Woodstove, I want BIG, installer says I'll melt, thoughts?
Discussion
forest07 said:
I've had 35 years in the heating industry and this just shouts waste of money both on the appliance & running costs!
I know it looks that way forest but spend a cold week in Winter in my house and you might understand my reasons.If I leave my 8kw heatpump on all night set at 20 degrees with fan on medium then I might see morning temps of 10 to 12 degrees in the living room and the bathroom/toilet/hallway are around 2 degrees. My electricity costs in winter have been £250 a month and this is in a single occupancy house of 100sqm.
Off to chop more wood........
Simpo Two said:
NZ! You lucky lucky b
d... and your Forest:Person ratio is rather better than the craphole you came from 
Mmmm, the forest/person ration isn't quite as good as you might think Simpo, over the last 800 years we've either felled or burnt 75% of our trees.d... and your Forest:Person ratio is rather better than the craphole you came from Last years big storm bought down over a million trees local to me, so firewood is now free as long as you're willing to do the graft, otherwise it's £50 a cubic metre.
This one came down in my neighours garden, just missing his insured garage, insured house and insured outbuilding but nailing his uninsured car:
wolfracesonic said:
OP, when the beasts up and running, can you measure the temperature at say 10ft away when it's running flat out: I'm sure I'm not the only one who's curious to see what it's capable of.
Yes, the infrared thermometer gun thing has arrived and I'll take indoor readings from my weather station. A flue thermometer is being sent in two days along with the stove top fan 
rovermorris999 said:
cheddar said:
Install finished yesterday.
Need council permit Before lighting.
A council permit? I thought this country was bad enough.Need council permit Before lighting.
Clean air approval(!?)
Correct installation.
Minimal clearances to combustible materials
£250 please.
Oh, and, "We can't give you a time when we'll come, just a date".
Ok it's done and the naysayers are gonna love this.
It was a warm day today so I wanted to light the stove and burn off all the stinky coatings with the doors and windows wide open.
I only used pine, no hot burning hardwood but the stove was set to maximum.
I started out with 26 degree living room temp:
Ignition:
12 minutes later, crikey!:
Stove top temp 17 minutes after lighting, 384 centigrade:
40 minutes after lighting it the living room is 36.6 degrees:
I turned it right down after the stinky coatings had burnt off and went outside to cool down, 2 hours later it's still mid thirties indoors.
It was a warm day today so I wanted to light the stove and burn off all the stinky coatings with the doors and windows wide open.
I only used pine, no hot burning hardwood but the stove was set to maximum.
I started out with 26 degree living room temp:
Ignition:
12 minutes later, crikey!:
Stove top temp 17 minutes after lighting, 384 centigrade:
40 minutes after lighting it the living room is 36.6 degrees:
I turned it right down after the stinky coatings had burnt off and went outside to cool down, 2 hours later it's still mid thirties indoors.
Update:
Firstly, thanks for all your input, good old PH, I had a great chuckle at all of the volcano/furnace/firesuit type images and appreciate the more pragmatic thoughtful suggestions.
Yesterdays burn:
I put the last log on at 5pm, measured temps, took pics for you lot then turned it right down and went out and played golf because I was too hot, 2 hours later it was still mid-thirties indoors and 4 hours later there were still 3 of the logs simmering merrily away and the stove top was 190c. I'm pleased with the 'slow burn' temps and the apparent low fuel use but I was hot and, unfortunately, earlier that afternoon I'd made curry for dinner, I ate that in my underpants.
Simpo - you're right, I shouldn't have done a high temp run straight away, I found that out later, the stove was only running hot for 20 minutes and I think it's capable of much higher temps(!) so it should be fine. I just used soft pine logs and never filled the thing right up so it's got plenty more horsepower than I used - because that's what I need right!
Thanks to the recent storms I've got 7 species of trees to burn this year including really hard stuff like oak and eucalyptus, think I'll save that for the really cold days.
It'll take a bit learning, the old in-built stove needed to be completely filled with perfect wood and all settings on absolute maximum to put out any heat at all, this new thing, despite the size, heats up very quickly and when I walked past it I had to shield my face from the heat, night and day difference.
Overkill? Probably but the cold days ahead will be the true test, as long as I can turn it down to regulate temperature I think it'll be fine, sweeping the flue/chimney is a 5 minute job so I'm not concerned about gumming up with lower temp running. It was a 30c day yesterday so not really representative of what's to come.
Am I pleased? Right now I'm more amazed than pleased, although I have got that kind of chuffed up feel that Rolls Royce owners must have when their Power Reserve Dial shows 90% available at a steady 100mph - if you get my drift.
Firstly, thanks for all your input, good old PH, I had a great chuckle at all of the volcano/furnace/firesuit type images and appreciate the more pragmatic thoughtful suggestions.
Yesterdays burn:
I put the last log on at 5pm, measured temps, took pics for you lot then turned it right down and went out and played golf because I was too hot, 2 hours later it was still mid-thirties indoors and 4 hours later there were still 3 of the logs simmering merrily away and the stove top was 190c. I'm pleased with the 'slow burn' temps and the apparent low fuel use but I was hot and, unfortunately, earlier that afternoon I'd made curry for dinner, I ate that in my underpants.
Simpo - you're right, I shouldn't have done a high temp run straight away, I found that out later, the stove was only running hot for 20 minutes and I think it's capable of much higher temps(!) so it should be fine. I just used soft pine logs and never filled the thing right up so it's got plenty more horsepower than I used - because that's what I need right!
Thanks to the recent storms I've got 7 species of trees to burn this year including really hard stuff like oak and eucalyptus, think I'll save that for the really cold days.
