Wood Burning Stove

[chris@panteg]

Guy's i was wondering if any of you has had one installed 'recently or at any time.

You see my dear Wifey ' really really wants one ' and well its a nice idea to me too , but what the cost will be i have no idea ' i realize with an old house like mine (1894) there could be issue's with the chimney .

The other thing is ' she won't allow me to have that Jelco arm for my techie , if at least i don't find out if its feasible and affordable .

So any input would be great ' and i am going to trawl the web for any info:)

[jonners]

These are very good, though not the cheapest: http://www.clearviewstoves.com/
I don't have one myself, but a friend does and I recently stayed in a cottage that has one.

[REM]

Chris, an old Victorian dwelling simply wont have enough back draft generating pressure to allow for the correct flue throughput required for a modern wood burner, or any form of enclosed burner, without a complete rebuild of the entire chimney stack.

That is complete bollocks but if it made any kind of sense to you then your good lady isn't going to question it too closely, is she? Just remember to keep a straight face when you say it and it's bingo, Jelco time.

Good luck.

[chris@panteg]

Thanks for the link John ' some nice one's there will show it to caren '

[chris@panteg]

Chris, an old Victorian dwelling simply wont have enough back draft generating pressure to allow for the correct flue throughput required for a modern wood burner, or any form of enclosed burner, without a complete rebuild of the entire chimney stack.

That is complete bollocks but if it made any kind of sense to you then your good lady isn't going to question it too closely, is she? Just remember to keep a straight face when you say it and it's bingo, Jelco time.

Good luck.


:lol::lol::lol: Nice one Ralph ' you know you must meet my Caren ' and you will quickly realize why that won't work ;) ' she will eat you alive ;)

[The Grand Wazoo]

Chris,

Wood burning stoves – good question! I have quite a bit of experience with these – we have two in our house on t'other side of the country, both of which we installed a few years ago after ripping an old one out. We also lived in a house in Scotland where there was one already installed. I also used to sell firewood - in small quantities, & buy it in huge quantities – 10's of thousands of tonnes per year (not as part of the same business model you understand!!)

First of all, the most obvious questions are:

Do you have access to a reliable source of fuel?

Do you have space to store it?

Do you intend to heat the whole house with it, or just a single room?

Those three questions are inextricably linked. You need dry hardwood, ideally. When wood is 'green' it's generally at about 50-55% moisture content. At 63% it takes more energy to burn than it gives off! You can dry it in the open air to about 23%. 23 – 30% is about right. However, you will almost certainly never find a supplier of logs at that level of moisture so you need to stack them & leave them for a good while before they are usable…….unless you can buy Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) which is at about 33% when green. Sycamore dries quickly, oak very slowly. Logs dry from the cut ends so you need to have them cut to size & split asap for them to dry the fastest.

So if you want to heat the entire house, you'll need about 6 tonnes of logs per year (6 tonnes when wet). This requires about 15 cubic metres of storage space. If you just want to top up the heat in the living room then obviously you need significantly less.

We have both of the above systems. There's a big fire in the dining room that has a back boiler & heats both the radiators and the hot water. We also have a little one in the living room. Our house is 250 yrs old – you get the chimney lined with a flue-liner. Try to select a stove that with fit in the fireplace without having a crank in the flue as it's easier to get cleaned – you only need to do this very infrequently if you burn clean, dry wood (chimney sweeps hate wood – coal fires give them loads of work!!). Wood is a very low ash fuel, so you only have to empty the ashes out once a week if the thing's burning right. When we run our big stove in the winter, it's burning 24 hrs a day, every day when we're about & still only empty it every 5 or 6 days – the ashes are good for the garden! All of the above changes if you add coal or another coal type fuel (many wood-burners can use both.


If you prefer something a little more modern, you can choose a pellet stove. These are a bit pricey, but very, very efficient and come without most of the (what some people perceive as) hassle. You can buy these with as little or as much sophistication as you want or can afford. You can even get them with a modem, so you can phone it up on your way home from work to tell it to light itself!

[The Grand Wazoo]

Almost forgot:

If you're heating the whole house, go for plate steel.
If you're heating a room, go for cast iron.

[Ali Tait]

My mum has a Morso stove.Nice and efficient.Looks good too!

[DSJR]

Pity the poor people living downwind of one....

We have an east facing rear garden and it's distantly overlooked by two neighbours with wood-burners. The smoke seems to come out almost sideways from the chimneys and drifts down into our garden. The stink is sometimes 'orrible if not exactly un-bearable, but isn't pleasant when both parties have their burners going..

[Ali Tait]

Where I come from,pretty much everyone has a fire or stove,be it coal or logs.Don't mind the smell myself,but I guess I grew up with it.

[The Grand Wazoo]

The stink is sometimes 'orrible

Sounds like they're burning wet wood.........or something else........


My mum has a Morso stove.Nice and efficient.Looks good too!

Our little one is a tiny Morso 'Squirrel' - more than efficient enough to heat our 24' x 13' living room.

