Having the boiler or stove that discharges the fumes on the wall...

Do you remember when we were little... in kindergarten or elementary school? If they asked us to make a drawing of our house... with more or less inspiration, with more or less mastery... the result was this:

Observe how a child draws the possible release of fumes from a house: through a chimney on the roof!

If, on the other hand, you go for a walk through the streets of your city... I'm sure you will happen to observe more than a few images like these:

How come? Why as children we have no doubts that a boiler or stove should be able to evacuate the fumes above the roof of the house and instead as "adults" we allow ourselves the luxury of circumventing this simple rule?

Do you want to know why? Because there are rules and laws that in some particular cases (in Italy and beyond!) don’t prohibit the wall discharge of combustion fumes! In reality these particular cases are very few:

• In case of replacement of a boiler installed before 2013 already equipped with a wall discharge
• When the building is bound by the “Superintendency” and the intervention for the construction of a vertical chimney is incompatible with the protection constraints
• When the designer signs a certificate for the technical impossibility of making a vertical chimney

Do you want to know what happens in Italy in the face of this "small legislative opportunity"? In most cases this happens:

• A boiler prior to 2013 is replaced with a new one (obviously condensing... because energy saving is more important than our health!) which discharges fumes on the wall because it is too expensive to pipe a nearby chimney or create a new vertical discharge system!
• You buy a gas stove and quietly adopt the wall discharge because the dealer, in order to sell, also provides us with the name of the designer willing to sign the technical impossibility of making a vertical chimney!

But it doesn't stop there!

In the rare cases in which it is "impossible" to use the smoke outlet above the roof of the house, the wall outlet terminal must be positioned in compliance with some fundamental rules (UNI 7129: 2015 standard):

• At a minimum distance from balconies
• At a minimum distance from windows
• At a minimum distance from any ventilation grilles
• At a minimum distance from any other wall exhaust terminal
• At a minimum distance from the ground or walking surface
• At a minimum distance from the edges and recesses of the building
• At a minimum distance from the eaves overhang
• At a minimum distance from other horizontal or vertical pipes (gutters, gas pipes, antenna cables, air conditioners, etc...)

In short... it becomes really difficult to be able to position a wall discharge in compliance with all the minimum distances indicated above. Yet... the images I have proposed in this article are not so rare images to observe, in spite of all the minimum distances required by the regulations.

I would like to appeal to everyone ... but exactly to everyone:

1. mere mortals who are thinking of replacing the boiler
2. designer
3. installers

The combustion fumes are toxic and also very aggressive (even those from condensing boilers!). Thinking that you can use the wall discharge without consequences is an illusion. Thinking that the fumes still rise upwards, without harming ourselves or others, is a utopia.

Let's try to be guided by common sense… and let's remember how we drawed a house as children!

To those who are still convinced not to do much harm by adopting a wall discharge (including the legislator and those who make the rules!), Well... I just have to dedicate the following video. Have fun and... you might change your mind.

Please note. Source of some images: web