woodburner

[p-a-s]

Like many others money is tight, and work has been quiet for a long time.The Mrs has just lost her job and we now have to pull our belt in even tighter,i bought a woodburner around December,its a big brute probably 15kw and planned on having it up and running in a couple of years time,but now things are looking bleak i think i need to get it running for this winter. Question is would it generate enough heat to keep a living room,dining room and 1 bedroom warm enough to turn 3 radiators off in said rooms.I know i will need a chimney liner as the house is an old end terrace and i think i could collect enough timber for free to last a winter,i also have a mate that owns a fire place business and im sure would look after me with the installation and materials cost.Could it be a winner or should i just stick with the current gas central heating.

[Dirty Harry]

15kw should heat the whole house. Fill it up and you'll be opening some windows.

[hedd-wyn]

Hi

 

We hardly had the radiators on over the winter, we had the trusty wood burner blasting most days. I live in an old terraced house and the wood burner (7.5k) would heat our whole house up.

Now we figured out that the money spent on installing it has been covered by the money we have saved.

Best thing we did was getting it installed really.

 

I have also struck a deal with the farmer on one of my permissions that if I do a bit of pest control in return I can take as much firewood as I like for free.

Can't go wrong really.

 

Hedd

[FalconFN]

We have no central heating at all and rely on our 2 wood burners to heat the house (which they do very well indeed). I don't pay for wood but I do spend quite a bit of time collecting, chopping and splitting it and i think you'd be surprised at how much wood you can go through in the course of a year. If you can get free or cheap wood it's well worth doing, and you cant beat real flames for winter warmth, but forget it if you have to pay for it as it'll be twice the cost of gas.

[yankeedoodlepigeon]

It will be really warm. Just think on it will burn 3 times the amount you think it will so if you can get free wood stock it up. It takes ours 2 or 3 fills just to get it on form but when it is its doors open to take the chill off the whole house. We were thinking of getting a 12kw and glad we didn't as a 8kw is enough for open plan 3 bed house.

[Vince Green]

Is is a woodburner or multifuel? Reason I ask is because you have probably got very little idea just how much wood you are going to get through with what you have planned. Free wood is great as a supplement but coal is a lot easier.

[Imperfection]

With regards to firewood-ask around in haulage yards for broken pallets.

 

Where i previously worked we used to mass quite a substantial amount of block end pallets which were no good for our racking system and we couldnt get rid of the things.One of the lorry drivers who brought stock to us asked if he could have them so every 6 months or so i'd completely fill his 40ft trailer with block end pallets and his home heating/hot water never cost him a penny thereafter.

[Vince Green]

Nice if they are free but pallet wood burns like matchsticks. If you can stay focussed on how much money you are saving then all well and good but you will spend the whole evening shoving more wood in the fire every ten minutes. And you will get through those pallets in no time. After a while the novelty wears off, unless you are truely skint in which case any free heat is welcome.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Vince Green

[Sprackles]

I have a small multifuel stove in my front room. I burn coke in it as once its away and damped down, the heat output is amazing and coke useage is low.

Its been in use for over 20 years now and I only had central heating installed a few years ago to satisfy the then missus. I haven't had the heating on again since she departed.

It easily heats the whole house and once its been on a few hours, the chimney breast is hot all the way through and acts as a storage heater when the stove goes out.

I have doors and windows open when its on form because as has been said, the heat output is great.

 

One question though, why are you sure you need a chimney liner, I live in a terrace and mine is the original brick all the way through. No problems at all.

 

EDIT...I have just looked at the regs.....safe to say my home would not comply with them today.

Its over 100 years old and nobody has gassed themselves yet in it or down my street.

I have 3 fireplaces, 2 down and 1 upstairs.

If I wanted a new stove, looking at that lot, I would need holes putting in my brickwork or some other horrendously expensive alterations. I can see the reasoning behind some of these rules and regs but I do think this country is turning into a right bunch of jobsworths.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Sprackles

[Zulu]

We put in a small 5kw Multi Fuel burner last Nov , initial cost was £1700 , that was for burner/all fittings inc double skin flu liner/slab of yorkshire stone /labour/hetas certification .