[chris@panteg]

Chris

Thank you so much for the most excellent info , its purely for the front room and as much a feature as well as an alternative source of heat ' Caren is a Techie at the local catholic school and has access to plenty of wood (dry) .

[The Grand Wazoo]

A pleasure, mate. If you need to know anything else, you know where I am.

[chris@panteg]

Folks , I thought I would resurrect this old thread , it's taken a while but the stove has been installed and we've just had our first burn , its going well ! The best bit is uncovering the original Victorian fireplace , a nice surprise . Picture to follow .

[The Grand Wazoo]

Bloody hell Chris, that's weird!
I was looking earlier, this week, for something or other that someone had posted ages ago, and scanning down the list of old threads, I saw this one & it occurred to me to ask you how you had got on with this. Now, shit me britches if you don't rock up here yerself!

[chris@panteg]

Bloody hell Chris, that's weird!
I was looking earlier, this week, for something or other that someone had posted ages ago, and scanning down the list of old threads, I saw this one & it occurred to me to ask you how you had got on with this. Now, shit me britches if you don't rock up here yerself!

Well bloody hell , yes and it was you Chris that offered the most help/encouragement , well I'm sitting here watching it. Totally mesmerized :) Caren has gone to bed a very happy lady ! She just loves it ! It means so much to her I can't tell you , but oddly enough I'm now hooked , its very cosy .

The guy who installed it did a great job , repointing the chimney stack , liner , hetas approved .

[The Grand Wazoo]

The place we're in now has gas heating, Chris & it's a looong time since I've had the pleasure of tending to a wood burner now. It's something I miss so much!

I'm so glad it worked out for you both.

[chris@panteg]

The place we're in now has gas heating, Chris & it's a looong time since I've had the pleasure of tending to a wood burner now. It's something I miss so much!

I'm so glad it worked out for you both.

Thanks Chris , it is wonderful ! I had no idea I'd like it so much , hope you get one for yourself soon , one of our neighbours has three on the go .

[chris@panteg]

Here it is , only a small one ,5KW but perfect for the room which needs some new wallpaper and lick of paint .
That's welsh slate underneath ,with a few spare bits in the corner ,might be good under the turntable ?

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu82/chrispanteg30/NewImage-1.jpg

[john blackburn]

This will help spread the heat around the place making it even cosier.

http://www.ecofan.co.uk/woodstove-ecofans.html

I dont have enough head room for one so I use a computer case fan suspended from the chimney closure plate. It works a treat.

John

[Tony2112]

I can recommend the Ecofan, we've had one since last winter and it does make a big difference.

The computer fan idea is also alive here and I have just put together but not yet powered up my little r&d contraption. It will be interesting to see how much warm air can be taken from round the fire and stop as much heat going up the chimney. I'll get round to powering it and putting feet on it over the weekend when in theory it should shift 125cfm; If it doesn't it's cost hardly anything to try.

Tony

[john blackburn]

That's far more elaborate than mine! I just have an old hard drive magnet and 2 bits of wire tied to my fan. Our closure plate is steel so it sticks nicely in the top of the aperture and runs from a 12 volt wall wart jobbie.

It gets a bit hot after a while and is taken down over night or when we go out, so it is safe enough for me.

Baked potatoes cook well on the top of ours too as an added bonus.

John

[Jonboy]

another vote for the ecofan

[chris@panteg]

That's an interesting idea , never would have thought of that ? Thanks for the hot tip ! Sorry .

It gets so warm we have to keep the door ajar into the hallway .

[john blackburn]

If we are having a top tips for wood burners.

Try using a rag dampened with vinegar or cheap glass cleaning spray then dabbed in the ash pan to clean the window. It works very well and is much cheaper than the expensive "special" cleaning stuff they sell for them. Ash is also a good polish for a number of things.

John

[shane]

…….unless you can buy Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) which is at about 33% when green.




Should be plenty of that around soon enough.

[guy]

Brilliant finding this thread.

Been spurred on by being without electricity for two days - thank goodness the weather was fairly mild.

Any one have any experience of/comments on installation of a woodburner in a house with no chimney :scratch: Is it possible/effective to just send the ducting out of an external wall (ducting up to roof level)?

all the best. Guy.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Is it possible/effective to just send the ducting out of an external wall (ducting up to roof level)?

Yep, sure is!

http://www.images123.stovemaestro.co.uk/conservatorystoveinstall2.jpg

This isn't mine, just one found with a Google search - info here (http://www.stovemaestro.co.uk/article4.html)

[bobbasrah]

And to add to Chris's comment, these have the advantages that the flue can be fitted with a damper, the chimney is optimally designed for flow and is fully insulated. Sections are not cheap, but it is a breeze to assemble, entire chimney up in a day, burner running in no time at all.

[guy]

Cheers,

thanks for the link - not one I had found with a quick search, but very informative.

Guy.

[The Grand Wazoo]

You're welcome Guy.
Good luck with it!