
So, in the search to find a way to stabilize the chimney draft, barometric dampers came into existence. Your chimney draft varies tremendously and it can turn out to be extremely dangerous if it raises or decreases a little. On the flip side of the case, a very little draft is also dangerous and can result in the production of carbon monoxide in the worst cases. Along with that, an excessive draft is dangerous and can raise the temperature of your chimney above normal. To put all of the miscellaneous stuff we’ve talked about into place, let’s discuss why a barometric damper is important and why you should use it?Īs we know by now that a barometric damper is used to control the draft in your boiler, so you may ask, why do I need to control the draft? When there is too much draft inside your boiler, it drastically decreases the efficiency of your fireplace which in turn increases the cost of using it. A barometric damper is also very helpful in times of fire and opens up which allows the fire to be contained before anything bad happens. As time goes by, the pressure gets built up in the ducts of your chimney, and the barometric damper releases that pressure. As we’ve discussed above, it regulates the chimney draft. This is when a barometric damper comes into play.Ī barometric damper is one of the mechanisms inside your chimney. And your chimney carries a certain mechanism to help provide enough ventilation. If there is no proper ventilation, it can turn out to be a great risk for the user.

In an extremely cold winter, nothing could be worse than a damaged fireplace.Ī fireplace is mainly needed to heat up a room and as heat rises, you will need a chimney for the purpose of ventilation. What is a barometric damper?Ī fireplace is one of the most important things that keep you from freezing and turning into a big stone of ice (we’ll that’s a joke). It basically controls the push of air from the boiler into the stack. We’ve got a simple answer for what a draft regulator or barometric damper does. This act of warm air from the boiler being pushed into the stack by the cold air is the draft. While the pushing around is going on, the warm air is pushed into the stack by the cold air. As the hot air is not as dense as the cold air, it gets a great advantage and pushes the less dense or warm air around the place. You might know that the hot air inside your chimney is produced from the boiler and the cold air is present in the boiler room or outside the boiler. Let’s apply the same thing to the chimney and the boiler inside.

This is one of the reasons hot air balloons rise above the ground. Hot air is a lot less dense compared to cold air and it also weighs lesser than the latter. We’ve discussed earlier that a barometric damper helps control the draft in your boiler, well, what is a draft?

3 What is a barometric damper used for?.
