chris68
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| posted on 20/1/15 at 08:13 PM |
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Wood Burning Stoves
Does anyone have any experience with the above? We were thinking of getting one but wanted to get peoples views. Anything to avoid, makes to go for
etc.
For the record we live in a 50's bungalow with a chimney so that should help. We would only look at it as a supplimentary heat source as we
have gas central heating and really only want it to heat the living room and adjoining dining room approx. 25 Sq metres.
Any ideas?
Thanks
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kingster996
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| posted on 20/1/15 at 08:28 PM |
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I love mine to bits!
Bungalow similar size room, 5kw burner heats the entire house!
Can't for the life of me remember the name of ours - but will try and find out, because it is a little beauty (and way better/hotter than a
bigger one we had on a cottage holiday)
I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 20/1/15 at 08:36 PM |
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We have a Clearview - not the cheapest, but they live up to their name - if you burn decent wood then the large glass window stays clear, just needing
a wipe with a damp cloth every week or two. TBH, most of the brand names are pretty good, but avoid the cheap-and-nasties from places like Machine
Mart.
Here's a good place to browse - lots of good technical info as well: http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/
(But they don't sell Clearview!)
We light ours in the evening and a little while later the central heating goes off. Once the living room is good and toasty we open the door into the
hall and let the warm air go through the house. The upstairs gets just right by bedtime. This is jonly a 4 or 5KW stove.
[Edited on 20/1/15 by David Jenkins]
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JoelP
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| posted on 20/1/15 at 08:37 PM |
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There was a thread the other day, worth perusing to get basics.
I'm in the process of getting 2 fitted in a refurb project. My pal intends to use them for his hetas inspection!
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iant88
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| posted on 20/1/15 at 09:00 PM |
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I have a Morso Squirrel - excellent piece of kit.
Had it installed now for 15+ years and only replaced a riddlling grate (which warped from using pet-coke!!) and a door-glass (impact damage !!) once
each
It's multi-fuel and we run it mostly on wood but we have run it on coal and on coal we can keep it on permanently for days with a bit of
tweaking.
It's 5KW and heats an open-plan kitchen/dininmg room and will switch off the CH after about an hour.
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ianhurley20
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| posted on 20/1/15 at 10:06 PM |
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We've got an Esse 301 which is an inset stove with a big window and airwash to keep it clear if you need that type. Multi fuel and works very
well providing whole house heating when its running. if we want heat just for an evening we use wood but if its for a longer time we use smokeless
fuel as it will keep in for ages easily. very good bit of kit indeed
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mark chandler
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| posted on 20/1/15 at 10:14 PM |
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Stovax studio 1 here, brilliant bit of kit, the air wash keeps the glass really clean, although rated at 5kw it must be putting out more than that on
old pallets as we have every inside door open and it warms the whole house when stoked up.
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 09:20 AM |
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As said above - a 5KW stove can heat an average house, given the chance! I you're really only wanting to heat the living room & dining room
you can go a lot smaller. I'd recommend going for one with airwash (air is drawn across the glass to help keep it clean) or even one without a
glass door - there's plenty of those, and they give out their heat through the body of the stove (lots of heat!). Again, that link I put up
earlier has all the info you'll need.
Budget for getting your chimney sorted out (a liner is a minimum) as there was a news item here in the east recently about the fire service being
called out to more and more chimney fires because of the rise in popularity of wood stoves. A liner also makes it easier to keep clean (getting it
swept regularly is another fire prevention task).
Finally, consider where you're going to get your wood (well-dried hardwood) and where you're going to keep it so that it stays dry.
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mk85
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 09:33 AM |
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There great if you have a free supply of untreated timber mine burns all the time hardly goes out. It heats the whole place and cost nothing which is
great.
I make hand carved firesurounds and surprising how many get fitted and fired up once or twice a year. This is just over 9ft wide recently went to
clean the job its been in 4 years now and only fired up once
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ed1801
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 09:37 AM |
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I have an Ekol Crystal 5kW. The 'stovefittersmanual' is a great site giving you all the info you need.
