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Your choice of new stove must have the minimal impact on the new home's air permeability (the air leakage rate per hour per cubic metre under pressure). It is essential therefore that your eventual stove choice features direct external air supply (DEAS) capability. Having this feature will ensure that the stove does not take its combustion air from the room (except briefly when the stove door is opened for refuelling) allowing you to avoid the required dedicated open air vent as specified in Document J. BS8303 now permits direct external air supply as a means of satisfying this Document J (and its regional equivalents) requirement. To further ensure the stove does not impact on the home's air permeability, it must also have a good, virtually 100%, air-tight door seal.
DIBt tested stoves are widely recognised as having the very best door seals and this makes them the essential choice for homes built to passive house or AECB Carbonlite standards. They are particularly recommended where the building has a mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) system. Many manufacturers of high quality stoves (eg Charnwood, Hwam and Morsø etc) would reasonably argue that the room seals on their stoves are just as good as those on DIBt tested stoves but that they simply haven't gone through the expensive German test. Generally speaking we would agree with this – regardless, during commissioning, a stove installed with DEAS and where the effects of any type of mechanical ventilation is likely to be present, must undergo a series of tests as prescribed in BS8303 to ensure that spillage of smoke and combustion gases (eg carbon monoxide) from the appliance is not possible – even under adverse mechanical extraction scenarios.
Without an air-tight room seal and an independent combustion air supply depressurisation from mechanical extraction could very easily compromise the safe and effective performance of the stove. Having a direct external air supply also means that the stove will be more effective because it doesn't consume any of the warm air in the room that it has created which in turn eliminates potential draughts from cold air being being drawn in from other parts of the house to replace it. The DEAS non-combustible ducting can either be connected to a rear inlet on the stove or to a concealed inlet underneath the stove base. Most manufacturers only offer a rear inlet (not suitable for stoves in the round) and some other manufacturers offer you a choice so this will need to be borne in mind when you make your final selection of stove.
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