Heat Reflector for Woodburner?

[Trevelyan]

I live in an 1880's end of terrace cottage which has got a woodburning stove in the living room fireplace. The fireplace is on the end wall of the house and the brickwork at the back of it is only 4 inches / 100mm thick. This means that when I've got the stove lit a lot of the heat is lost through the end wall - the outside of the wall behind the stove actually gets hot to the touch.

This has been annoying me for quite a while now and I've been trying to think of a way of keeping more of the heat in the room. I'm thinking that I need to put something in front of the wall behind the stove to insulate the wall a bit and reflect the heat back into the room. In the past I would have got hold of some asbestos cement sheet a few mm thick, wrapped it in some silver foil and used this. Obviously these days asbestos isn't an option but I can't think of an effective alternative which is readily available. So it's over to the PH material scientists. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

[Iain328]

Trevelyan said:

I live in an 1880's end of terrace cottage which has got a woodburning stove in the living room fireplace. The fireplace is on the end wall of the house and the brickwork at the back of it is only 4 inches / 100mm thick. This means that when I've got the stove lit a lot of the heat is lost through the end wall - the outside of the wall behind the stove actually gets hot to the touch.

This has been annoying me for quite a while now and I've been trying to think of a way of keeping more of the heat in the room. I'm thinking that I need to put something in front of the wall behind the stove to insulate the wall a bit and reflect the heat back into the room. In the past I would have got hold of some asbestos cement sheet a few mm thick, wrapped it in some silver foil and used this. Obviously these days asbestos isn't an option but I can't think of an effective alternative which is readily available. So it's over to the PH material scientists. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

The best insulator is an air gap. You can get rigid (but quite thin) insulation board in Wickes. Best bet would be to go in & have a look around & see what nmaterials are there - but in principle if you could mount something slightly off the wall that then reflected the heat you'd be on the right track I think.

[Trevelyan]

I'll have a look in Wickes tomorrow. It sounds like the sort of thing I'm after. I've already had a mooch around B&Q looking for something suitable but drew a blank. I toyed with the idea of plasterboard but think it could be a bit messy as I want to be able to remove it on some occassions. The air gap is a good point though. I've only got about 2 inches between the back of the stove and the brickwork so to leave room for an air gap my insulator/reflector needs to be fairly thin.

[David1975]

Is there any chance you could pull your stove forwards into the room 6 inches or so. You could use the rear flue if you were using the top one before.

[Trevelyan]

I have toyed with the idea but not sure it'd be that easy. Physically I've got the space, but I don't think my stove has got a rear flue exit. Even if it did I'd have to lash up a complicated series of bends and flue pipe to get back onto the existing register plate where the flue liner connects.

[herewego]

If you use a shiny reflector, you may reflect the heat back at the stove and cause it to overheat.

[Lefty]

IIRC the building regs state that you need a 50mm gap behind the stove so if you're only 2 inches away then you don't have much space for any insulation or heat reflector, unless of course it's a sheet of steel...

[Puggit]

Lefty said:

IIRC the building regs state that you need a 50mm gap behind the stove so if you're only 2 inches away then you don't have much space for any insulation or heat reflector, unless of course it's a sheet of steel...

50mm is correct - we are currently having a flue constructed outside the house as I type...

[Lefty]

Actually, I think it's 50mm from a combustible material...?

Not sure if you have a metal/stone surface. Mine is up against a stone wall but I kept it at 50mm anyway...

[Elskeggso]

Lefty said:

Actually, I think it's 50mm from a non combustible material...?

Not sure if you have a metal/stone surface. Mine is up against a stone wall but I kept it at 50mm anyway...

EFA

[Lefty]

I thought it was 50mm from a material like timber? Therefore combustible?

[Silver993tt]

Lefty said:

Actually, I think it's 50mm from a combustible material...?

Not sure if you have a metal/stone surface. Mine is up against a stone wall but I kept it at 50mm anyway...

It's 450mm from any combustable material such as wooden window ledges etc.

[Rollin]

Lefty said:

I thought it was 50mm from a material like timber? Therefore combustible?

That's when it turns into a houseburner

[anonymous-user]

Its all in here chaps! not the easiest of reads however!

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF...

[Elskeggso]

Lefty said:

I thought it was 50mm from a material like timber? Therefore combustible?

50mm is the required rear clearance to non-combustible materials, I don't think building control would like a stove 50mm away from timber

[Fume troll]

The stone surround that my stove sits in got painted with some sort of heat reflective paint. The chimney guys did it, it was sprayed on and sort of thickened as it set. No idea what it actually was, but it looked like some sort of epoxy.

Cheers,

FT.

[Lefty]

I may be confusing myself. The flue-pipe has to be 50mm from timber.



Slight difference!

[Elskeggso]

Lefty said:

I may be confusing myself. The flue-pipe has to be 50mm from timber.



Slight difference!

Only if it's insulated, if it's a normal single skin pipe it needs a lot more

[Lefty]

Yep, mine is insulated.

[Fume troll]

Lefty said:

Yep, mine is insulated.

With wood.

Cheers,

FT.