Mine has a 5" liner and it was easy to put this down my 70's chimney pot lined chimney.
Our 110sqm bungalow is heated by gas + gas hot water and we use ~£100 of gas per month in Dec/Jan. With the log burner going we use about 40-50,
which is heating in the morning before we go to work and a hot water tank morning and evening.
However, i reckon we use at least that in wood, probably 60-70£ per month with it on every evening and all day at weekends.
Here a big builders bag of oak costs about £60. Two wheelie bins of mixed hardwood costs about 30 quid, but it burns a lot quicker than the oak.
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 12:41 PM |
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We also reduced our gas bill for central heating, but spent roughly the same in wood. However, the heat is all in the right place and at the right
time - very cosy in the living room without heating the rest of the house unnecessarily.
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jps
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 01:11 PM |
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I'm just about to get a Hunter 14b boiler stove - 15kw with about 2/3rds output to the boiler. It'll be linked into a heating system which
is also driven by a combi boiler - so requires some sort of complex heat exchanger to allow the two to interact (wood stove goes on a vented system,
combi-boiler goes on a sealed system...)...
Despite doing this as part of a new build (well - a massive extension to the house) we had some problems - the wood stove boiler feed needed to rise
constantly to a heat soak radiator before going into the heat exchanger. Which is a bit difficult in a bungalow... We will end up with a radiator in
the loft, but at least the heat will go somewhere if the electricity cuts out...
The cost of the wood burner is not insignificant, I am guessing it'll be somewhere around £5/6k once the heat exchanger, fire, hearth, chimney
etc are all factored in.
We have an endless supply of free wood though - if we didn't I would not have considered it worth the investment (or the bother - they are
relatively high maintainence devices compared to sitting on your backside and enjoying effortless gas fired central heating!)...
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Irony
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 01:36 PM |
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I have a large 7KW job in a 3 bed bungalow. The make is unknown as it was fitted by a previous owner. Ours is on all day everyday and we only burn
hardwood from a local supplier. Costs us £55 per builders bag and a bag lasts a month and a half. Coal is cheap cheap at the moment costing £7 for
25KG of mixed ovoids.
Buy a multifuel version - it will pay for itself in the end. Also don't be convinced by people saying 'I am a chippy and I can just get
wood free'. Unless people can get hold of hardwood offcuts then its not worth entering it in your cost saving calculations for anything else
than kindling. I have access to 7 full time carpenters and virtually unlimited softwood offcuts. It burns though softwood far to fast to be a viable
solution. A full days use would probably use nearly a dustbin full. I would have to fill the car boot every two days or so!
[Edited on 21/1/15 by Irony]
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jps
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 01:49 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Irony
A full days use would probably use nearly a dustbin full.[Edited on 21/1/15 by Irony]
This is a fairly accurate estimation I would say - currently living at my in-laws (who are part of the free wood supply we enjoy) and they use an
Aga-like range for all heating and hot water. I am currently getting through somewhere between half to 1 wheelie bin full of wood every day.
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coozer
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 01:55 PM |
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I have 5kw Stovax Huntigdon multifuel stove. Best thing we have ever done!
We use it instead of the gas central heating, it keeps the living room, dining room kitchen and bathroom warm, and the bedrooms upstairs.
I just poick pallets up on my way round the doors and cut them up, if they are Euro pallets I sell them andcuse the money to buy smokeless fuel
(smokeless zone here)
Its slashed our gas bill right down, Decembers dual bill for gas and electric was £78.
Do it!
1972 V8 Jago
1980 Z750
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dhutch
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 07:12 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by iant88
I have a Morso Squirrel - excellent piece of kit.
Never used one in a house, or with wood, but they are common as muck on Narrowboats, almost
the de factor standard and I have never had an issue with ours.
Daniel
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chris68
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 07:51 PM |
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Thats all useful stuff - thanks. I think our only issue is getting decent wood to burn, unless we go the multi-fuel route.
Generally seems that Ash, Oak are the best with Apple and Pear not far behind.
