Wood burning stove

[DrPhill]

Seconded, they are very helpful folk.

 

[The Bear]

I've had a quick look at the green living forum and it looks very good. In fact I also have questions on cavity wall insulation and off grid boilers (new house is oil with 30 year old boiler, wood stove is part of that renovation) that I think it will be very useful for too.

Thanks for the link

mark

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There was an article in the property supplement of the Saturday Telegraph a few weeks ago where it was maintained that cavity wall insulation was not a good idea in areas with extremes of weather. Someone had it, had problems and was trying (fairly, I thought) to get someone to take responsibility. If that's the case it's worth researching. I'd have thought that the worse the weather conditions the more the need for insulation, but what do I know.

 

[The Bear]

Phil with regard to cwi I have read you shouldn't install it if you suffer from wind driven rain. My new place is at 400 ft so quite high therefore I need to be careful. I am fairly sheltered by the hill behind and trees but in the 6 weeks I've been here I'm not sure if this is an issue for me

Mark

 

[pip1954]

Hi we have just had a multi fuel stove fitted in my opinion best get hey as regards people it will be fitted right and you get a cert for the fitting you also get car on monoxide meter should be in there price as it is a requirement I would wait till room is sorted as you will need to get them to move it ( paying twice) our stove is in a old chimney breastfeeding but weighed up wether to my go inside the breast or outside about same cost but by going outside we had twin wall flue (25 year lifespan) instead of single wall (10 life span) and if it does ever catch fire moSt is out side (we live in bungalow) our flue was £1200 about four meters we had quotes from others over £1500 some nearly £2000 some did not get back to me so get a couple of quotes there is a hetas register online where you can search your area for them
any questions please me

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'm surprised there's any cwi in West Cornwall -we've near perpetual (sometimes near horizontal) wind driven rain.

 

[woodfarmer]

dont know why, but I posted on this thread yesterday and the post has disappeared

 

[hanser]

In my experience of installing and running 4 stoves in 2 houses I would tend to go for higher output stoves than the conventional stove sizing calcs would suggest but not too large. The logic being that running smaller stoves hot will reduce the life of the stove and require more frequent filling with smaller sized logs. Also, we now seem to live in slightly more troubled times and the log burner gets you to be independent of gas/electricity in the event of power cuts/storms etc. A flat top could also give the option of slow cooked casseroles etc. Consider also what type of stove - woodburner, multifuel, radiant or convector.

You may get 'freeish' logs from a mate but these tend to be more more gnarly difficult to split stuff that the firewood guys cant be bothered to convert. It takes a lot of work and you should start now if you are thinking of a stove in 12 -18 months time - get a chainsaw now and start stacking, get PPE, a bit of training, a couple of mauls, splitting wedges, build a log store, hope your dear wife doesn't mind the garden being given over to log processing and storage and that your neighbours don't mind you using the chainsaw at weekends. Finally, don't expect the kids to help out -they probably won't :roll:

This question has been asked before on this forum - might be some useful info there. Above all speak with the stove installers but like any trades there will be gooduns and not so. I think a couple of vendors lurk on Green Living and they seem to give straight advice.

Sorry for the verbage but as you appreciate there is a lot for you to think about.

A pile I did earlier this year

 

[Mark A]

We had a woodburner in our previous house and it was absolutely fantastic. As the house was for sale we went for a cheap stove (an Arada AX2 5KW costing about £250 from a local firm) and the installation came to around £1250 all in. After the first year we had almost fully recuperated what we had paid out by drastically cutting our oil bill.

Don't automatically dismiss the lower priced stoves. Mine worked faultlessly and only needed a few firebricks and one baffle plate in the time we had it (and the stove was used about eight months of the year)

As for firewood, we burnt whatever we could find - pallets, bits of waste construction timber, off-cuts of joists and beams from our local reclaim yard. With practice we became quite efficient at processing pallets - one time we managed to cut up 31 in little over 90 minutes, and they kept us going for a few weeks.

The woodburner is the only thing I miss from our old house!

Mark

 

[The Bear]

Guys I really appreciate all your thoughts and experiences. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks me and the mrs will be off work the same day and we can visit a couple of stove showroom places for their take as well. Hopefully I'm armed with a bit more info now to question and challenge them if something sounds not right. I want to wait to install until we do our major renovations, the mrs wants it done sooner. And I've already started the log pile regardless of what we do by taking some trees down in my own garden. Hawthorn (gone wild and way too big) and a hazelnut tree (looked a mess and growing right next to an oak). Need a few oak branches trimmed as well.

Mark