Want a wood burner but high cost.

[omits]

I am a DIY freak and not frightened of such a product. Had an estimate and they want £4000 plus another £900 for scaffolding. This includes the complete job with brick hearth. He also said that (unlikely) if the chimney has problems taking a 6" fle liner then the job could get expensive or abort altogether!

First I am going to take out the 4" liner already there and inspect the last section of the chimney where it bends towards the stack. This is at least in the chimney area so if I need to chop into it (say to clear) then that would be done in the loft.

One query I have, what stops me from using a 5" liner? I am going to have a <5KW burner and it will meet the DEFRA regs for that.

Another query is, is the LA cert. sfficient authority to finally approve the installation?

Any input welcome for this project.

 

[big-all]

as long as you realise a wood burner is far more expensive to run than gas central heating

it requires constant tending room for several tonns off wood

so its a life style choice at greater cost and effort

 

[geraldthehamster]

as long as you realise a wood burner is far more expensive to run than gas central heating

it requires constant tending room for several tonns off wood

so its a life style choice at greater cost and effort

We've saved a lot of money with ours, using the gas boiler as an occasional backup. However, I do now spend pretty much half my life collecting timber, asking local farmers if I can cut down their trees, and splitting logs.

Cheers
Richard

 

[big-all]

of course if the wood is free you will save money but at the greater time cost

i have a wood burner in my shed and to save say 1-2kw on an electric fan heater to bring it from say 4degrees to above 12 degrees it would take around 30 mins and an hour with 3-4kw to say 20 degrees
now the wood is free as offcuts and i enjoy the fire but at around 50p an hour saved its not a good return for the hour spent
ok you can boil it down as 10 mins required for the stove but without something else to fill the time it still needs topping up every 8-12 mins to get a good output

 

[geraldthehamster]

of course if the wood is free you will save money but at the greater time cost

i have a wood burner in my shed and to save say 1-2kw on an electric fan heater to bring it from say 4degrees to above 12 degrees it would take around 30 mins and an hour with 3-4kw to say 20 degrees
now the wood is free as offcuts and i enjoy the fire but at around 50p an hour saved its not a good return for the hour spent
ok you can boil it down as 10 mins required for the stove but without something else to fill the time it still needs topping up every 8-12 mins to get a good output

I also now have tennis elbow in one arm, and golfer's elbow in the other, so would only really recommend this course to a younger, or fitter man.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Steve]

£900??? Just to access the chimney top? For that I'd want them to build a roof over the house too!

And £4000 for what exactly? Are these things really this expensive?

Kevin McCloud made his own with an old safe and a thermic lance.

 

[mbga9pgf]

My experience.....

Did it myself in the end, for about 1/5 of the quoted price. And no scaffold.

//www.diynot.com/forums/trade-talk/hetas-engineers-a-bunch-of-lying-so-and-sos.298134/

 

[JBR]

And, of course, you have to store the wood in the correct manner for over a year until properly seasoned.

 

[berniehealy]

We have just put a monstrous 28kw in to run the central heating. to run this we estimate around 8-10 tons of wood from september until may.

Buying the wood will cost around £900 as opposed to £1200 - 1800 for oil(depending on how cold it gets) Great saving, but a lot of work, We get our wood free and always looking for more, We spend around 1 month of solid gathering, sawing, chopping and stacking.

You need to be fit to keep this up, and loads of space to store the wood, needs to be seasoned for at least 1 year. And very very messy.
If all this activity is not for you, buy it in, you will still need to stack it and maybe chop it.

Stoves are easy to fit, and give great heat. Drawbacks are Source, time consuming, and cleaning, get one with a riddler or you will have ash all over the place as you will have to manually rake it. manually empty it, the ash is good for the soil in your garden, but only if it is wood ash.

 

[geraldthehamster]

You need to be fit to keep this up, and loads of space to store the wood, needs to be seasoned for at least 1 year.

I find this last requirement starts to become flexible some time around the end of March

Cheers
Richard

 

[sunshinekid]

I was thinking of installing a multi burner in my property.
The only thing that is stopping me is I believe you have to be a registered installer, like gas safe, etc.
otherwise insurance would not pay out if there was a problem

 

[geraldthehamster]

I was thinking of installing a multi burner in my property.
The only thing that is stopping me is I believe you have to be a registered installer, like gas safe, etc.
otherwise insurance would not pay out if there was a problem

You don't have to be a registered installer. You can install it yourself if you notify Building Control and follow the regulations. They will have to sign it off.

Alternatively you can pay a HETAS registered installer to do it for you, and they can write you a certificate.

Cheers
Richard

 

[dishman]

I concur with the the other post about the economic implications of wood burners. People seem to have gotten the idea that they are cheap and "green".

Despite the press headlines they are more expensive and less "green" than many alternatives.

Compare:

A 2kw gas burning stove (made to look like a wood burner) on for 3 hours a night will cost approximately 9p per hour to run. Over the course of a year, it may cost around £35.

An equivalent wood burning stove may cost £200+ to run!

Unless you have time to collect, prepare and store your own wood, it is not more economic and it is a lifestyle choice.

Furthermore they emit more particulates than a gas stove or fireplace so are less "green". You can get defra approved "clean burn" types, but these are more expensive.....

 

[SimonH2]

Despite the press headlines they are more expensive and less "green" than many alternatives.

And I believe in some areas there are now concerns that it's affecting the ecology of woodlands. Wood that would once have been left to rot is being scavenged by people thinking they are being "green and ecological" which is significantly altering the ecology. Many bugs etc need the rotting wood for food or shelter.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Despite the press headlines they are more expensive and less "green" than many alternatives.

And I believe in some areas there are now concerns that it's affecting the ecology of woodlands. Wood that would once have been left to rot is being scavenged by people thinking they are being "green and ecological" which is significantly altering the ecology. Many bugs etc need the rotting wood for food or shelter.

They do, but I doubt that many people who use a wood burner as a principal source of heating are fuelling it with rotten wood gathered from a forest floor. My timber comes mostly from dead trees in managed farmland that the farmers are glad to have cut down and taken away, and I also know people who buy their logs in.

It's also not true that burning managed timber is less green than burning fossil fuels. The carbon released by burning timber has only recently been taken from the atmosphere is mostly reabsorbed by new trees planted. It would be naïve to call it carbon neutral, but it's nowhere near as damaging as releasing vast quantities of carbon that were sequestered underground millions of years ago.

Cheers
Richard