Woodburners who's got what? (choice made on pg2)

[Breezy_Pete]

Just moved house, and left behind a Hunter Herald Slimline 5 which served us well enough for several years.

New place has a Clearview Vision 500 in one room which looks 'solid' for want of a better word. we haven't tried it yet as the weather hasn't got cold enough.  Higher output than the Hunter one, physically bigger.

 

Buuuut...the new place has another room with an open fireplace that we hope to convert to a woodburner in addition to the other, as there's no gas and we don't like paying for lots of electric. 

 

Saw this and thought it looks nice, and is about the right output for the room size https://www.stoveworlduk.co.uk/multi-fuel-stoves/5kw-Panoramic-Slimline-Eco-Design-Wood-Burning-Multi-Fuel-Stove

 

Anyone got one? 

 

Can anyone recommend anything else in the output range 5-8kW, preferably physically large-looking for a big open fireplace? Not too pricey (looked at another Vision 500 and they're a lot of dosh).

 

Cheers

 

Edited 29 January, 2020 by Wino

[KenONeill]

49 minutes ago, Wino said:

there's no gas and we don't like paying for lots of electric

But you have no objection to paying for gas and leccy?

[Breezy_Pete]

14 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

But you have no objection to paying for gas and leccy?

Which bit of 'there's no gas' did you misunderstand?

[KenONeill]

11 minutes ago, Wino said:

Which bit of 'there's no gas' did you misunderstand?

The bit where you seem to think that gas is free if it's connected. My mum's combined gas + leccy bill is more than my leccy only.

[Tech1e]

I've been reading up on getting the right set up to either be carbon neutral or even improve our carbon foot print. Quite a lot to take in about choosing the right set up for what you want.

[Breezy_Pete]

@KenONeill It's much cheaper to heat a home with gas than electricity, no?

We don't have the option of (piped) gas, so if we relied on electricity for all heating, our electricity bill would be very high.

So we want to use free, re-cycled material to heat our home.

Do you have any relevant contribution to the latter?

 

[Ttaskmaster]

Following the demise of our Moreso Squirrel, we have an open fire in the lounge, but it only heats that room. The rest of the house is on storage heaters... ugh!!

 

Aside from the obvious (hopefully) safety stuff about not burning fuel that's been treated or painted, the only advice I really have is to mix wood with some coal, and make sure you fully dry out your wood stocks. Oh, and get your chimneys/flues cleaned out regularly!

I've yet to try pellets or peat logs, but I hear both can be good. Same for home-made sawdust logs, if you're into that level of reclamation.

 

 

1 hour ago, KenONeill said:

The bit where you seem to think that gas is free if it's connected. My mum's combined gas + leccy bill is more than my leccy only.

 

Disconnect the gas and heat the home with leccy only. If you survive the heart attack from seeing the bill, then come and talk to us!!

[KenONeill]

40 minutes ago, Ttaskmaster said:

 

Disconnect the gas and heat the home with leccy only.

Ahead of you there; my leccy only bill is less than my Mum's gas and leccy.

[PetrolDave]

4 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Ahead of you there; my leccy only bill is less than my Mum's gas and leccy.

But are you comparing like with like?

 

Are the two houses the same size and the same construction, are they both as well insulated, are they heated to the same temperatures for the same period each day?

 

If no to any one of those then you're comparing apples with pears.

[Breezy_Pete]

Welcome to my ignore list Ken.

[Ttaskmaster]

46 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Ahead of you there; my leccy only bill is less than my Mum's gas and leccy.

And how is each home heated, then?

 

[Breezy_Pete]

Fuel supply is under control, it's the stove choice that I was mainly pondering.

 

 

[SuperbTWM]

There's no better way to heat a house than with free wood but if you ever run out and have to start paying I would suggest an electric air source heat pump system, I believe that would compete or even be cheaper than gas, at least if you believe the hype.

 

 

 

 

[seriesdriver]

We had a jotul stove in the last house can't remember the model they aren't cheap but they are very well built, their range goes from the traditional to very modern looking.

[VRS Mike]

I used to assess stoves for approval for use in smoke control areas, most (especially the cheap ones) are made in China. We have Flavel Arundel which has been fine. If you get one that's been approved for use in a smoke control areas then it should be well designed for burning.

[Breezy_Pete]

Thanks guys, will have a browse around with those suggestions in mind. 

@VRS Mike the ones that are approved for smoke controlled areas, is that the so called "DEFRA Approved" ones?

[VRS Mike]

1 minute ago, Wino said:

Thanks guys, will have a browse around with those suggestions in mind. 

@VRS Mike the ones that are approved for smoke controlled areas, is that the so called "DEFRA Approved" ones?

