Wood burning stove fitting questions walls/flues etc

[Griff Boy]

The burner looks good, nice and simple and elegant! Not sure about the exterior flue though, it's a shame it had to sit directly under the window, as it's resulted in the series of bends in the flue, which isn't to my taste, but I'm sure you'll love having the wood burner inside!

[Pesty]

Griff Boy said:

The burner looks good, nice and simple and elegant! Not sure about the exterior flue though, it's a shame it had to sit directly under the window, as it's resulted in the series of bends in the flue, which isn't to my taste, but I'm sure you'll love having the wood burner inside!

Thanks.


Yes agree on the flue tried to work out another way but in the end that was the best solution.( for inside no necessarily outside)

Edited by Pesty on Monday 2nd December 22:32

[andy43]

Looks good. The flue looks fairly straight with no serious bends in it so will still draw ok - bet the parts list took some working out.
I've got an Aldi ash vacuum - a big round tin with a flexi hose - you stick your hoover hose into the tin so it collects the ash and filters it before the air enters the hoover system and bungs the hoover up. I honestly didn't think it would work very well but it does. Filter is washable, and I just tip the tin contents into the recycling bin with no mess inside the house at all. If the Lidl thing is the same, well worth getting. Excellent for picking up and isolating rabbit droppings as well (don't ask).

[captainzep]

Pesty said:

Well it took a year but i got there in the end.

Looks great Pesty.

Getting on great with mine, cooked two casseroles on ours already and love having readily available hot water for tea/coffee with the kettle on top.

Only thing is, I can't not have ours lit at the moment, so despite it's efficiency I'm motoring through logs.

[Pesty]

captainzep said:

Looks great Pesty.

Getting on great with mine, cooked two casseroles on ours already and love having readily available hot water for tea/coffee with the kettle on top.

Only thing is, I can't not have ours lit at the moment, so despite it's efficiency I'm motoring through logs.

It came with a bit if iron to stand on top for kettle,pans crumpets etc etc. can't wait

Don't like the sound of motoring through logs. This is going to keep he busy.

andy43 said:

Looks good. The flue looks fairly straight with no serious bends in it so will still draw ok - bet the parts list took some working out.
I've got an Aldi ash vacuum - a big round tin with a flexi hose - you stick your hoover hose into the tin so it collects the ash and filters it before the air enters the hoover system and bungs the hoover up. I honestly didn't think it would work very well but it does. Filter is washable, and I just tip the tin contents into the recycling bin with no mess inside the house at all. If the Lidl thing is the same, well worth getting. Excellent for picking up and isolating rabbit droppings as well (don't ask).

Lol.

Had trouble lighting a log last night. After 5 kindling burns I thought sod it. I had phoned burley and thy said don't bother but I least did a few as that was what the fitters recomended.

Not sure where I went wrong to piles of Jenna kindling one lighter under each a few bits of bigger kindling on top of that.

Lit. Waited 8 or so minutes till it was roaring added a log and it just went out

[Simpo Two]

Pesty said:

Lit. Waited 8 or so minutes till it was roaring added a log and it just went out

Every stove and installation is different but I:

Place large handful of shredded paper or card on the grate.
Place 6-8 sticks of thin kindling on top.
Light in 2-3 places with a gas lighter.
Close door and watch flames accelerate and start on the kindling.
When that's half through add larger kindling/small bits of old shelf, ply etc. Be careful to place the bits so they have air underneath and don't flatten the fire. Start closing the air inlets so it doesn't roar but still burns well.
When the fire has a hot orange heart then you can start putting logs on. Split ones burn better than whole.

My stove may have the hinges on the wrong side but it does light easily.

HTH!

[MonkeyBusiness]

Everyone has a different way to light their fire.
The only thing I would add is keep the door slightly open (like a few mm's).

Then as mentioned above work up to bigger pieces.
This is a good video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ewoH7FWT0

[andy43]

Best investments - a magnetic stove thermometer stuck to the flue pipe will make controlling the fire and balancing the air a lot easier, and a moisture meter (test internal face of log immediately after splitting) and an axe to split the log open to make sure you are getting decent logs. Sub-£20, or £30 including a cheap axe.
The only logs I've paid for so far was some bulgarian kiln dried stuff which were 20% on the outside and nearly double that internally when split open.

[Podie]

I picked up an Aldi log splitter - https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-5th...



Went through the till at £20, not the advertised £39.99

[TimJMS]

Pesty said:

Lol.

Had trouble lighting a log last night. After 5 kindling burns I thought sod it. I had phoned burley and thy said don't bother but I least did a few as that was what the fitters recomended.

Not sure where I went wrong to piles of Jenna kindling one lighter under each a few bits of bigger kindling on top of that.

