wood / log burners

[Rich321]

I couldn't find a suitable category named ' Heating' on this forum which is surprising considering how bloody cold it is living here in the UK - tip to the forum administrator - 'Heating' would be good!!!

So having looked at the increasing bills I keep receiving from those banker gas and electric utility companies (should that be 'W' for both Utility directors and those fat Bankers?) I've been reading up on dual fuel, wood and log burners.

As far as I can tell, the prices for log burners range from £200 - £2500, though it's not rocket science. In simple terms, put log in enclosed box which is burned, gives off heat = room warm.

What may differ is the quality of construction and the number of regulations and the nanny state penpushing standards passed and handsomely paid for.

Can anyone who has experience of using these natural wood or log fuel burner systems make comment or recommendation?

 

[Norcon]

http://www.whatstove.co.uk/

Also try the navitron forum. Very informative in the solid fuel section.
Mostly gas guru's here.

 

[muggles]

This one is called "plumbing and central HEATING" that should do you...

Villager and Hamlet make good woodburning stoves at fairly reasonable prices, they also have back boiler options which is good if you want to use your fire to heat your hot water, for example.

Note though that, unless you've got a ready supply of free wood, it's not actually really any cheaper to run than any other heating system. And coal/solid fossil fuel prices have gone through the roof in the past couple of months, with more increases expected in the new year.

You'll need a HETAS registered installer to put your log burner in, and if your chimney's unsuitable you'll need to have it lined. Approved flexi flue liner is about £50 per metre.

 

[jlacd]

I put one in my previous house, and it was absolutely brilliant - I'd love to be able to get one in here (would need a chimney built first!)

Price differences are down to construction. The more expensive ones are cast iron, which is better. Cheaper ones are steel, which apparently dosen't last as long. Ours was steel, and was fine. There are obviously various options to plumb in DHW / CH as well, which all adds to the cost. We just used ours as a room heater (and with the door open - the whole house!)

Chimney cleaning is not a problem if you *only* burn well seasoned (3 years) wood. As soon as you look at coal or wet pine, you're into tarry deposits. Ash is minimal with wood / peat too - we cleaned ours out once a month at most. They burn better on a deep bed of ash anyway.

Can be free to run, if you live in the country and can gather your own fallen trees, or on the coast, if there's a lot of driftwood. I can't emphasise enough how important it is for your wood to be WELL seasoned. You can buy in seasoned hardwood (£40 / tonne when I last bought 8 years ago) for a couple of years while you build up your own woodpile. Which is another thing .... you'll need a decent amount of covered outdoor space for that (or buy a cheap shed).

Finally, when it's running full tilt, don't be tempted to think of it as somewhere to keep your chinky warm while you nip to the offy for a cairry-oot. I did that once, and came back to a tin-tray full of carbon - they run B****Y hot, so be aware if you have pets / kids.

Can't recommend highly enough - go for it.

 

[Rich321]

Muggles, thanks for your tip but I'm more into SEO so thought a seperate forum would benefit the forum ranking on search engine ranking. As to costs, I cannot believe a flue liner costs £50 per metre. A flue is just an exhaust pipe in layman terms. 5" is 125mm and I'm not aware of any normal tubing costing so much even for stainless steel.

jlacd, steel rusts away quicker than cast iron, but on a realistic timescale of perhaps 100 years is nthing to worry about. Stainless steel in this application rarely rusts but cannot be cast though is good for registration plates.

BTW, jlacd, you could always buy a log burner and stick a hole out of the wall for the flue.

Following your comments I've been looking on using many external fuel sources and areas to store wood piles.

 

[oilman]

Our heating IS a woodburner. www.clearviewstoves.com. Steel stoves built properly are no problem. There is a big difference between these apparently basic boxes with a fire inside. The old and/or cheap will eat a lot of wood for the heat. The better ones will heat the house for a bucket of wood a night.

 

[jlacd]

BTW, jlacd, you could always buy a log burner and stick a hole out of the wall for the flue.

Eh, what?

We already have a hole in the wall - for a cr4p "living flame" gas fire with mechanical flue (a big fan) that is expensive to run, noisy, and the fan sooks most of the heat and spits it out the wall. Are you telling me I could use the hole for a wood burner without a "proper" chimney? I don't get it - I thought you needed the chimney to get the "draw" to make the fire go? What are the regs on this?

 

[Rich321]

jlacd, heat rises so any heat generated by any fire will rise. A flue is only a posh name for a tube to exhaust the hot gases.

There are safety regulations in place for distance and height of exhaust stack or chimney from your property (call it what you will).

Take a look at www.trustcorgi.com/ for these safety gas rules and installations.

 

[jlacd]

jlacd, heat rises so any heat generated by any fire will rise. A flue is only a posh name for a tube to exhaust the hot gases.

There are safety regulations in place for distance and height of exhaust stack or chimney from your property (call it what you will).

Take a look at www.trustcorgi.com/ for these safety gas rules and installations.

Thanks Rich... I'm not interested in gas again, but if I could put another wood-burner into the existing space, with minimal disruption I'd be a happy bunny!

