Woodburner...

[maybelateron]

Until 20 years ago we had two open fireplaces. It was time to update them and my wife said we should change to stoves. I was not convinced and argued for open fireplaces again, but I went along with stoves.

Changed them both over to Clearview multifuel stoves, but only burn logs. No question at all - stoves are so much better than an open fireplace, for the various reasons given in this thread.

[Mick Dempsey]

You remember when Kirk and the landing party get stuck on a cold planet?

Kirk would get a phaser and fire it at a rock which would glow red with heat and they’d all warm their hands round it.

 

That’s exactly how woodburners work. You use energy to heat up a big piece of cast iron which stays hot like that rock.

(well maybe not)

 

 

 

 

[Paul in the woods]

12 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

You remember when Kirk and the landing party get stuck on a cold planet?

Kirk would get a phaser and fire it at a rock which would glow red with heat and they’d all warm their hands round it.

 

You do need to be careful though, half an hour after lighting it a member of your household you've not seen before will be killed by a large lump of polystyrene hurled by someone wearing a large wooly mammoth costume.

[Commando]

Need to take the fireplaces back to the builders entrance if that’s possible.

Open fires are just crap. Efficiency is incredibly low, spits sparks drafty, no way to control the burn, no stored energy/heat once it goes out.

You’re certainly missing something. 🤣

You missed dangerous also Andy[emoji106]

[Mick Dempsey]

1 minute ago, Paul in the woods said:

You do need to be careful though, half an hour after lighting it a member of your household you've not seen before will be killed by a large lump of polystyrene hurled by someone wearing a large wooly mammoth costume.

Very true or you may have to fight a Gorn to the death to decide the fate of your species, 

which can be a nuisance.

[Paul in the woods]

6 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Very true or you may have to fight a Gorn to the death to decide the fate of your species, which can be a nuisance.

I expect woodsure will add that to their next regs.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Paul in the woods

[Stubby]

1 hour ago, john87 said:

I am just asking before i decide...

 

. An open fire blasts out heat like nothing else..

 

john..

Wrong . IMHO . I had an open fire for years . It did used to heat up the brick work around the chimney breast  and retained it for a long time . With an open fire you tend to get a cold back and a roasting front . I could not believe the difference when I finally got a stove . way , way better . leave the doors to rooms and up stairs open and it heats the whole house .

Edited December 12, 2021 by Stubby

[Billhook]

In the old farmhouse where my parents lived, uninsulated with many drafts, we had a large open fireplace and keeping it going was like stoking the Bismark.  My father used to sit in his chair with a screen on one side to protect against the radiated heat, and a rug on the other side to protect from the draft!

I went on strike and ordered a Clearview Stove, put it on the hearth with a metal plate over the old fireplace and a hole in it for the short flue on the back of the stove.

I lit the fire at about six pm and went off to play tennis leaving father in a grump as he wanted his open fire back

I crept around the door at about eleven o'clock on my return and collapsed laughing to see father in his string vest and underpants!  He said that he went to sleep and when he woke up he thought he was in hell!

Yes, that worked in the farmhouse.

when I built my house in 1983, before the popularity of wood stoves, I asked the old brickie to put in a Rumford fireplace which I had been reading about.  He was very reluctant as like all brickies he had his own way of making fireplaces.  "I 've never seen a bugger like this, still its your money and if you want to waste it that is your problem"  etc etc.

It turned out to be be a big mistake as I found them standing in front of it on very cold days when they were meant to be on the roof  "Well I never would have believed it"  etc etc!

Rumford fireplace - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

They are very efficient and we have had a good test this week as the central heating system has been playing up with poor circulation.

We have two wood stoves, An Aarrow Stratford 25kw boiler stove and a Danish Aduro modern design.  So those were lit plus the Rumford and There was very little difference in the amount of wood used between the Rumford and the Aarrow, but the Aduro was more efficient  (But it is only 6 kw)but not as much as I expected, 

Aduro 9 convection stove with three side windows

WWW.ADUROFIRE.COM

---

An impressively large glass area is achieved by adding side panes and minimising the bars between the glass in the door...

The Rumford kicked out a great deal of heat, reflected into the room by the tall brickwork at the back.

Before the Rumford was built I also put two 4 inch drain pipes in the concrete floor to bring air in from either side from the outside and eliminate drafts.  Also I can shut off the flue easily with the full width steel plate when not in use or to control the draft up the flue a bit.

I would always light the Rumford if we have folk in for a Christmas drink as it seems to bring out a instinctive warm social atmosphere not quite achieved by the stoves even though they have glass doors.

 

I would think about putting a Rumford in one of your fireplaces, but find the right brickie!

[john87]

41 minutes ago, Billhook said:

I would think about putting a Rumford in one of your fireplaces, but find the right brickie!

 

Let me put it like this.. i will DEFINITELY be investigating them Rumford things. Where would i get a drawing?? They sound just perfect for what i want..

 

Brilliant idea you had, the pipes in the floor to let the air in too!!

 

One like in the photograph in your link i could easily build myself..

 

The victorians used to have cast iron firebacks, what if i made a rumford shaped one from stainless plate all TIG welded together [i am a properly qualified welder as it happens] and built it in to the existing fireplace That would reflect the heat back in big time..

 

Thanks for the brilliant idea!!!!

 

john..

[john87]

1 minute ago, Big J said:

It is not possible to have a controlled (ie, efficient) burn without air control. You cannot achieve this in any kind of open fire. It only occurs in a stove.

 

The least efficient stove is still twice as efficient as the most efficient open fire.

 

Why are you so resistant to installing a stove? There is no evidence whatsoever that any form of open fire is even remotely comparable. 

I'm not, just finding out what can be done first. However, i have stood in front of both, and i know what was the warmest..

 

If open fires were so bad, why did they persist so long? Huge efforts were made towards the design of locomotive boilers, so they were not daft in them days. One thing they knew about was engineering, heat, and building.. Look at say Bristol templemeads compared to the modern corrugated tin sheet rubbish.. They were not daft.. If someone had come up with a stove in the 1900's that was so much better than an open fire, they would have sold hundreds of millions of them, but this never happened. Why might that be..

 

john..