Initially bought about £75 of wood and that saw us through the winter , together with about £100 of smoke less fuel ( homefire ) , since found a source of free wood but as said above some work involved in cutting/splitting/stacking.

Ours is in the living room and easily warms the down stairs but still needed CH on upstairs for bathrooms etc .

The sunny weather this last week is drying the stacked wood out nicely at the back of the house which gets the sun all day , our house a semi was built in 71 and the pot lined chimney had deteriorated hence the need for a liner .

[Big Marty]

With out doubt mate they are fantastic job.

[Gimlet]

What make of wood burner is it? Their performance as a sole heat source vary a lot. I've got an old Villager. The flue and damper need regular cleaning to stop it smoking and the doors foul up instantly so you can't see through them. But it burns all night with ease and well into the next day. I can keep it going day and night for a month before it needs letting out for cleaning.

Some of the modern air-flow designs that keep the glass clean are very efficient but some rip through the wood and send most of the heat up the chimney - though they look the part. I don't know which are best, but its worth checking you're bought one that is efficient.

Also how good is the insulation in your house? You want to be able to shut down the logburner so its burning as slow as posiible and keep it ticking over to make it economical. Ideally you want the roof insulated with PRI board between the rafters - far better than wool over the ceilings. Eliminate all draughts but ensure the logburner has a vent in the room to maintain airflow. Be very wary of cavity insulation, it can ruin your house and cause terrible damp and condensation problems.

I too get my wood for nothing and my burner is effecient. If I was paying for the wood I reckon it would be costing me £100 a month through the winter, at least.

[kent]

you only get out what you put in it. fill it with pallet wood and it will never get very hot, burn some good seasoned beech logs and its another matter. smokeless coal is your friend in winter as it stays in a lot longer allowing re-stoking with wood without burning out and heating overnight while you sleep. we have a 10kw in the kitchen diner and fully stoked with quality fuel we can eachieve the high twenties early thirties in a room 12 mtrs x 7mtrs and if we leave more doors open it will heat more of the rest of the house, not all but its down to the size.

Good timber very well seasoned is the key to it, if you have to buy good wood in it will cost more than gas or oil. That said if its from your own trees its hard work and takes up a lot of time (you realy do get warm twice with logs )

[Gimlet]

I have a small multifuel stove in my front room. I burn coke in it as once its away and damped down, the heat output is amazing and coke useage is low.

Its been in use for over 20 years now and I only had central heating installed a few years ago to satisfy the then missus. I haven't had the heating on again since she departed.

It easily heats the whole house and once its been on a few hours, the chimney breast is hot all the way through and acts as a storage heater when the stove goes out.

I have doors and windows open when its on form because as has been said, the heat output is great.

 

One question though, why are you sure you need a chimney liner, I live in a terrace and mine is the original brick all the way through. No problems at all.

 

EDIT...I have just looked at the regs.....safe to say my home would not comply with them today.

Its over 100 years old and nobody has gassed themselves yet in it or down my street.

I have 3 fireplaces, 2 down and 1 upstairs.

If I wanted a new stove, looking at that lot, I would need holes putting in my brickwork or some other horrendously expensive alterations. I can see the reasoning behind some of these rules and regs but I do think this country is turning into a right bunch of jobsworths.

 

Your problem isn't building regs- though they like you to think so they can't dictate what you do in your own house, at least until you sell it (though yours being a terrace might be different). Your problem is fire insurance. Yours will be invalid without a liner.

If you have an angled flue there are flexible systems that can be used to avoid knocking holes in the chimney breats to join ceramic liners. I rebuilt all the chimny stacks on a listed row of thatched cottages last year and the landlord fitted new logburners with flexible double-skinned liners and insulation jackets in each property. They were passed by Hetas, Building regs and the insurers. The system he used was Chim-Wrap. (Sorry no link). Its expensive per meter as flexi-liners go but cheaper than ceramic. You do need to vent the void between the liner and the stack to prevent heat and gas build up. We put vents at floor level in the room above the stove (to draw cool air into the flue) and a discreet vent brick under the corbelling at the top of the stack with other vent bricks in the internal flue dividers to cross-vent any redundant flues.