 

[muggles]

Muggles, thanks for your tip but I'm more into SEO so thought a seperate forum would benefit the forum ranking on search engine ranking. As to costs, I cannot believe a flue liner costs £50 per metre. A flue is just an exhaust pipe in layman terms. 5" is 125mm and I'm not aware of any normal tubing costing so much even for stainless steel.

OK it does depend on what size you buy, 5" is cheaper - around £25-30/m - but I was assuming you'd be buying a larger stove that would need a larger liner. You MUST use a class 1 liner with solid fuel, and it's recommended that you go up a size when you convert from the rigid flue on the top of your stove to the flexi in the chimney, so if your stove connection is 5" you should use a 6" flexi flue liner.

 

[dazmaster9]

hi
we live in south france where everyone has a log burner, the government even give rebates on the purchase of them as they are seen as a green fuel here.

anyway, i had a log burner in the place when we moved in, it was rubbish, but ALL due to the installation, I cannot emphasie how important the installation is, its not rocket science, but its all about air flow, get enough air around the iron box so the air gets heated to warm the room/house, poor air flow = no real benefit, our one that was already installed how no air from under it or to the sides and a tiny hole in the outside wall to let fresh air in, that was about 1/10th the size of the chimney, which meant when you opened the door it smoked you out due to a depression in the room. i have just installed a new one in the house i am renovating and boy is it good.

over here you have your fire and you box in the chimney piece and line this in rock wool etc, this box is just fireproof plasterboard, anyway this box gets hot, you have a pipe in this box that is fitted to a fan unit with a thermostat, when the air temp is warm enouhg the fan comes on and circulates the warm air around the house, lovely, works a treat. would recommend this to anyone putting a log burner, get the air moving around the house.

with regards purchase, i would try to get a log burner with a swing out door (left ot right) and a door that has a cantilever so the door also opens up and inside the hood and out the way for an open fire, nice also try to get a burner as wide as possible, 50cm+ so you can put 50cm+ logs in it, there are some small ones out there, but you have to keep chucking on logs, and the smaller the logs the more you pay for your wood due to the cuts. try to ensure your log burner has an ash tray, many don't... if it doesnt you have to let your fire burn out to empty the ash out, with a tray you can keep it burning and give it a little empty, but, these fires do like a nice bed of ash to work best.

try to find one with lots of dials on to regulate air flow, if you can regulate the air flow you control the burn rate, so you can have it just on a red amber and logs last ages rather than just burning away in minutes... and you can also 'close' it down to keep it smouldering over night so its nice and warm in the morning and you can just throw another log on, i cannot emphasize enough the more air dial controls the better, one shoudl also close the chimney as well to stop it pulling to much.

good luck, easy to install and use, tehy are just a big cast iron box, very heavy but if fitted with good air flow they work great.

 

[Rich321]

Hi everyone and thanks for the information and keep it coming. Am sure many more people will be throwing out their gas and electric fires and replacing them with a log burner if the prices keep rising.

I'm interested in the fact that the French government are giving rebates on these log burners, this is something the UK government should be obliged to do what with being in the EU and all that

I've been advised to open up the fireplace to allow approx 250mm gap on each side of the log burner to allow air movement which in turn will heat the room. If the gap is too tight the airflow is reduced.

Something which surprised me was to match the size of log burner to the size of the room - too small and you don't heat the room up enough, and too big and you have to throttle the thing back which makes for inefficient use of the logs.

One thing to bear in mind is whether you are in a smokeless zone, if this is the case then you should use a DEFRA approved log-burner to keep on the right side of the authorities - in reality as long as you're not burning plastic and other undesirable items then I doubt your neighbours will be complaining - this also is the case for burning dry wood so don't try burning freshly cut down trees! I think this is something to do with the moisture content of the wood which when burned reduces the temperature and generates huge quantities of steam and other undesirable products.

Once again, anyone with experience of using a log or wood burner please make comment.

 

[kablamar]

Have you considered one of these

http://www.esse.com/stoves/multifuel_wood/300.html

They fit into an existing fireplace and are easy to install. I bought one last year (the 300 model) and fitted it in my kitchen fireplace. The heat output is amazing. I burn a mix of wood and coal.

 

[Rich321]

Have you considered one of these

http://www.esse.com/stoves/multifuel_wood/300.html

They fit into an existing fireplace and are easy to install. I bought one last year (the 300 model) and fitted it in my kitchen fireplace. The heat output is amazing. I burn a mix of wood and coal.

Thanks for the recommendation, I've taken a look at the site but no prices are provided, it looks like a very modern design which is what I'm looking for - also liked the look of the 525 multi-fuel/woodburning stove.

I've also been looking over the Morso 6140 but it seems hellish expensive, and the Firebelly FB1 which is a 6KW stove.

 

[welsford46]

Our heating IS a woodburner. www.clearviewstoves.com. Steel stoves built properly are no problem. There is a big difference between these apparently basic boxes with a fire inside. The old and/or cheap will eat a lot of wood for the heat. The better ones will heat the house for a bucket of wood a night.

I'm with oilman - clear view stoves are excellent - not the cheapest but definitley best value and the icing on the cake is they are made in England. They comply with smokeless zones too

You can also add a heat exchanger subsequently if you want to power your central heating.


I understannd though there is quite a waiting list given the recent high fuel prices.


We love out log burner it heats the whole house!