Rayburn/Aga owners - wood usage figures?

[skyhuck]

skyhuck - a small scale biomass powerplant seems excessive for a house!

 

 

Beats chopping logs

[mendiplogs]

HI BIG JON yes mate used coal in the end too keep the fire at night if you keep a eye on fire and loading it up 3/4 hrs it will keep going and ours run 10/12 rads and cooking on it is tops mate i like the SPUD all the best with it mate jon ITS RAIN HERE AGAIN OWELL :thumbup:

[Tom D]

Overnight burning is not really dictated by the size of the firebox, flue dilution is more important. The wee black box on the top right hand side should have a flue dilution lever.

I have kept mine in for 19 hours before, overnight is no problem at all.

[skyhuck]

Overnight burning is not really dictated by the size of the firebox, flue dilution is more important. The wee black box on the top right hand side should have a flue dilution lever.

I have kept mine in for 19 hours before, overnight is no problem at all.

 

True, but you will be getting very little heat from it.

[Stereo]

We have an Esse W25 or some such and it will go through a travis Wheelbarrow a day of good dry wood. That said the boiler still kicks in from time to time so I'm not sure how much good it is doing. Does make the house nice and warm though and we can cook and boil a kettle on it no probs.

 

I wouldn't be without it but I also wouldn't want to see a time and motion study on the amount of effort I put in to keep it blazing.

[Joy Yeomans]

we have a similar model to a rayburn - a stanley superstar, it does 7 radiators, cookingand hot water, i keep it in 24hrs a day - to provide enough hot water for kids baths , our baths and cuppas at all hours of the day - and night sometimes plus cooking dinner etc

 

on larch/scots i can go through about 3-3.5 cube a month and on hardwood about 1-1.5 cube

thing is i prefer the larch and softwood though as it burns hotter quicker - i.e. it gets my cooking partof the stanely up to temp alot quicker than the hardwood - but what i do is get it up to temp on softwood then just throw the odd lump of the hardwood on once its up to temp all day. so using this method i probably use about 2 cube of softwood a month with 1 of hardwood - and thats keeping it in 24 hrs throughout this winter period

 

come summer months i have a summer grate in which liftsthe fire box up above the radiator boiler bit and it just does hot water and cooking and so uses a hell of a lot less fuel - plus only light it about 4ish in the afternoon mostly to cook summermeals and not stews etc

[slack ma girdle]

My rayburn regent uses about 1.5 cube per month, but with the slightly chilly weather that we have just had, 1.5 cube lasted about 2.5 weeks.

If you rayburn is as old as ours it will not be as air tight as it should be, and will need coal to keep it in at night.

If you have yet to install it, than completely take it apart, and re-build it, making sure that all the joints are properly sealed with fire cement. I need to do this to ours, but it will mean draining the cental heating system, and i can not bring myself to do this yet !

Shop around for replacment parts, as the posh aga shops charge alot more than normal shops.

[twmarriott]

we get through 3 ton of coal and probably 5 of logs, its the 2nd brand new 355sfw we've had, it runs a heat store for mains pressure hot water (works very well) and central heating for 11 rads, its right on the limit if you wind all the trv's up. we did put 2 inches of cellotex all over the external house walls before we plaster boarded it and it made a huge difference. we've 8 open fires as well so probably get through wood more with those. usage depends on wind, it will stay in fine over night but can be a pig if the winds wrong or howling. good thing about the rayburn is that it will digest anything you can put in it, nappies have good calorific value!

[Nic Johnson Contracting]

we get through 3 ton of coal and probably 5 of logs, its the 2nd brand new 355sfw we've had, it runs a heat store for mains pressure hot water (works very well) and central heating for 11 rads, its right on the limit if you wind all the trv's up. we did put 2 inches of cellotex all over the external house walls before we plaster boarded it and it made a huge difference. we've 8 open fires as well so probably get through wood more with those. usage depends on wind, it will stay in fine over night but can be a pig if the winds wrong or howling. good thing about the rayburn is that it will digest anything you can put in it, nappies have good calorific value!

 

8 fires flipping heck where are they all surely you dont use them all

[sandbach-sticks]

My mate hates his says he can't get the oven warm enough as rads take all heat away. Another mate reckons you shouldn't run rads off them?? Especially wood burning stoves etc as they don't get to the temp of coal. I have Little wenlock at front of house and villager (cheap) with hotplate in dinning room, cook stews etc on this, I was going to spend a lot of money with a rayburn but was put off, and stuck to the villager! My mate burnt 1.5 tonne of oak in his rayburn over Xmas period!! Having said that if you get the wood free and are being given the rayburn then i would go for it, but make sure you can source wood free (sounds like you do)! With wood prices going up it might not remain the cheap option if you have to buy logs! Maybe consider running 3-4 rads to ensure you get temp up for cooking, let me know how you go as I may be moving shortly and am considering my own heating options cheers. My mate is here and said to decide if your main aim is to heat the house or one room nd cook on?