Central Heating Stoves

[GarethM]

8 minutes ago, maybelateron said:

We had the house thermally imaged, and it is not too bad, but bungalows are less heat efficient than houses. Bear in mind a lot of the wood I am burning is low calorie conifer, but it is free.

I do burn the absolute dregs, that being said I have a 1500 litre tank and run the boiler at maximum of around 85c.

 

I found if I went above 90 it just wastes heat cycling up and down. Plus have experimented with and without a draft regulator, using one pretty much halved wood usage.

[openspaceman]

6 hours ago, 5thelement said:

I burn at least 10m3 in just the one woodburner.

.I need a +1 or agree button, I don't burn quite as much but the house is only 77 m2 floor space and in a warmer bit of the kingdom.

[Will C]

We get through 12-15 cube of mixed wood a year in one 10kw wood burner. We burn any wood as long as it’s dry.

[Stubby]

12 hours ago, maybelateron said:

We had the house thermally imaged, and it is not too bad, but bungalows are less heat efficient than houses. Bear in mind a lot of the wood I am burning is low calorie conifer, but it is free.

Is conifer low calorie though ? It thought most soft woods burn really hot albeit quicker than hard wood .

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, Stubby said:

Is conifer low calorie though ? It thought most soft woods burn really hot albeit quicker than hard wood .

You are right; weight for weight at the same moisture content conifer is slightly higher calories but about 1.5 times bulkier

[Muddy42]

I'd strongly encourage you to make do with your current stove, especially if you have plenty of wood and are happy with the current output. I'm sure a decent metal worker would be able to get the bend out with careful use of a press and heat or copy it. Modern stoves need to comply with efficiency and air quality regs which are fine in theory but in older properties there can be issues with poor draft.  Regarding the central heating aspect, my understanding is that modern stoves can only get their high efficiency standard by permanently running hot. Sending a loop of colder return heating water would do the opposite and cool the stove down so that's not allowed!

[scbk]

I thought Hunter stoves were still on the go, do they not do the spare parts for the older stoves anymore?

[muldonach]

1 hour ago, scbk said:

I thought Hunter stoves were still on the go, do they not do the spare parts for the older stoves anymore?

They are still on the go but no listing for the Midi range on the spare parts list

[muldonach]

On 17/09/2023 at 14:12, maybelateron said:

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.

Many thanks for the response - I take it the heat store performed as expected and the early morning heating and hot water is adequate.

2000l is a fairly large thermal store - how did you arrive at that size can I ask?

 

[pie eater pete]

We have a 20kw Woodwarm with backboiler fitted. Does 8 radiators quite comfortably. Saves a fortune on buying oil and we usually burn about 10-15 cube a year.