Will check out the various brands mentioned and do the usual cost/quality checks.
Top stuff guys!
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 21/1/15 at 09:03 PM |
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Some woods are better than others - but they all burn if they're dry enough! When I get a load there's usually a lot of beech and other
similar stuff. Just don't use softwood, as it burns too fast and tars up your chimney.
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coozer
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| posted on 22/1/15 at 02:45 PM |
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Forgot to say this: it also reduces your electric by using a kettle on the stove
1972 V8 Jago
1980 Z750
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gregs
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| posted on 26/1/15 at 08:02 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by chris68
Thats all useful stuff - thanks. I think our only issue is getting decent wood to burn, unless we go the multi-fuel route.
Generally seems that Ash, Oak are the best with Apple and Pear not far behind.
Will check out the various brands mentioned and do the usual cost/quality checks.
Top stuff guys!
Don't get too hept up about wood types - the main thing is to make sure you've got plenty of space to store and dry it, ideally for a
couple of years. Some folks wouldn't give certain woods a second look (Poplar, Leylandi) but they burn great if dry - also worth considering
that the dryer it is the less it will clag up your chimney... always a bit of a trust excercise buying 'seasoned' logs - some will claim
'seasoned' if the the tree was cut down and left in a field 3 months ago - imho properly seasoned needs to have been stored vented as logs
in the dry for at least 1 year.
Hope this helps.
GS
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 26/1/15 at 09:53 PM |
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I bought a super-cheap moisture meter off ebay - it's easy to tell if the wood is well dried, just by turning it on and jabbing the spikes in.
I normally just do it a couple of times on the outside, but very occasionally I split a log and check inside.
Finding a decent supplier is often a challenge though - best if you can get one via recommendation. I was very lucky!
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Angel Acevedo
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| posted on 27/1/15 at 03:02 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Forgot to say this: it also reduces your electric by using a kettle on the stove
Hi Coozer...
Our family just discovered the pleasures of drinking tea, but don´t have a dedicated Tea Kettle.
I normally use the microwave as I think is cheaper than using gas.
I haven´t seen tea kettles like the ones I´ve seen in brittish TV programs.
Weather in this part of Mexico PROHIBITS the use of a wood fired stove.
What do you reckon is the cheapest way to go?
Coffee Maker used to heat water?
Microwave?
Butane/Propane Stove?
Order Tea Kettle from e-bay or other?
Thanks and sorry for thread hijack
Angel Acevedo
Beware of what you wish.. for it may come true....
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coozer
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| posted on 27/1/15 at 05:06 PM |
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Dunno mate, I don't like tea, just coffee.
All depends how much your electric is and what the gas price is like, mains, bottles??
For me quickest way to boil water is a 3kw rapid boil that will do one cup.
We have a kettle on the stove constantly and when we want a cuppa we just tip the hot water from the stove kettle into the electric one.
1972 V8 Jago
1980 Z750
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Andi
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| posted on 27/1/15 at 06:48 PM |
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The council sell logs over here for £10 a trailer load. They do need seasoning for a year or so Get in touch with your local parks dept.
Oh, and buy a hydraulic log splitter (machine mart have them) They are worth their weight in gold.
Andi
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Sierra
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| posted on 28/1/15 at 11:07 AM |
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I've just had a 9kw yeoman double sided stove fitted and I'm not overly impressed with the heat, maybe I was expecting too much.
It's placed in a central chimney breast between front room and dining room, which is then onto an open stair case. I originally had 2 gas fires
which I ripped out and knock through the centre wall so you can see through to the next room. Dining room and front room are both 3.5m x 4.5m and wall
height of 2.2m.
When looking at the guide lines it said a 5kw would suit our size rooms but it's very difficult to get a double sided with low output, also the
house is very old, not insulated and is open to the kitchen and upstairs.
I went and bought 6 bags of wood for £30 and was told it was hard wood, it burns fairly quickly and doesn't produce the blistering heat others
talk about.
[Edited on 28/1/15 by Sierra]
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