Phil Pascoe
Established Member
I've just agreed with Jacob ............ I've come over all unnnecessary ........... 
Wood burner fan
- Thread starter gregmcateer
- Start date
Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
I used to replace some/all firebricks on my picturesque Morso Squirrel every year, and the cast iron baffle quite often too. Probably added 25% on top of the fuel cost. Also it'd take much longer to heat up.
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Don't worry about it Phil, everybody agrees with me in the end!I've just agreed with Jacob ............ I've come over all unnnecessary ...........
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
My Clearview worked out at £400 over every three years.
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
I worry more when they agree with you in the beginning.
Droogs
Not the Sharpest Moderator in the box
All I know is as the woodstove is the only source of heat in my gaff at this time, if the fan is on top of it and points towards SWMBO, my ears get a rest from how bloody cold it is. So yeah they are absolutely worth it
I have never felt the need for any additional air circulation with my multi-fuel stove, but it's not recessed. When I pre-installed it, I drilled a hole through the wall below and behind the stove for the air intake. The alternative was a vent above the door, but that would have caused a cold draft coming from behind the seats.
artie
Sawdust manufacturer.
I piped in the cold air from outside for mine. There is a fitting on the bottom of the stove to attach it to.
No draughts and sitting here at 11:36 having my coffee, RH is 35% the stove hasn't been lit since last night
Last edited:
Blackswanwood
Still Learning
Jameshow
Established Member
Over the past 20 years I've had three stoves
A dursley highlander 5 (steel)
2nd house
Nestor Martin 23 (cast iron)
The Nestor Martin was so bad we replaced it with a Ottowa 12 stove off eBay. (Steel)
Which is far quicker to heat up, burns better, stays clear, produces less ash and has a bigger ash pan.
No competition despite the nestor Martin being a "high end stove"
Cheers James
Woody2Shoes
Impressive Member
I knew you'd say that Jacob, because you mentioned your preference a while back on another thread!
Fire bricks concentrate the heat so that the wood reaches, and stays at, a high temperature while it's burning - this is vital to minimise smoke/tar production. If you look at all the stoves which are certified for use in a smoke control area or are "ready" for the more strict eco rules (the name of which I can't remember and can't be bothered to google), they all have fire bricks or an equivalent thermal "nest" for efficient combustion - simply because achieving certification would be nigh on impossible without them.
I think that as far as cast iron is concerned, there's less of an efficiency argument - more of a thermal mass argument in favour of stable operating temperatures.
Cheers, W2S
Woody2Shoes
Impressive Member
I think you've been doing something wrong. All my (three) stoves are Morsos, but not Squirrels, and are used daily for several months a year. I've been through two sets of firebricks in twenty years!
Woody2Shoes
Impressive Member
I note from the sales description that the Ottawa 12 has both fire bricks and a cast iron backplate. I rest my case, m'lud...
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Followed directions fairly carefully as far as I recal.
Do you burn solid fuel? I did and don't think the stove was durable enough - bricks would crumble etc.
Probably a lot better (for the stove) to just burn wood, but then you need a much bigger stove to get enough heat out.
Woody2Shoes
Impressive Member
I sometimes burn anthracite, but I find it is more chemically agressive and it stains the glass - normally just dry hardwood (oak/ash/beech/hawthorn etc.). Anthracite normally reserved for the Rayburn, which is multifuel, but keeping that fed with wood instead would leave me with no time for much else!
Last edited:
stevek
Established Member
A very intresting post, esp the video, we have a Workzone fan (Aldi) and its two bladed, sitting on top of our Jotal cast iron stove, and I really cannot feel or detect anything in the way of draught when its running, I tried smoke but of course the heat from the stove just carries it up and holding a thin strip of tissue paper in front of it doesnt really result in anything like air movement, we still use it but I was not convinced it worked strongly enough to overcome the convection of the stove. Our stove sits in an inglenook fireplace so the idea of blowing air which would also draw and circulate air around the stove is attractive. What really intrested me was the fan that did not work,,it was spinning away just like the others so how would it not work? must be something to do with blade angles I would think,,might be worth experimenting. I have at various times thought about rigging up a small and quiet electric fan in the fireplace and seeing what effect that has, in fact thats the thing that might work best?
Steve.
Steve.
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Could work - cheaper to run than to buy a collection of Eco fans.
We had an old Turtle stove in a very big old fireplace and to make it work the chimney opening was well sealed and insulated (except for the pipe obviously) and there was a back panel tilting forwards to encourage air flow into the room.
You can't get the turtles nowadays of course.
you need to line the brick due to oxidation if you're burning solid fuel. but better to burn solid fuel would be a stove explicitly designed for it. The multipurpose stoves generally aren't that great.
We burned wood for about 12 years when I was a kid and then switched to all oil once oil was cheap in the late 80s. Both sets of grandparents burned oil and coal, with one changing to wood in retirement (because that grandparent started commercially cutting and delivering wood - he was farming prior running a fairly large operation and burned oil due to lack of time to keep up with wood or be at the house to stoke wood).
At any rate, airtight stove - 3400 square feet of old stone house, 8 cords per year. That's a lot of wood, but for the house, not that much. No firebricks - the stove was welded steel, but very thick, we kept several inches of ashes in it rather than faffing with firebricks (same effect).
The point of bricks in stoves is probably to keep the burn temp up as well at the bottom of the stove, but we didn't pay attention to that. Despite comments to the contrary here about heat distribution, we ran a fan at low speed near the stove else the house was relatively cold and very hot at the stove. Perhaps 80F or more in the side of the room the stove was on and 60F on the far side of the house (house was a 45 foot square with a circular run around it).
Adding a low volume fan (probably only slightly more than the stove top powered stove) was well worth it. If I had a stove in an open area, I'd have one of those stove top fans - you only need small gradual movement to make a very large difference. The gradual push of the air around our "circle" in the downstairs of the house rose the far side temperature almost 10 degrees. And garnered comments from relatives "what kind of ***** uses a fan in the winter...do you need to cool down or something?"
Woody2Shoes
Impressive Member
I think you were benefiting from the "de-stratification" effect I first mentioned. Most of the heat from a convector goes upwards - and tends to stay there (there can be a 5C+ difference in our sitting room between floor height and ceiling height) - stirring it up a bit does help (probably disproportionately if you study the psycho/phsyiological benefits of warmer feet!).
PS I read that some parts of the US mandate catalytic converters in flues to try and mitigate the air pollution (from burning conifers perhaps, or maybe from using inefficient, poorly designed stoves without airbricks!)
Woody2Shoes
Impressive Member
A friend did exactly this - he used a fan from an ATX PSU. His stove was in a very confined space in what had been a fireplace intended for a gas fire - he thus got little or no convection around his stove, and the fan was a small help until the surrounding masonry started to warm up. I think that if your stove is installed to allow proper convection, then you would get less benefit from a fan - except perhaps from a de-stratifying effect.
