Wood burning stove advise
Discussion
Hi All,
We have decided that we want a wood burner in out living room.
This is the first time we have ever had a stove and we have never had an open fire or anything.
We are gas central heating type of family but the cost of gas/electricity is just getting crazy.
So we want a modern looking stove of 10-14kw as the room is pretty large.
What should I be looking at when shopping and what else should I bare in mind?
Are they easy to light, maintain, live with....any help appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
IceBoy
We have decided that we want a wood burner in out living room.
This is the first time we have ever had a stove and we have never had an open fire or anything.
We are gas central heating type of family but the cost of gas/electricity is just getting crazy.
So we want a modern looking stove of 10-14kw as the room is pretty large.
What should I be looking at when shopping and what else should I bare in mind?
Are they easy to light, maintain, live with....any help appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
IceBoy
Bit of practice and anyone can light a fire.
Basic old fashioned fire should start with some lightly scrunched balls of paper (newspaper burns better than glossy stuff from junk mail/magazines). Make a layer covering the grate. Lay some dry sticks on top of this, not too many, not too few. Enough that the paper is covered, but not so much as to impede the flow of air through the whole setup. Then put your larger wood or coal on top of this. Theory being that the easy to ignite layer lights the slightly harder one above it. May need an injection of air to aid combustion, but a little bit of blowing can make all the difference. If pushed for time, buy a box of firelighters, but that's no fun.
Make sure everything is dry. Storing paper and sticks is easy, but your larger wood may get damp wherever you keep it. Have a log basket near the fire so that the next nights wood can be drying ready.
Have you looked into whether your existing central heating can integrate the stove? A back boiler (either integrated into the stove or able to retro fit to some models) can feed heat into your system which should reduce your energy costs. Central heating off a combi boiler can apparently be a problem, but I'm determined to find a solution to it for my house.
Basic old fashioned fire should start with some lightly scrunched balls of paper (newspaper burns better than glossy stuff from junk mail/magazines). Make a layer covering the grate. Lay some dry sticks on top of this, not too many, not too few. Enough that the paper is covered, but not so much as to impede the flow of air through the whole setup. Then put your larger wood or coal on top of this. Theory being that the easy to ignite layer lights the slightly harder one above it. May need an injection of air to aid combustion, but a little bit of blowing can make all the difference. If pushed for time, buy a box of firelighters, but that's no fun.
Make sure everything is dry. Storing paper and sticks is easy, but your larger wood may get damp wherever you keep it. Have a log basket near the fire so that the next nights wood can be drying ready.
Have you looked into whether your existing central heating can integrate the stove? A back boiler (either integrated into the stove or able to retro fit to some models) can feed heat into your system which should reduce your energy costs. Central heating off a combi boiler can apparently be a problem, but I'm determined to find a solution to it for my house.
I bought a stovax for my last house and will be fitting another to my current house, in fact I've been knocking out and exposing the fireplace where the back boiler used to be in my place today and will sort it out ready for the installation.
Stovax are great quality and worth the money. You should have it fitted by a qualified HETAS fitter and you'll get a certificate for when you sell the house. I had a few issues in that most of the stores who offered fitting with HETAS engineers refused to fit a stove that wasn't bought from them even if it was the same model. SO an independent fitter did mine and the store lost out on the sale of the stove and the fitting - more fool them.
I bought my stove from Saxon stoves nr Oswestry http://www.saxonhomecare.co.uk/ They are very knowledgeable and helpful and will give you some sound advice. I bought mine there even though I live a good 150 miles away, I found the mark up in prices the local companies were charging for the same stove ludicrous.
Well worth the investment imho.
Stovax are great quality and worth the money. You should have it fitted by a qualified HETAS fitter and you'll get a certificate for when you sell the house. I had a few issues in that most of the stores who offered fitting with HETAS engineers refused to fit a stove that wasn't bought from them even if it was the same model. SO an independent fitter did mine and the store lost out on the sale of the stove and the fitting - more fool them.
I bought my stove from Saxon stoves nr Oswestry http://www.saxonhomecare.co.uk/ They are very knowledgeable and helpful and will give you some sound advice. I bought mine there even though I live a good 150 miles away, I found the mark up in prices the local companies were charging for the same stove ludicrous.
Well worth the investment imho.
Oi bugger off with your fancy name
vladcjelli said:
Have you looked into whether your existing central heating can integrate the stove? A back boiler (either integrated into the stove or able to retro fit to some models) can feed heat into your system which should reduce your energy costs. Central heating off a combi boiler can apparently be a problem, but I'm determined to find a solution to it for my house.
It can be done but is quite expensive to do properly.dirkgently said:
Oi bugger off with your fancy name
It can be done but is quite expensive to do properly.
Ashamed of your heritage?It can be done but is quite expensive to do properly.
Expand on the difficulties. As I read it, it's to do with the pressurised system. My thoughts were to sidestep that by running to a heat store, which could transfer the heat to the inward side (both cold water and heating return) of the combi, meaning the water needs less heating up=less energy expended.
Obviously, as a total layman this may be bunk.
vladcjelli said:
Ashamed of your heritage?
Expand on the difficulties. As I read it, it's to do with the pressurised system. My thoughts were to sidestep that by running to a heat store, which could transfer the heat to the inward side (both cold water and heating return) of the combi, meaning the water needs less heating up=less energy expended.
Obviously, as a total layman this may be bunk.
You need to use a neutralizer, basically a thermal store that redistributes the heat from different sources to where it is needed.Expand on the difficulties. As I read it, it's to do with the pressurised system. My thoughts were to sidestep that by running to a heat store, which could transfer the heat to the inward side (both cold water and heating return) of the combi, meaning the water needs less heating up=less energy expended.
Obviously, as a total layman this may be bunk.
