Stove as main heat source

[pancakedan]

Who told you about that ?  Its a great idea ! [emoji106]

It’s normally the wife that tells me when she’s cold!

[neiln]

Yes good point, its nice to know I've got heat, and a little light, if the electricity is cut.  Its nice to know I can keep my family warm through 3 or more winters if the zombie apocalypse comes too ?  Its also nice to know I m not burning a fossil fuel, I feel very smug heating the house with renewable energy (other than 3-5 litres of petrol)

[Mik the Miller]

I have an Oil boiler which heats the water and warms the radiators and had a 15KW stove in the living room which on full chatt heats the whole house nicely. I say 'had' as I sold it on Monday having ordered a new more modern stove from 'Stoves are Us' last week on a '7 to 10 day delivery'.

 

Which (it transpires) was foolish ....

 

Having not heard anything I called 'Stoves are Us' (to chivvy them along) only to get an eMail last night stating that they "can't deliver until mid December and actually couldn't guarentee a delivery before Xmas ...." Stoves are Not Us" seems more appropriate then ?

"I'll have my money back please" I requested, feeling somewhat peeved that they sold me something that they didn't have, "No" they replied "it will take us 14 days to refund you".....

They were quick to take it (under false pretences IMO) but are now hanging on to it like Trump to the White House.

What a Cunch of Bunts.

The bloke I spoke to on the phone seemed to think it was perfectly OK for them not to deliver until after Xmas and that it was wrong of me to expect them to give me my money back.

 

Anyway, I have one coming from a more honest company next week which when fitted will be my main source of heat  

[Dazza95]

3 hours ago, Mik the Miller said:

I have an Oil boiler which heats the water and warms the radiators and had a 15KW stove in the living room which on full chatt heats the whole house nicely. I say 'had' as I sold it on Monday having ordered a new more modern stove from 'Stoves are Us' last week on a '7 to 10 day delivery'.

 

Which (it transpires) was foolish ....

 

Having not heard anything I called 'Stoves are Us' (to chivvy them along) only to get an eMail last night stating that they "can't deliver until mid December and actually couldn't guarentee a delivery before Xmas ...." Stoves are Not Us" seems more appropriate then ?

"I'll have my money back please" I requested, feeling somewhat peeved that they sold me something that they didn't have, "No" they replied "it will take us 14 days to refund you".....

They were quick to take it (under false pretences IMO) but are now hanging on to it like Trump to the White House.

What a Cunch of Bunts.

The bloke I spoke to on the phone seemed to think it was perfectly OK for them not to deliver until after Xmas and that it was wrong of me to expect them to give me my money back.

 

Anyway, I have one coming from a more honest company next week which when fitted will be my main source of heat  

 

What a nightmare, hope the new install goes smoothly. What new stove have you gone for?

[Mik the Miller]

12 hours ago, Dazza95 said:

 

What a nightmare, hope the new install goes smoothly. What new stove have you gone for?

 

Yes, Stoves are (not) us should be avoided at all costs, I bough the same stove from a dealer in Wales, who didn't avoid the truth and will be delivering on Moday/Tuesday.

 

The stove i've just sold was a fire, on a grate, in a cast iron box called the Woodmaster 2 from Countrykiln < linky > which was crude but effective. On full chatt it melts the snow off next doors roof and has probably contributed to global warming. I reminds me of my old Herald Vitesse which had a go pedal and a slow down pedal, with not much in between.

 

I've come across several more modern stoves, lined, with tertiary air and responsive air controls that work and have marvelled at thier controllability, thier economy (wood in heat out) and the lack of ash.

I've had a few stoves over the years and they have all been pretty similar, a fire in a box. I've never had one with secondary air or lined but I have friends who do and recently stayed in a small cottage near Inverness that has a Parkray Aspect 6 and was well impressed.

So I have settled on the latest Stovax Vogue Medium < linky >. It'll tick over nicely around 5 or 6kw and I can up the anti to get circa 11kw for when I really need to open all the windows and sit around in my Bermudas'.

[Dazza95]

That looks very smart. 

 

We have a Clearview Pioneer which was here when we moved in and it does seem to work quite well and is very controllable. I’d be interested to see how it compares to some of the more modern stoves as it would appear that Clearview haven’t altered the design in many years. 

Edited November 12, 2020 by Dazza95

[Steven P]

I feel a bit insignificant here, only a 5kw stove but that heats the house mostly. Defenitely depends what you put into it though, had oak in there (free of course) yesterday and today and that got quite toasty, on soft woods it takes a bit longer to warm up but I get more of them. This year I suspect we will be burning a lot of wood, both of us at home all day. Every day. Having to talk.

 

In normal times I burn wood in the evenings and use coal when I go out to work - got a dual fuel stove on purpose and this heats a 3 bedroom semi. Pure finances come into play here too, I cannot store enough dry wood in the garage for a ful winter and so to buy fuel, smokeless coal has more heat than dried logs for the money.

 

I would go for insulation as soon as you can. I am in the process of doing under the floor this week and you can stand one foot above the insulation and one above none and I canactually notice the differnce in the warmth of the floor

[Commando]

That looks very smart. 
 
We have a Clearview Pioneer which was here when we moved in and it does seem to work quite well and is very controllable. I’d be interested to see how it compares to some of the more modern stoves as it would appear that Clearview haven’t altered the design in many years. 

Great stove, no need to alter the design when it already does the job well I guess[emoji106]

[Gav73]

We’ve been heating our house and hot water for 12 years using a woodwarm 21kw stove. We live in a rural part of Scotland in an old cottage (lowest temperature we’ve experienced was minus 17 centigrade) and find it works great. Yes it is hard work, but there’s nothing better than having a warm house. Like others have said, insulation is a priority otherwise all the effort with the firewood is just going to waste. During winter our stove is on 24/7, we stack it up before going out or going to bed and it keeps it going for when we come back. We do find that using the right type of wood at the right times is key though. For example, there’s no point using softwood to stack up the stove if you’re going out for 8 hours, but if you pick a good dense wood like oak or cherry, it will still be going. It’s also useful to split the firewood into different sizes for the same reason. Smaller pieces burn through quicker. 

Worth pointing out as well that when the temperature drops, we will use more firewood to maintain the warm house and fire up a small cooker stove in the kitchen to help in the mornings (very small firebox and any firewood put in it only lasts 30 mins max!) 

[Mik the Miller]

Sorry for the lack of responses, there was a routing issue somewhere and I couldn't get to the site, still I got the new stove on Sat and spent the day (trying) to build it. I was quite surprised at the quality and the thickness (or lack of) the steel.

 

'Must be bolted to the hearth' is says, thats odd I thought, but the door is heavy and when fully open the stove is easily tipped .... i'm tempted to hand something on the back rather than drill the slate.

The tertiary air comes from a hole in the back controlled by a plate that slides across and is held in place with an M8 stud and 2 nuts. Being a multi-fuel you would need to close this down when not on wood or if you needed to do an overnight, which, with a hot stove, would be very difficult to do. Bit of bad design there Stovax.

 

The top is really thin too (2.5mm) and apparently there is a cast top but this could be an extra (???) cos it wasn't with the stove.