How much wood have you used/will you use?

[neiln]

52 minutes ago, Big J said:

It's a cold house and the stove isn't great. I had a similar sized stove from the Champion Stove Company at our old house in Scotland and it was more efficient. 

 

The stove is on pretty much 24/7, as we're not using the heating. About 17c in the morning in the living room, and 23-24c by the time we go to bed. It's not excessive

 

similar temps here.  2 little 5kW stoves in a through lounge/dinner room heat the whole house.  girls bedroom at the back of the house is furthest from the stoves and has 3 external walls so is coldest room.  thermostat there is 18.5C right now 22.something here in the lounge, it'll be up another half or full degree by bed time, then 17C in the girls bedroom by morning and 18C down here.  this is a typical between the wars semi of around 130m2 I think  its not cavity wall, just 9 inch brick and loses a lot of heat.  I started burning on an off in september on one stove, was probably full time on one by early October and then I run 2 if the outside temp is 7C or below, like tonight.  So second stove has been on a fair bit since late October.

 

I'm stunned Big J that you could munch through 11 cube.. wow!

[Big J]

1 minute ago, neiln said:

similar temps here.  2 little 5kW stoves in a through lounge/dinner room heat the whole house.  girls bedroom at the back of the house is furthest from the stoves and has 3 external walls so is coldest room.  thermostat there is 18.5C right now 22.something here in the lounge, it'll be up another half or full degree by bed time, then 17C in the girls bedroom by morning and 18C down here.  this is a typical between the wars semi of around 130m2 I think  its not cavity wall, just 9 inch brick and loses a lot of heat.  I started burning on an off in september on one stove, was probably full time on one by early October and then I run 2 if the outside temp is 7C or below, like tonight.  So second stove has been on a fair bit since late October.

 

I'm stunned Big J that you could munch through 11 cube.. wow!

The throughput has always been pretty similar for the last 8 years or so. We've topped 40 cube a few times on the colder winters in Scotland. Going 6-7 weeks without the fire actually going out. 

 

I'm not exactly sure what the construction of the farmhouse is, but it's terrible for heat retention and heat avoidance. We got the keys last June and it was 27c inside for a couple of weeks. 

 

Compared to the last house, having an insulated flue here (as opposed to a clay pipe) doesn't help as there is no heat dispersal upstairs through the wall (as there was at the old house).

 

I'm just glad it's only rented, as the house would be best demolished and rebuilt.

[Silverhooker]

Average 15 cube a year with 2 stoves in the house, try to use the stoves as much as possible to keep the heating oil use down. Mostly a mixture of larch and sycamore get it for nowt just my time and effort. Used a lot this year already as it’s been wet and cold in Cumbria.

[Big J]

10 minutes ago, neiln said:

similar temps here.  2 little 5kW stoves in a through lounge/dinner room heat the whole house.  girls bedroom at the back of the house is furthest from the stoves and has 3 external walls so is coldest room.  thermostat there is 18.5C right now 22.something here in the lounge, it'll be up another half or full degree by bed time, then 17C in the girls bedroom by morning and 18C down here.  this is a typical between the wars semi of around 130m2 I think  its not cavity wall, just 9 inch brick and loses a lot of heat.  I started burning on an off in september on one stove, was probably full time on one by early October and then I run 2 if the outside temp is 7C or below, like tonight.  So second stove has been on a fair bit since late October.

 

I'm stunned Big J that you could munch through 11 cube.. wow!

Been working it out: 

 

11 stacked cube is exactly 3 cord (easiest to find BTU conversion for cord). With dry white ash, that's 71m BTU. Assume 70% efficiency on stove, so output of 49.7m BTU. Oil has 138500BTU per US gallon (3.78l). 90% efficiency on an oil boiler means 124650 BTU per US Gal, or 32976 BTU/litre. 49.7m BTU divided by 32976 brings you to an equivilent of 1507 litres of heating oil. For 16 weeks of continuous heating, that's an oil price (at £0.53/l) equivilent of £7.13/day. I don't think that that is excessive. Another way of looking at it is that it's a continuous heat output of 5.8kw, when averaged out over 16 weeks, or just over 5 pence per kilowatt hour (if you were buying it as oil, rather than logs).

 

Hope that breaking it down like this explains the usage.

[neiln]

The maths seems okay to me and 7 quid a day on oil doesn't sound nuts, although a bit high for autumn and early winter maybe?  dunno really..I'm on mains gas.

Jeez it would cost  lot oto het on oil for a winter though! 

 

[adrian007]

We're renting an old farmhouse, with a big old log burner open both sides for the dining room and lounge. Gone through 3 dumpy bags so far and expect to go though another 3 or 4 I guess.

We have the oil fired central heating on in the morning and the fire in the evening.

This is the 1st time I've used a log burner - i started using it with the doors shut, but I've taken to using it with the doors open - the airflow, even with the doors and vents shut gets through the wood and it doesn't seem so effective at heating.

I didn't expect to find this... it feels like I'm doing it wrong, but maybe it's the wood burner which looks like it's from the 1970's ... like the rest of the house

[adrian007]

No edit function: doors shut one side and open the other. Doors open both sides, it gets quite smokey in the house

[Big J]

10 hours ago, neiln said:

The maths seems okay to me and 7 quid a day on oil doesn't sound nuts, although a bit high for autumn and early winter maybe?  dunno really..I'm on mains gas.

Jeez it would cost  lot oto het on oil for a winter though! 

 

It's been a really miserable and cold autumn here. At the end of August the weather just flipped and the temperature dropped. I wouldn't have used quite as much usually. 

 

1 hour ago, adrian007 said:

We're renting an old farmhouse, with a big old log burner open both sides for the dining room and lounge. Gone through 3 dumpy bags so far and expect to go though another 3 or 4 I guess.

We have the oil fired central heating on in the morning and the fire in the evening.

This is the 1st time I've used a log burner - i started using it with the doors shut, but I've taken to using it with the doors open - the airflow, even with the doors and vents shut gets through the wood and it doesn't seem so effective at heating.

I didn't expect to find this... it feels like I'm doing it wrong, but maybe it's the wood burner which looks like it's from the 1970's ... like the rest of the house
 

There is something not right there. You need to get a stove thermometer to ensure that the fire is burning efficiently. Having one door open means it won't be burning well. It's a case of fettling the air flow to get the right balance. But definitely not with doors open.

[difflock]

We go through a 2000l fill of Kero each 12-month, mostly driving the downstairs underfloor for background heat, and it only runs for 1.5 to 2 hrs am each day during the winter months, then off until the next morning.

The single  5kW wood burning Morso then effortlessly takes over the space heating demands being lit am each winter day**.

With the addition of the garden room akinda now forming a triangle with the adjacent kitchen and living rooms, and the stove being located in the middle of the triangular space, it all works so serendipitously, but with definate planning aforethought.

The garden room sits at about 25 deg C, with the living room and kitchen not noticably cooler, the three spaces being  now effectively open plan.

I have no idea how much timber we burn since it comes from a jumbled loose firewood pile.

**N.B.

On bright winter days the stove is not needed from mid morning to mid afternoon such is the solar gain from the glazing in the garden room.

Hey, it all works as it should.

[Luckyeleven]

@Big J I've a 100M2 stone house in Brittany so similar size/climate,

We've got a log boiler which does all the hot water and keeps the house between 18-20c all day.

 

Since 1st Sept I've gone through 5.6M3 stacked. So I project I'll use around 15M3 in total for the year.

Just an idea of the numbers if you were less of a big jessie! ?