Recent content by cbell

That's pretty much what I've got made up. That's the easy bit! Crawling around in the roof among glass-fibre insulation, draining down, adding and lagging new pipes, putting in the pump and wiring ... that's the hard bit! I wish someone would design a pump with sufficient free flow area...

The answer to your "did I get it sorted?" question is "yes and no". My problem was that if I had a hot thermal store, but allowed the stove to go out, then relighting the stove sucked hot water down the pipe to the stove causing convection to stall and - effectively - reverse. I avoided...

So what do you do about the sludge? Pressure flush?

Nice image - yes, exactly like that, I should really have drawn it in the first place but I was being lazy.

There are no valves on the Aga (which is a totally separate system), there are also no valves on the pipes between stove and heat store. It would, I agree, contravene building regs to have a valve in a pipe from an uncontrolled heat source. There is indeed a motorised valve on the pipe...

I'm surprised it was so slow. My chainsaw is 2-stroke, 18" bar, and so long as the chain is sharp it makes short work of logs up to about 14" diameter. The key is "sharp". Perhaps he needs to invest in a sharpening file - I think it might revolutionise his life. I have to sharpen my saw...

How is it dangerous? It's an open vented system, so it can't build up any pressure and explode, and it has a mechanism for dumping excess heat. And how on earth can it not comply with water bye-laws? There is no direct connection between the CH system and the domestic hot or cold water...

Seasoned and split wood ready for burning around here was at least £100/ton delivered last winter although, as you say, it is difficult to relate volume to weight since what you get is a "load". I should think it is more this winter, although I haven't tried to buy any. I've read elsewhere...

I think the concept is definitely the right way to mix multiple heat sources, I just object to the cost of the turn-key systems. Over £1000 for a "heat store" is silly money. Also the lack of sensible and/or sensibly priced control systems: I built my own for a grand total of £50, of...

We have an oil-fired Aga that heats the domestic HW cylinder via an indirect coil. The CH system also has a (second) indirect coil in the same cylinder, so the wood-burner can be used to heat domestic HW via the CH piping and pump. Incidentally the domestic HW cylinder is not the same as...

Sorry, a bit slow to see this thread. I have successfully plumbed a wood-burner with a back (and top, and sides) boiler into our existing oil-fired central heating system. The existing CH system was open and vented, stop here if yours is not! It was done as follows: Install a heat...

I got the impression it was in the roof. More to the point his plumber was still puzzled after 10 days and, as far as I can see, there was no resolution of the problem. I prefer valves giving positive control of flow. Perhaps we need to write that mythical text-book on the subject!

Well I could only start from where I was at and yes, I've got a hybrid system ... which is exactly what I wanted. I've added two valves: one to isolate the oil-fired boiler and one to isolate the heat store. Hardly complex! Compare my diagram with the Dunsley one...

I'd figured that out for myself! A pipe to the outside world fits the bill. That occurred to me when I read your post last night. I had assumed that two vents would be enough, but I hadn't considered the freezing aspect of the matter. You've convinced me: we're going to install a pressure...

No shooting on my part. I think the Dunsley neutraliser is a good solution for boosting a CH system from a relatively small stove, but I believe it would be trickier to use it for a fully pumped system taking heat from a large wood-burner for all the reasons I gave. Remember that my...