Belfert are correct in being careful and making sure that the heater or fireplace your intending to use is the correct one for the application, our ventless LP heater not only has a oxygen sensor that shuts it down, it's designed to be used in this setting, we also have both smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors at each end of the bus and one is right by the unit, we also keep a vent cracked for the required flow of fresh air.  It seems every year we hear of people being killed by carbon monoxide poisoning and I even had a good friend back in high school die in a parked car, the bus next door to you can also poison you as was mentioned.  Being careful can prolong your busnut future by quite a bit lol.

[robertglines1]

have 2 ventless fireplaces in our home 40,000 btu for 12 years now heating 2600sq ft..have detectors with memory never a problem..tried a 30,000 in bus(ventless wall unit) while we were converting and it did put out a lot of moisture..have elect heat in bus now..I sure that it should have had more ventilation and prob would not have created as much moisture..

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Don, and others


Many use them... Many do not.. If you can, use a vented model.... or a Realistic Fireplace! the ones that look real...Lol

The ventless heaters eat up alot of oxygen in a 200 sq ft bus conversion.

Yes, they have oxygen depletion sensors but, will you bet your life on a 12 dollar sensor?  NOT ME!

I have replaced many OX sensors in gas fireplaces in homes just by mearly finding them bad on our yearly tune-ups.

[Put them in a coffee cup w/lid and light a match in it]  Real simple to test... Ohm them out!

Good Luck
Nick-

[Lin]

Just to add something else, if the heater is not getting enough oxygen due to a shortage of ventilation, it will produce carbon monoxide.  An RV is a rather small space to gamble with your air in.  Ask the manufacturer of the heater if they recommend it for RV use.  My guess is that most would not, and all they could lose is money.

[BUR]

   We have a Amish electric fireplace in our bus. Puts out a fair amount of heat and a realistic fire look. Just another option that you might consider.     BUR

[BG6]

I have a vented natural gas fireplace in my stick home and it smells when I run it. 

You need to get a professional to check that out BEFORE YOU USE IT AGAIN!!!  There should be no smell from a natural gas appliance.

Your CO detector may not be working.

[bobofthenorth]

There's a smokestack sticking out the roof of the fifth wheel parked next to us.  Based on the lunatic advice he was giving me as I was setting up yesterday I'm thinking maybe his brain is already CO damaged.

I hauled enough wood into the house when we had a wood stove to cure me from ever wanting to do that again.  Its not the CO I'd be worried about - its dragging wood in, having bark, dirt and beetles fall off on the floor and then lugging the ashes back out.  That's what outdoor firepits are for, IMHO.  But everyone should do it their own way.

[akroyaleagle]

I too have seen several buses with fireplaces, catalytic heaters or pellet stoves in them.

I wouldn't do any of them for the reasons already explained.

Most of the big box stores have all electric fireplaces in them with fans. We have two of them in our home. They put out considerable heat, are remote controlled and look real. I plumbed our home for two natural gas fireplaces, bought them new and they are still out in one of the storage trailers. The electric simulators are portable and come in several sizes. You could put one in a nice cabinet that you could remove when not needed and satisfy the significant other.

Joe

[Busted Knuckle]

   We have a Amish electric fireplace in our bus. Puts out a fair amount of heat and a realistic fire look. Just another option that you might consider.     BUR

My mom just bought one of these fer the living room of the house! It's pretty cool too!
Produces safe electric heat and even looks like a fireplace!
I was going to suggest it but BUR beat me too it!
 BK