It'll take a bit learning, the old in-built stove needed to be completely filled with perfect wood and all settings on absolute maximum to put out any heat at all, this new thing, despite the size, heats up very quickly and when I walked past it I had to shield my face from the heat, night and day difference.
Overkill? Probably but the cold days ahead will be the true test, as long as I can turn it down to regulate temperature I think it'll be fine, sweeping the flue/chimney is a 5 minute job so I'm not concerned about gumming up with lower temp running. It was a 30c day yesterday so not really representative of what's to come.
Am I pleased? Right now I'm more amazed than pleased, although I have got that kind of chuffed up feel that Rolls Royce owners must have when their Power Reserve Dial shows 90% available at a steady 100mph - if you get my drift.
It was a tad chilly yesterday so I fired it up again, popped 2 small willow logs on thinking that I'd create a little background heat but even those little logs heated the stove up to 200c in fairly short order.
It seems to radiate so much heat, I didn't put anymore wood on and it was on its lowest setting but four hours later the room was still warm. Ironically, given the size of the thing, fuel use seems very low.
Lots to learn and balancing quick heat up against comfortable rather than furious temperatures looks like being the main challenge. It's a bit like a 500hp car wearing skinny tyres, you want to accelerate quickly but not let it get all out of hand. Fully loaded, turned up to max and using well seasoned hardwood the output must be incredible - I've got some lovely big oak logs from the storm blown trees, I'll try them one day.
I can't wait for some really cold weather.
It seems to radiate so much heat, I didn't put anymore wood on and it was on its lowest setting but four hours later the room was still warm. Ironically, given the size of the thing, fuel use seems very low.
Lots to learn and balancing quick heat up against comfortable rather than furious temperatures looks like being the main challenge. It's a bit like a 500hp car wearing skinny tyres, you want to accelerate quickly but not let it get all out of hand. Fully loaded, turned up to max and using well seasoned hardwood the output must be incredible - I've got some lovely big oak logs from the storm blown trees, I'll try them one day.
I can't wait for some really cold weather.
It's been running 24/7 for about 3 weeks and - mainly - it's brilliant, still takes some learning to control, occasionally it gets away on me and I have to open the patio doors to cool down - I had a few friends round last night, minus 3 outside but the lounge hit 32 degrees. That's quite rare but I'd been out all afternoon so I fed it quite well with hardwood beforehand, came home, opened the door and it was like stepping off of a plane into an African heatwave.
The output is very wood dependent, pop two big dry bluegum logs on it, open the vents fully and it'll heat the whole village but softer wood or anything not fully seasoned produces much lower temps. It doesn't chew through much wood either because it's usually simmering away at around 180c - 250c. I've never filled it right up but I threw two 600mm gum limbs on it recently, turned it down and they burnt nicely for 9 hours, limbs are denser than trunk logs and having a big shed full of them is firewood nirvana.
My electricity bills used to be £250 a month in Winter and I was still buying firewood, now they're £60 a month and I expect a Winter's worth of wood will cost £700 max. But, most of all, for the first time ever, it's warm in here, that's priceless.
Were the PH naysayers correct? Yes and no, in one respect it's like a 1000hp car, it takes controlling but it's nice having all the power available.
Thanks for all the thoughful input, sorry I ignored 99% of you but I'm glad I did
Pics:
The little self powered fan doing it's thing
Flue temp gauge in rare 'not off the clock' position
Todays firewood delivery, should do me until lunchtime
The output is very wood dependent, pop two big dry bluegum logs on it, open the vents fully and it'll heat the whole village but softer wood or anything not fully seasoned produces much lower temps. It doesn't chew through much wood either because it's usually simmering away at around 180c - 250c. I've never filled it right up but I threw two 600mm gum limbs on it recently, turned it down and they burnt nicely for 9 hours, limbs are denser than trunk logs and having a big shed full of them is firewood nirvana.
My electricity bills used to be £250 a month in Winter and I was still buying firewood, now they're £60 a month and I expect a Winter's worth of wood will cost £700 max. But, most of all, for the first time ever, it's warm in here, that's priceless.
Were the PH naysayers correct? Yes and no, in one respect it's like a 1000hp car, it takes controlling but it's nice having all the power available.
Thanks for all the thoughful input, sorry I ignored 99% of you but I'm glad I did
Pics:
The little self powered fan doing it's thing
Flue temp gauge in rare 'not off the clock' position
Todays firewood delivery, should do me until lunchtime
Simpo Two said:
Amazing the way NZ houses have corrugated iron roofs - quite endearing
What's the form on burning gum trees? Will the gum stick in the flue and eventually cause mischief?
It's still common practice to build using corrugated roofing, most are in better shape than mine.What's the form on burning gum trees? Will the gum stick in the flue and eventually cause mischief?
Blue Gum is a nickname for Eucalyptus Globulus, once seasoned there's no gum just a dense heavy wood that burns much hotter and around 3 times longer than Pine.
Evening Mike, still alive here and the house hasn't burnt down but the heat from the stove caused the paper to come off of the living room walls, it's being relined soon
First time visitors are still surprised at the heat, some of them do that thing where they go to sit next to the fire, you know, for 'cosiness' but they only last a few seconds before moving away from it
the highest indoor temp I've seen was 42 centigrade when I loaded it up, forgot to turn it down and went outside to do some jobs, normally it's fine, just takes a bit of watching to keep it under control
First time visitors are still surprised at the heat, some of them do that thing where they go to sit next to the fire, you know, for 'cosiness' but they only last a few seconds before moving away from it
the highest indoor temp I've seen was 42 centigrade when I loaded it up, forgot to turn it down and went outside to do some jobs, normally it's fine, just takes a bit of watching to keep it under control
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