Log burner

[lurker]

Following on from the heating oil thread...........

Sometime in the next six months, we will be buying a log burner, mainly for free heat from scavenged wood but also as a backup if the power fails.

Obviously I will be buying from an reputable company, but would like some background information .

What technically is the difference between a wood burner and a multi fuel one ?
Any recommendations regarding brand.

 

[MikeG.]

Pay very close attention to the air supply. Many woodburners will accept a piped air supply, so can draw in fresh air directly from outside, thus not producing any drafts in the room. If your fireplace is close to an outside wall then this is far and away the best arrangement. I found stovesonline to be a comprehensive and invaluable resource, and bought through them with no hassle at all. By the way, expect to pay more for the flue than you do for the woodburner.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Another long post gone to the ether.

https://www.dowlingstoves.com/
I have one, it's brilliant. The attraction to me was the other than the glass there is nothing that ever needs replacing. The info. on woodburners and multi fuels is there. I know others have done better than I did with Clearviews but my Clearview was costing me £300 every four years in replacement grids, bricks, etc. The site is worth reading through even if not considering one.

 

[NikNak]

What technically is the difference between a wood burner and a multi fuel one ?
Any recommendations regarding brand.

see here.... https://www.stovax.com/frequently-asked ... appliance/

We've got a Stovax Studio Inset, so all you see is a chrome trim and a glass door (just fills the hole where there used to be an open fire). Had it for 6/7yrs and apart from empty/clean it never spent anything else, although its just about due for a replacement door gasket.

I think i'm right in saying you can buy from wherever you like but it has to be installed by someone/member of a recognised body, but happy to be corrected on that.

 

[MikeG.]

You can install a woodburner yourself, but it then has to be inspected by the local authority Building Control.

 

[garethharvey]

There are burners and then there are burners.

We have two, a villager flatmate which is 7-8 kw and a burley debdale which is 4kw. The villager burns wood at about 4 times the rate of the burley and throws out around the same heat.

The burley is incredible. It uses hardly any wood and gives a good heat. The only issue is the price.

 

[toolsntat]

If you need a man Jim, I can recommend Matthew Cartwright.
Not just a sweep by the way :wink:

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... 2447691;mv:[[52.5773212,-1.3117512],[52.534062899999995,-1.5204027]];tbs:lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!1m4!1u2!2m2!2m1!1e1!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:14

Cheers Andy

 

[Marineboy]

I decided to buy a wood burner several years ago for my back room. When starting to research I came across this company: https://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk

The website is brilliant, and gives detailed advice about all aspects of stove fitting, as well as reviews and opinions on a wide range of stoves. You can do as much or as little of the preparation and fitting as you feel confident to do, bearing in mind that opening up a fireplace can be tricky, and always of course you need to get the installation signed off by a HETAS registered fitter. The company supplies all the materials necessary as well as the stoves.

In the end I went for the DG Ivar 5kw. Not cheap, but this Dutch stove is very robust (and heavy) and superbly engineered. In practice I have been extremely pleased with it, so much so that 3 months later I bought another for the front room. In use, they burn very powerfully but economically and are extremely controllable, using just the one air lever instead of the 2 or more that most other stoves use. It has a beautiful minimalist design with a huge viewing window, which by the way does not get sooty due to the efficiency of the burn.

One important tip - use decent fuel. I buy kiln dried ash logs. Also get a stove top fan, which does a great job in pushing heat out into the room.

 

[MikeG.]

......you need to get the installation signed off by a HETAS registered fitter.......

You don't. You can get Building Control to inspect it.

 

[D_W]

multifuel stoves here in the states aren't as good at burning wood as a wood only stove.

multifuel here in pellet types usually means wood pellets or corn (maybe pea coal? probably not) and in wood, generally wood, coal or biomass. Coal stoves are obviously built a lot heavier, especially the grate area, to deal with the coal heat (and maybe it's corrosive - not sure - all fire oxidizes metal).

I wouldn't fool with them unless you think you're going to burn something other than wood.

 

[Phlebas]

I have a Dovre Astroline in a very large main room, and a Stovax Brunel 1 in a smaller room. The former is 9-11kW, the latter 2-6kW, I think.

