Wood burning stove

cbell · 9 Nov 2009

Dick Puller said:
Thanks cbell, I think you have cured my insomnia!!!

Your system is dangerous & will not comply with British building regs or water bye-laws!!

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. The system is filled from a header tank with ball-cock.

Sorry about the insomnia though, plenty of sheep round here if you want to come and count them ...

Agile · 9 Nov 2009

My friend in France is English but spends most of the year there. We used to work together until our department was privatised.

He uses a medium size electric chainsaw and I did the cutting up on one day as we had run out of ready cut wood and I was keen to test the new stove which I had installed for him to replace the larger one. I am sure an expert would have cut it faster but the main problem was holding the wood while cutting it.

The original was a well controlled "wood boiler" but gave little heat to the room. The replacement was much smaller but an uncontrolled unit. Both were bought second hand in the UK and taken to France. Its an old stone water mill with about five acres of land mostly covered with very tall mature trees.

Tony

cbell · 9 Nov 2009

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 at least twice a day when cutting hardwood, and if I even just touch the ground or a stone or nail then I've found I also have to re-sharpen.

Also a saw-horse makes a big difference.

Dick Puller · 9 Nov 2009

Install two motorised valves, one in the pipe from boiler............Is this on the Aga or the Wood Stove? Either would be dangerous & an illegal installation!!

In the trade, Heat Stores & Thermal Stores are called 'sludge buckets'. Due to over time, any sludge in your system will gather at this neutral point. Also, with the higher volume of water in your primary system(+210Ltr) that aids corrosion in the system.

cbell · 9 Nov 2009

Dick Puller said:
Install two motorised valves, one in the pipe from boiler............Is this on the Aga or the Wood Stove? Either would be dangerous & an illegal installation!!

In the trade, Heat Stores & Thermal Stores are called 'sludge buckets'. Due to over time, any sludge in your system will gather at this neutral point. Also, with the higher volume of water in your primary system(+210Ltr) that aids corrosion in the system.

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 from the boiler, but the boiler can only fire up when that valve is opened and makes its microswitch - that is how it is wired.

And if that is illegal then surely all fully-pumped systems with motorised valves to their various destinations are illegal.

I suppose sludge could be a problem, although if it collects anywhere I think it would be in the boilers on the wood-burner since they are the lowest point in the system. The system does indeed have a lot of water, but it also has a lot of corrosion inhibitor in it.

We have our own, soft, water supply and sludge build-up in radiators has not been a problem so I'm not that worried.

The boilers in the wood-burner, and indeed the oil-fired boiler itself, will eventually fail - but nothing is forever.

Goldspoon · 9 Nov 2009

Like this?

cbell · 9 Nov 2009

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

Dick Puller · 9 Nov 2009

Oh well, if you don't have a MV on the Stove or the Aga Flow then that's OK, forgive me, I must of missed that bit when I dropped off!!

Sludge collects in the 'sludge bucket', believe me and no amounts of inhibitor will stop that!!

cbell · 9 Nov 2009

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

Norcon · 11 Nov 2009

cbell said:
So what do you do about the sludge? Pressure flush?

Most heating systems sludge up and is preventable but the general consensus amongst plumbers and gas fitters seems to be that when a thermal store is fitted to the system , then the sludge cannot be prevented.
So I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place for advice.
A good heating engineer will advise.

digitaly · 15 Jul 2012

Goldspoon said:
Like this?

Sorry to awake such an old post. But could you attach back the picture?
Regards

diynot

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Wood burning stove

Dick Puller

Goldspoon

Dick Puller

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