 

Yes, but they aren't technically approved by DEFRA. They usually have a stopper to prevent the air controls from being fully closed, you can remove this if you don't live in a smoke control area. 

[Breezy_Pete]

Ah, I see. Not a smoke controlled area. 

I suppose there's the same trade-off between burning nice and hot and low-soot, but generating more NOx the further you take this, as there is in car engines?

 

Edit; A teensy bit of research on this suggests it's all about particulates and not  at all about NOx, just not hot enough I guess.

Edited 19 September, 2019 by Wino

[Rustynuts]

I had a customer who had an oil fired combi boiler in his house, and (against my advice) he removed it, fitted a wood burner with a back boiler, a new hot water cylinder, repiped the heating / hot water system etc. because he had an endless supply of wood. He was a woodworker who make oak furniture (pews for churches etc.) and his pile of scrap and offcuts was about the size of the shedfull in Winos picture. His argument was "I have loads of wood left over from jobs I do and it would seem silly paying for oil when I have all this free fuel I can burn.".

 

His supply of free fuel lasted about 6 months, whereupon he then had to buy logs to feed the stove at more than the cost he was paying for oil in the first place. Logs last forever until you start burning them.

[Breezy_Pete]

We won't be removing any heat sources, just adding one. I appreciate the cautionary words though Rustynuts. 

I think I would get huge satisfaction from my job if I did what you do BTW. Many of your customers must be hugely grateful for your efforts?

[seriesdriver]

29 minutes ago, Rustynuts said:

I had a customer who had an oil fired combi boiler in his house, and (against my advice) he removed it, fitted a wood burner with a back boiler, a new hot water cylinder, repiped the heating / hot water system etc. because he had an endless supply of wood. He was a woodworker who make oak furniture (pews for churches etc.) and his pile of scrap and offcuts was about the size of the shedfull in Winos picture. His argument was "I have loads of wood left over from jobs I do and it would seem silly paying for oil when I have all this free fuel I can burn.".

 

His supply of free fuel lasted about 6 months, whereupon he then had to buy logs to feed the stove at more than the cost he was paying for oil in the first place. Logs last forever until you start burning them.

 

We went from wood burner / fire place and storage heaters to a house with full oil fired central heating, we only light the fire on very rare occasions now but it is good to have the back up.

[mac11irl]

We have mains fed GFCH, and an open fireplace in Living room.

Planning on fitting a multi-fuel stove instead though, once we can afford to do the fitting how we want it.

 

An oft overlooked benefit of fitting one is that even when not in use, a stove will greatly restrict a massive source of heat loss /cold ingress in most houses - the open chimney.

 

Benefit of multi-fuel - light with coal to get the heat up fast and then maintain the burn and heat output with timber. Cant wait to fit ours..... if only i had more money...

[Daytona900]

I'd recommend Dovre 250 if your money will stretch that far. (Or the equivalent 5kW woodburner made by any of Dovre's sister companies, they're just "badge engineered" Dovre 250's.)

I've had two and they are excellent.

Word of advice from my heating engineer (which I ignored), if you are going to use of any make of stove properly and not just use it once or twice at Christmas then stick with the plain black, DON'T go for any of the fancy enamel colours. The shiny enamel is not as robust as the plain black finish. "Clever Trevor" my heating Engineer reckons that this is true for all makes of stoves.

I ignored this advice and got a nice "teapot brown" enamel stove for the living room... after 5 years the enamel around the door opening is starting to go pitted. I never had that problem with my previous plain black Dovre 250. "Clever Trevor" likes to remind me of this every time he comes to do any work for me...

 

Regarding the size you need, bricks are cheaper than stoves so you could close the opening down a bit rather than buying a physically bigger stove.

 

I've had Dovre, Stovax and Esse. They've all been good and I can bore for Britain on this subject!

 

I've gone for the full monty in the dining room, Esse Bakeheart, it's got a cooking top, small oven and it's connected to my twin coil hot water tank so it makes a contribution to my hot water plus there's a "heat leak" radiator on the landing which warms upstairs as well.

My wife thinks I'm bonkers but when the zombies attack I can still have a hot bath and a hot meal! ;-)   

 

Cheers,

 

Graham 

[Ttaskmaster]

16 hours ago, seriesdriver said:

 

We went from wood burner / fire place and storage heaters to a house with full oil fired central heating, we only light the fire on very rare occasions now but it is good to have the back up.

 

Our neighbour has oil. Saves money from having a septic tank (we're stuck with a cess), but then spends lots of money getting the oil topped up every 6-months or so. Still 'borrows' wood from us sometimes.

[MikeTheThinker]

Just thought I'd add our wood burner to the discussion, pictured here alongside an optional gas and electricity supply ...