Get it lined. If the chimney is in the party wall a chimney fire could ignite your neighbour's loft, and you would be liable.

[p-a-s]

Many thanks for all the replies,it does seem very encouraging.Just a few answers to some of the questions,it is a spencer serdiac multi stove (now jotul i believe)it has double doors and i should imagine the fire bed is about 30".In the room where i plan to put the stove the chimney breast has been partly removed from floor to about 5 foot up the wall,the chimney throat goes through the passage between my house and the neighbours,hence the need for a liner.Having said that my neighbour has a little stove in his living room without a liner.BUT i want to be safe.

Feeding,i know its a big beast and will take some fodder, a bit like my MRS but i know lots of farmers with plenty of fallen trees,i have the chainsaw,plus the knowledge and experience to use it safely.

What is an average price for having all the gubbins installed with a hetas certificate

Incidently i only paid £25 for the stove,thanks all that have took the time to post.

[berties]

I have been running a log burner and a solid fuel burner rayburn for 25 years,all wood burns as far as I am concerned and you need smaller stuff such as pallet to light it and get some quick heat,as long as the chimney draws you will be in business,I have never lined my log burner chimney and i live in a chalk built cottage and so thats what the chimney is lined of,it gets swept once a year,

A flexable liner you can buy in kit form that you can drop down from the chimney and fit to a cowl on just need to get to the top of the roof.

If you can get logs don't let any thing put you off get going you won't look back,yes its hard work getting the wood done,but then you are saving money

[Thedeerman]

I've just had 2 stoves fitted in my house. The liners cost about £300 a chimney including everything you need to fit. The heat as engineer charged £1020 to fit them both. You're probably looking at £800 to fit it if you get someone else to do it. You can do it yourself and get it checked under a building notice with the council I believe. It takes a lot of free wood to recoup £800!

[pigeonbasher1]

ive just moved into a council bungalow,that i believe to be 40 yars old, any way, i rang them up (the council) during the recent cold weather to ask them to check the heating system, chap came out, went up the loft, on his decent said, the coil in header tank is knackered ill do a report, so a week later i had a letter stating that i will shortly be having a combi boiler fitted, so basicly what happens is they remove the current gas fire and back boiler then just brick up/plaster the hole, question is do i need permission to install a log /multi fuel stove, and what does the job entail, thank in advance, ps ive already bought a stove in anticipation

[njc110381]

I installed our burner myself. It was quite a simple job and the flue cost me about £300 all in with the fittings for each end.

 

With a burner the size of yours you will need a lot of wood. I nearly run our house on our 8kw Clearview and it uses approximately 15m3 of wood over a winter. To buy that would cost you about £800 where I live. The combined energy bill if I remember correctly went down by £50 per month since we put it in, and that was over winter when it would normally go up!

 

If you can get that much free wood then go for it. If you have to buy it in then you can see by the figures it's just not worth it. Pallets are great for getting things up and running so don't write them off as useless. I tend to do the first two fills of the stove with that to get the stove and chimney up to temperature fast before putting larger logs on to save me getting up so often later.

 

One last thing... If you can, get a kettle on it. Electric kettles draw a massive amount of energy for what they are and the burner will keep one ticking over all day for free. I even cook on mine.

[kent]

I installed our burner myself. It was quite a simple job and the flue cost me about £300 all in with the fittings for each end.

 

With a burner the size of yours you will need a lot of wood. I nearly run our house on our 8kw Clearview and it uses approximately 15m3 of wood over a winter. To buy that would cost you about £800 where I live. The combined energy bill if I remember correctly went down by £50 per month since we put it in, and that was over winter when it would normally go up!

 

If you can get that much free wood then go for it. If you have to buy it in then you can see by the figures it's just not worth it. Pallets are great for getting things up and running so don't write them off as useless. I tend to do the first two fills of the stove with that to get the stove and chimney up to temperature fast before putting larger logs on to save me getting up so often later.

 

One last thing... If you can, get a kettle on it. Electric kettles draw a massive amount of energy for what they are and the burner will keep one ticking over all day for free. I even cook on mine.

 

 

I think thats good advice, we run an IRONHEART from ESSE and we find it gets used for 95% of our winter cooking having and oven and two hob plates