Peter Healy, 35-year veteran of the fireplace industry and former Secretary of the National Fireplace Association has a close look at the Chimella, an innovative new way of stopping the vast amount of heat which escapes up the chimneys of domestic dwellings.
“It has long been pointed out by the energy aware that the some of the lowest costs methods of keeping heat in your house give the best paybacks. Things like draught-proofing windows and insulation jackets on cylinders can often have paybacks as short as one year. And so it is with the clever, patented Chimella which has been developed by Simon Wild.
Simon, who lives in North East London, had been commenting to his family on how cold their living room was in winter because of its feature open fireplace and chimney. Just at that point Simon’s daughter asked the old riddle, what goes up a chimney down but not down a chimney up? before giving the answer, an umbrella. This got Simon thinking and the result, after 3 years of hard work and development, is the Chimella.
“It is one of the cleverest designs I’ve seen over my life around fireplaces and definitely scores over the opposition.”
Of course, Chimella isn’t the first device to be launched which effectively blocks an unused chimney and stops heat escaping that way. But where the product is unique is in its adaption to chimneys of many different sizes. Based on an inverted umbrella design, at the touch of a button, Chimella opens to fill the chimney cavity and stop most of the expensive room heat from escaping. It just leaves enough to maintain ventilation in the chimney and avoid any damaging condensation forming.
Other devices aimed at stopping heat escaping up the flue tend to deposit all the grit, twigs & muck that most chimneys create, directly in to the fireplace and often straight on to the customer’s pristine carpet. Not so with Chimella! Because it is an inverted umbrella, it catches all the rubbish allowing the homeowner to deposit this safely outside or in a rubbish bin.
It is one of the cleverest designs I’ve seen over my life around fireplaces and definitely scores over the opposition. It has safety features – a handle that reminds you it’s in place up the chimney plus a canopy that burns away harmlessly should the worst happen and Chimella be left up the chimney when the fire is lit. Just as important Chimella is affordable meaning you can install one in each of the multiple chimneys often found in older homes built before World War II. Then you’ll be making multiple savings, each one likely to pay for the Chimella within one year of use! Surely it’s a no-brainer!”
