Stove as main heat source

[Mik the Miller]

Cast top is part of the stove ... "oops sorry" said the seller "we forgot to send it".

Just cleaned the chimmney today so will be ready to fit the 90 T and pipe up into the chimmney void and commission in the next day or so. If I could just order a few more days mild weather please ....

[Stubby]

7 hours ago, Mik the Miller said:

 

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.

 

 

 

 

I think the hole on the back covered ( or not ) by the plate is for smokeless zones . If in a smokeless zone it should be uncovered . If not you can have it covered or partially covered and do all the controlling with the main air slide . That's how it is on my Burley anyway .

Edited November 16, 2020 by Stubby

[Dazza95]

18 hours ago, Gav73 said:

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!) 

 

That’s a decent sized stove, has it got a back boiler! How much wood do you go through on an average winter?

 

Yes the type of wood definitely makes a difference. Whilst I’m not fussy about what I burn, I do save short chunky pieces of hardwood which I can pack tightly in the stove for when longer burns are needed. 

[Gav73]

6 minutes ago, Dazza95 said:

 

That’s a decent sized stove, has it got a back boiler! How much wood do you go through on an average winter?

 

Yes the type of wood definitely makes a difference. Whilst I’m not fussy about what I burn, I do save short chunky pieces of hardwood which I can pack tightly in the stove for when longer burns are needed. 

Yep. It has a back boiler that runs 12 radiators and the hot water tank.

 

how much wood we go through really depends on the weather. If it’s mild we will go through about a cube a week, but if it’s sub zero for a while then that would double.  
 

we do exactly the same, save the bigger pieces for when the longer burn is needed. 

[Mik the Miller]

33 minutes ago, Stubby said:

I think the hole on the back covered ( or not ) by the plate is for smokeless zones . If in a smokeless zone it should be uncovered . If not you can have it covered or partially covered and do all the controlling with the main air slide . That's how it is on my Burley anyway .

On the Stovax the 'smokless zone' control is part of the primary air feed on the bottom. Essentially it stops the slider from closing fully so there is always air getting in below and to the sides of the fuel. There is a small stainless plate supplied with a flat edge that replaces the one (already fitted) that has a notch, fit that and it will always get air underneath.

The hole on the back allows air into a  sealed void behind the rear firebrick and enters the firebox through a row of holes 1/2 way up the firebox. This supplies jets of (hot) oxygen which ignite the gasses above the logs. When you shut the primary supply down you stop the supply from below and it only come in through  the jets.

 

I haven't fired this one up yet and it will take me a while to figure out what it likes and how it burns.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Mik the Miller

[Luckyeleven]

17 minutes ago, Gav73 said:

If it’s mild we will go through about a cube a week, but if it’s sub zero for a while then that would double.  

Wow do you have a massive house or poor insulation? or like to sit around in your underwear!?

We've a 4 bed stone house, and have yet to use more than 0.5m3 in a week, heating and hot water

[Gav73]

5 minutes ago, Luckyeleven said:

Wow do you have a massive house or poor insulation? or like to sit around in your underwear!?

We've a 4 bed stone house, and have yet to use more than 0.5m3 in a week, heating and hot water

A bit of all three! House is split over three areas with the original sandstone part of the house being the coldest as it doesn’t get much sun. The insulation isn’t great in this area, but everywhere else it’s heavily insulated. To insulate the sandstone part would mean considerable upheaval and stripping back to the bare bones.  

we do like a warm house 22 degrees on average and the stove is on 24/7 in the winter.

 

[Mik the Miller]

51 minutes ago, Gav73 said:

<snip>
we do like a warm house 22 degrees on average and the stove is on 24/7 in the winter.

 

22 ....  i'd melt 

 

I have the central heating (oil) keeping the house @ 14 degrees from around 06:00 to midnight and light the stove in the afternoon/evening which gets the house up around 17/18' depending on whats temp it is outside. Shut the doors and the living room get up to 26 in about 20 mins. at which point i'm opening all the doors again tout-suite.

 

With no stove i've got the heating up at 16 in the evening but I cringe when I think of howmuch the oil the boiler is drinking ...

 

A Brynje string vest is what you need, you'll save a fortune 

Edited November 16, 2020 by Mik the Miller

[Gav73]

10 minutes ago, Mik the Miller said:

With no stove i've got the heating up at 16 in the evening but I cringe when I think of howmuch the oil the boiler is drinking ...

 

A Brynje string vest is what you need, you'll save a fortune 

That’s why we got rid of the oil and moved on to the wood stove! 
 

no thanks to the string vest, I wouldn’t want the tan lines when I stand in front of the stove ?

 

When the firewood I use is all free, I don’t really worry about how much we go through ?

[Mik the Miller]

Got mine sorted now - there is a vid of it running 'here'