Central Heating Stoves

[muldonach]

We have an old stone built house which is reasonably well insulated with 4" insulation throughout and secondary or double glazing.

We fitted a Hunter Midi 20 when we upgraded the house some 25 years ago and sad to say it is coming to the end of its life with a bent ashpan door making it difficult to open an close the doors.

The stove runs a full central heating system (4 beds, Kitchen, dining room and lounge)

I would like to replace the stove but seems difficult to find a straight replacement - is there anything actually available out there?

I am also considering a bigger project involving a gable end extension to house a boiler and accumulator tank - anyone done anything like this please?

Should maybe explain we have our own woodlands and all the kit needed for harvesting and processing so not really interested in Heat pumps or solar heating other than as a potential complement to a boiler

Another question - has anyone ever managed to straighten up a bend in an ashpan door and if so how?

 

[sandspider]

If I remember right, boiler stoves are harder to come by now due to emissions regulations.

Could you straighten the ash pan door with heat and a hammer, or a hydraulic press / car jack?

[muldonach]

2 hours ago, sandspider said:

If I remember right, boiler stoves are harder to come by now due to emissions regulations.

Could you straighten the ash pan door with heat and a hammer, or a hydraulic press / car jack?

I think it is cast so any pressure likely to result in a crack and two piece

I could get a local engineer to fabricate a copy ashpan door

But to be honest the firm who sold it to me reckoned the boiler would have a 10 year lifespan - and when I mentioned the age to the secretary she told me I got it wrong - it has been there for 33 years!

 

[Squaredy]

49 minutes ago, muldonach said:

I think it is cast so any pressure likely to result in a crack and two piece

I could get a local engineer to fabricate a copy ashpan door

But to be honest the firm who sold it to me reckoned the boiler would have a 10 year lifespan - and when I mentioned the age to the secretary she told me I got it wrong - it has been there for 33 years!

 

There was another thread started a few weeks ago asking the same question.  There are very few options these days, but have a search for back boiler on this site and read the other thread - I think there were one or two options mentioned.

[muldonach]

20 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

There was another thread started a few weeks ago asking the same question.  There are very few options these days, but have a search for back boiler on this site and read the other thread - I think there were one or two options mentioned.

OK cheers - I did have a look back yesterday but will check again

 

[eggsarascal]

I’m fairly sure trig did is own some time back using a gravity system taking away the need for a recirculating pump. I’ve seen it on boats but can’t remember the science of it apart from the pipe work was run at angles rather than conventional pipe work,

[Mr Bear]

Clearview 750 is 14kw output,  you can get a 45k btu wraparound boiler for it, there are a further 2 smaller boiler choices.

The 650 is 12kw output and you can get a boilers up to 40k btu.

take a look on eBay, lots popping up some with boiler but may have to source one separately.

[Tom-Gobowen]

I was wanting to install a stove boiler with a thermal store (essentially just to have some control over our heating bill) I found someone on here selling a Eco Angus log boiler with a 1000L thermal store last summer.

 

I fitted it to an existing pressurised system along side a combi boiler (we've used this for hot water in the summer) incase I run out of wood or if for whatever reason can't use the eco Angus.

 

Last winter it worked very well batch burning with scrap wood like pallets when it wasn't below freezing all day. It would take 3.5-4hrs of an evening to get the thermal store from 30oc to 85oc. When it was very cold I loaded the boiler full of logs once in the morning and again in the evening.

 

At some point in the future I hope to fit solar PV to the thermal store for hot water in the summer months (this is how it was previously used with an emersion heater).

[trigger_andy]

15 hours ago, eggsarascal said:

I’m fairly sure trig did is own some time back using a gravity system taking away the need for a recirculating pump. I’ve seen it on boats but can’t remember the science of it apart from the pipe work was run at angles rather than conventional pipe work,

Yes, my kitchen stove does my hot water and is purely gravity fed. There is also a radiator in the system (safety feature) and the gravity still works well and both the radiator and hot water are nice and hot. 

[maybelateron]

On 16/09/2023 at 11:50, muldonach said:

I am also considering a bigger project involving a gable end extension to house a boiler and accumulator tank - anyone done anything like this please?

Yes. Several years ago we had a 2000L heat store tank installed with our first boiler, a Perge. About 4/5 years ago we replaced the boiler with a slightly larger and more efficient fan assisted gasification Atmos boiler. Very please with the results. The boiler and heat store are in the garage attached to the house. I put a lot of (well seasoned) conifer through the boiler plus hardwood. It heats our large (34 metre long bungalow, including garage) very well. We typically get through about 45 cu metres of mixed hardwood and softwood a winter for the boiler, while running a small stove in the main sitting room in the colder evenings.