IceBoy said:
.So we want a modern looking stove of 10-14kw as the room is pretty large.
How big a room? We have a Scan Andersen 4-5 and really rate it. http://www.scan.dk/Scan/products/ProductArticle.as... It's only 4kW and heats a 30m^2 room easily.We have a Barbas Unilux - very contemporary looking (which is good as the house is 6 years old...)
http://www.feature-fireplaces.co.uk/barbas-m-31.ht... - link just to give an idea what they look like, we didn't use this company!
Edited to add - we used this company, who are fairly local to you: http://www.bon-fire.co.uk/ - they don't mind haggling on price
http://www.feature-fireplaces.co.uk/barbas-m-31.ht... - link just to give an idea what they look like, we didn't use this company!
Edited to add - we used this company, who are fairly local to you: http://www.bon-fire.co.uk/ - they don't mind haggling on price
Don't forget the fuel.
You will need to be able to store a fair amount of wood. If you buy 'seasoned' logs - they will still work better if stored under cover for a year.
Wood will warm you several times, as you cut it, stack it, move it etc.
I used to buy wood by the chord. That's a stack of 4ft logs, 4 ft high and 8 ft long. I'd process these into fire wood, and then move to a covered wood store for a year. Then I'd bring it up to the garage in batches, ready to put on the stove.
Wood burning stoves are very efficient because really dry wood will burn with only a small airflow (less heat up the chimney) low air flow means cooler flue and more tar deposited if the wood isn't dry.
It will keep you quite fit! Fitted our first wood stove in '79. Now I'm nearly retired, I'm pleased to be in a modern centrally heated place. Miss the wood fire though, but not the work.
You will need to be able to store a fair amount of wood. If you buy 'seasoned' logs - they will still work better if stored under cover for a year.
Wood will warm you several times, as you cut it, stack it, move it etc.
I used to buy wood by the chord. That's a stack of 4ft logs, 4 ft high and 8 ft long. I'd process these into fire wood, and then move to a covered wood store for a year. Then I'd bring it up to the garage in batches, ready to put on the stove.
Wood burning stoves are very efficient because really dry wood will burn with only a small airflow (less heat up the chimney) low air flow means cooler flue and more tar deposited if the wood isn't dry.
It will keep you quite fit! Fitted our first wood stove in '79. Now I'm nearly retired, I'm pleased to be in a modern centrally heated place. Miss the wood fire though, but not the work.
I have a woodburner and used to light it with newspaper to get the kindling going. Problem is it leaves a load of ash and every morning have to empty it(we let it go out at night).
Now I light it with a butane cheap as chips plumbers blowlamp to get the kindling going, now empty it about every third day.
If you have a local carpenter/joiners workshop they may be pleased to give you bags od offcuts that are excellent for kindling for free!!! Thats what I do.
Now I light it with a butane cheap as chips plumbers blowlamp to get the kindling going, now empty it about every third day.
If you have a local carpenter/joiners workshop they may be pleased to give you bags od offcuts that are excellent for kindling for free!!! Thats what I do.
Had ours 3 years now. It's been superb, as long as we use decent wood. It really doesn't like anything mildly unseasoned.
The only thing I've done in 3 years is a regular sweep of the chimney, and clean it. It now has couple of cracked bricks, but I've got replacements ready to go. Door seal is original, but will also replace that this year. The guy who swept the chimney says the liner looks new still
The only thing I've done in 3 years is a regular sweep of the chimney, and clean it. It now has couple of cracked bricks, but I've got replacements ready to go. Door seal is original, but will also replace that this year. The guy who swept the chimney says the liner looks new still
We have a Vermont Castings "Intrepid" I believe, left by the previous owner along with a big neat stack of wood. This week I had the company that sold it to the previous owner come out to 'service' it / check it over... but they refused as they hadn't installed it themselves and reckoned it didn't meet current building regs. Meh. Meanwhile had a reputable chimney sweep (has a by appointment to HM Queen crest thingy so you'd hope they're reputable) out to sweep the flue, and they said it was all fine, so who knows.
Anyway, point being make sure it is installed by a HETAS accredited fitter and meets all building regs. Which includes, I believe, having a permanent fresh air vent in the room if the stove is over 5kw.
Edited to add: as others have mentioned, if burning logs only use seasoned ones (stored under cover for at least a year to dry out). You can buy a moisture meter from Amazon for a few quid to make sure the logs are dry enough which IIRC means below about 25%. Otherwise you get tar deposits in the flue which can then catch fire and you don't want that.
Anyway, point being make sure it is installed by a HETAS accredited fitter and meets all building regs. Which includes, I believe, having a permanent fresh air vent in the room if the stove is over 5kw.
Edited to add: as others have mentioned, if burning logs only use seasoned ones (stored under cover for at least a year to dry out). You can buy a moisture meter from Amazon for a few quid to make sure the logs are dry enough which IIRC means below about 25%. Otherwise you get tar deposits in the flue which can then catch fire and you don't want that.
Edited by munky on Thursday 7th July 12:51
Thread resurrecting here....
Can anyone advise on a distributor of Scan - Andersen parts? I have 2 Scan Andersen 4-5 wood burning stoves and need some internal parts. The place I bought them from and 2 other local suppliers are taking the p"ss over the parts. I need to pay when ordering, they will then let me know what the delivery will be after contacting their supplier.
Can anyone advise on a distributor of Scan - Andersen parts? I have 2 Scan Andersen 4-5 wood burning stoves and need some internal parts. The place I bought them from and 2 other local suppliers are taking the p"ss over the parts. I need to pay when ordering, they will then let me know what the delivery will be after contacting their supplier.
We got ours from here: http://www.periodfireplaces.co.uk/?ui=desktop a few years ago. They were pretty down to earth so hopefully won't bugger you about.
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