They are both out in the room, rather than inside a chimney breast, which makes a big difference to effect of the heat given out. Both work absolutely fine, the only observation I would make is that the Astroline needs to be run close to full chat to burn cleanly. Which is ok if you live halfway up a Scottish hill, but otherwise you may end up a bit warm.

Oh, and don't burn rubbish scavenged wood. Really, just don't.

 

[Inspector]

Curious what heating with wood does to your house insurance? Here it raises the rates a lot and some carriers will not insure you at all.

Pete

 

[Phlebas]

Curious what heating with wood does to your house insurance? Here it raises the rates a lot and some carriers will not insure you at all.

Pete

Personal experience only, but in the UK for my buildings (Category A and B listed), nothing - it is not even a question our brokers have ever specifically asked. Flues need to be swept as per recommendations, which is generally once a year. Unless of course you have thatch, where your insurance will be way higher anyway.

At our place in Sweden we were told it was a legal obligation (rather than covering your bottom for insurance purposes) to have the flue certified as ok every year. Comes to the same thing, I guess.

 

[lurker]

The bungalow we are doing up is on an estate of bungalows, as a consequence most of our neighbours are knocking on a bit. I am 66 and relatively a young un .

Apparently a few years ago one of the neighbours did a diy stove installation and nearly burned the place down :shock: just ran the uninsulated chimney through the roof :roll:
Rumour has it that the council prosecuted him. Virtually every new neighbour has told me to avoid employing him as he has been branded a cowboy. as a result.
They are all lovely people, including the cowboy, who has some nice wadkin cast iron he inherited from his dad.

 

[MikeG.]

Curious what heating with wood does to your house insurance? Here it raises the rates a lot and some carriers will not insure you at all.

As far as I am aware, the only time it makes a difference to your house insurance is if you have a thatched roof. Even then it's just an academic exercise as almost every last thatched building in Britain will have a chimney and either an open fire or two, or a woodburner or two.

 

[Bm101]

I spent a good while trying to find a link to an excellent web resource in my favourites history. Then Marineboy posted it while I was out robbing some hazel coppice from Lea Valley Authority with the kids to make peasticks. *evil laughter*
Well worth a trip down the rabbit hole Lurker.
https://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/

 

[TFrench]

I got extremely lucky with mine. House came with an awful unbranded ugly little stove. I swapped it with my uncle a few years later when he sold his house for his nice Aga one What you get for being an *** trying to chisel money on buying a house. Fitted myself (it's easy) and I sweep it myself once a year. So far in 6 years I've not bought any fuel for it!

 

[woodhutt]

Curious what heating with wood does to your house insurance? Here it raises the rates a lot and some carriers will not insure you at all.

Pete

Down here in Godzone the only requirement to satisfy the insurers is to have your flue swept annually. The receipt from the sweep (or his records if you forget to grab it as you flee the burning building) is all that is required.
I'm with other members who advise on not burning scavenged wood. Use well seasoned and preferably non-resinous varieties.
Another Pete

 

[Phlebas]

preferably non-resinous varieties.
Another Pete

Don't discount resinous wood. Open fires you need a screen, otherwise, if you appreciate the difference, and it is seasoned it is fine.

 

[D_W]

resinous wood can be burned safely, but it requires intentionally hopping up the stack temp once a day or so - opening everything up, letting it run hot for some period of time and then shutting things back down.

Can is sort of like a lot of things - you can do it. I doubt most people are committed enough to do it practically, though. We only burned hardwoods and still found ourselves with the fire department at home (despite an annual cleaning) when we changed from an efficient low stack temp stove to something decorative (switched over to oil in the 1990s). The amount of "stuff" left after cleanings was still enough to create an uncontrolled chimney fire and upon accumulation part of the way down, swell the chimney shut.

I don't think anyone uses stoves like that these days (fortunately). Their magic back then (perceived) was that they could slow the movement of air through the stove significantly (lowering the stack temp and burning a load of wood much longer and leaving more heat in the house), but the tail end of the burn didn't have oxygen to complete - even hardwoods became a huge problem with it. All of our wood was always seasoned at least a full year, covered on top of the stack, sides open and out in the open. Just a bad stove design because it didn't allow what's mentioned above - something to burn the volatiles out of the stack.