Lit. Waited 8 or so minutes till it was roaring added a log and it just went out

This is a Grenadier. Made in the UK. You won't need kindling again. Typically has my log burners roaring within two minutes. Maybe 3 minutes for my mother's coal fires.

[Simpo Two]

andy43 said:

Best investments - a magnetic stove thermometer stuck to the flue pipe will make controlling the fire and balancing the air a lot easier

Yes, I was surprised how useful mine was, and how much the temperature varies between fuellings.

They retail for £17-18 so someone is doing well; I can't imagine they cost more than 50p to make. Still, we're all middle-class fashion victims with high disposable incomes aren't we!

[captainzep]

Pesty said:

Lit. Waited 8 or so minutes till it was roaring added a log and it just went out

One of the benefits of splitting your own logs is that you can split them to different sizes, (or if you're like me, mis-hit a few) which creates a fair amount of shards and lumps which don't qualify as logs but bridge the gap between kindling and bigger stuff nicely. This is also where you become grateful for spending the time cutting and seasoning the 1-2 inch thick brash -which at the time seems like such a pain in the arse when you've got lots of bigger stuff to process.

[Pesty]

captainzep said:

One of the benefits of splitting your own logs is that you can split them to different sizes, (or if you're like me, mis-hit a few) which creates a fair amount of shards and lumps which don't qualify as logs but bridge the gap between kindling and bigger stuff nicely. This is also where you become grateful for spending the time cutting and seasoning the 1-2 inch thick brash -which at the time seems like such a pain in the arse when you've got lots of bigger stuff to process.

Simpo Two said:

.

My stove may have the hinges on the wrong side but it does light easily.

HTH!

Good tips that's pretty much what I did tonight. Got it going but it was a bit of a battle. Nice and toasty now. In fact too hot I'm going to sit in my pants.

I used half a bag of kindling

The garage nought logs are exactly 20 PC I split them with the maul into smaller bits and off we went.

I've checked some of the wood I errr collected and it's 16 PC so I will maul that tomorrow and also source some from a local place too.

Think the garage suff is a but st. Going to top it. Up with the pallet stuff tonight but keeping it low as it's boiling.

Edited by Pesty on Tuesday 3rd December 18:47

[captainzep]

Pesty said:

Ah. There's your problem. It's been installed upside down on the ceiling.

[Pesty]

lol it's right way round here.

Put a log on went like this straight away

[Pesty]

TimJMS said:

This is a Grenadier. Made in the UK. You won't need kindling again. Typically has my log burners roaring within two minutes. Maybe 3 minutes for my mother's coal fires.

Like the look of that. A gadget I have not bought yet too. Bonus.
Getting wood envy

Electric liking the bricks at the back

Enjoying watching the flames

Edited by Pesty on Tuesday 3rd December 20:07

[Pesty]

Update to this thread spured by an email from edf

Noticed my gas meter door swingning in the wind so checked emails to see if they had checked the meter. They did on the 28th.

They have estimated that this year I will use £519 of gas that is down from £1200 I paid last year.

They are raising my monthly bill but it went down from £190 to £105!!|(that includes electric too) for the last 6 months and they are re funding me £70 too.

I have not had the burner in place for a full year yet so it may not even be that much. We also no longer have the electric fire that the females insisted on having on all day and night either.

I have only bought two lots of wood to get me started. I get as much pallet wood as i can use and I am finding plenty of wood elsewhere.

So all in all its been a very good buy. plus I just like it. The pallet wood burns fast and hot which is good because after 20 minutes it gets too hot in here so i have no need to keep it topped up constantly. if we do want to i mix it with other wood i've collected over the year.

but Ive spent a fortune on gadgets and chainsaws and gubins to do with it.

Edited by Pesty on Monday 3rd November 20:54

[andy43]

We're saving on gas too - but to be really honest it's more about the cosy feeling of a real fire - we think it's the best thing we've done in the 8 years we've lived here.
Kitchen one is on now, doing the rads, heating the water for the kids showers later and generally making the kitchen feel like Barbados in a heat wave.
Unfortunately gas bill reduction = cost of chainsaw, chains, oil, log splitter, chimney sweep, matls for log store etc etc...
Still worth it

[captainzep]

Glad this thread has been resurrected.

I've discovered that one of the strange side-interests of having a woodburner is trying the different woods you've split and stored over the previous year.

My Grandmother had a big, dead, leaning oak taken down this year. I put down pallets and piled up wood on-site. There's loads still to cut but I brought home a couple of pick-up loads and split/stacked it in a summer house where it got loads of sun/heat through the glass over summer. It's bone dry now and lights easily but lasts for ages. Only downside is evil splinters. The ash I've got probably burns a little bit hotter but I'm pleased there's more oak to come. Also felled some sycamore, laurel and conifer which is undercover outside. -Not so good but better than nothing. Thankfully still a shedful of Ash from clearing a building plot in January.