Woodburner problems

[Spruce]

The woodburner and back boiler were selected by the plumber to suit the existing radiators etc - they were responsible for designing the whole system, which includes a Gledhill Torrent thermal heat store (250 ltr), solar hot water to match tank size and the Clearview / boiler. This was connected into the existing radiator system, which has 10 rads (its a 3 bed semi) and baths etc.

 

The Clearview is rated at 12 KW actual. The solar is working great at the moment and may help a little bit in the winter?

 

I'm not expecting any heat directly into the room from the burner, but it will obviously give it out. It primary function is to heat the thermal store (and look nice).

 

Thus I would bloomin' well hope that the plumber has got the right size stove / boiler for the needs otherwise we are in for a miserable winter.....

 

DEAN

 

I'm a bit worried that you might be on a hiding to nothing. Clearview have a warning that the back boiler will affect conbustion temperatures here:

 

Clearview 650 Woodburning Stove Dimensions

 

We have an Aarrow Stratford boiler stove which heats the flue to 250 deg C within 10 minutes of lighting and goes on to 500 C plus in a few minutes more if nobody notices and turns down the air. It heats a 4 bedroom house with underfloor heating which presents a similar load to a thermal store.

 

It may be that you won't be able to fix this without using a proper boiler stove.

[Marko]

It will work but the controls must be in place to keep the back boiler at the right temp and slowly release to the storage tank. Doesn't matter if it is gravity fed or pumped it will need to be regulated.

 

Also, thermal stores are not really designed to run 'normal' radiators. They will work, but expect to heat a room with luke warm radiators on for longer periods rather than short bursts of mad hot radiators.

[SteveRat]

We run the Clearview vision 500 which is only 8KW. It easily gets to 250deg C. When we bought it we were thinking about a back boiler but Clearview warned us it would only cope with a couple of rads - so I feel that perhaps you are optimistic to drive 14 rads with your, albeit, bigger 650.

 

Not wishing to be rude but is it lighting, drawing OK, vents working etc. i.e. is the wood burning well or just smouldering?

[Alycidon]

14 rads would want 3 of the 650s !!.

 

A

[New Forest DEAN]

We have 10 rads (not 14), which I have roughly calculated to approx' 40,000 BTU / 11.5 KW.

 

The Clearview 650 and wraparound boiler is rated at 40,000 BTU / 12 KW (actual), of which they inform me that about 2 KW goes to the room - at face value, that looks like only 10 KW going to the store / rads...(assuming it runs at 12 KW). But this doesn't allow for bathing water from the tank??

 

But I really can't work out how the thermal store affects this basic equation. Marko - your point may be correct about 'dripping' the heating out having loaded / continuing to load the store??

 

(I doubt the solar will have much input mid-winter).

 

I have spoken to Clearview, Stoves on-line and another HETAS engineer, but keep getting conflicting answers.

 

Cheers - DEAN.

 

PS - Charnwood burners recommend a 14 - 18 KW system for 10 rads...

[T14EES T14UNK]

We have a wamsler 1100 which is 25kW (18kW to the water) heating a 750 litre tank. When the central heating is on it can soon drain the heat unless it's going pretty hard full time. We have 16 rads but a few are turned off and some on low.

It does make a big difference to play about with output heat to slow the drop in heat down as much as possible.

Also a load unit is essential surely so that it can drip feed the tank rather than cooling the boiler down constantly. Then when it is hot it opens up fully and really starts warming the tank. But you can also adjust the speed at which the pump moves hot water into the tank from the boiler.

[Craig Johnson]

No sign off as safe then no insurance if you ever have a fire unless you have ot agreed in writing by your insurer. I have known NFU to accept this but no other insurers.

 

A

 

good job i'm with the NFU then. most of the things that are 'signed off' in houses are only good for a few years, what happens then?

[Joy Yeomans]

on our stanley stove, when we fitted it over 12 years ago it was fitted by an old plumbing friend of the family and he knew we were going to cook in the stove and use the hot water for heating and washing etc and recommended when he fitted it (It was second hand when we bought it) to fit a thermostat electric valve - sorry dont know the correct term but im guessing its what other people are saying, when we light the cooker it gets up to temp with the water thats just in the boiler at that time, and on the thermostat you have a dial you turn to what temp the cooker heats up to then allows the water to flow into the boiler, it works very well for us, and allows the kids to have baths etc we only have 8 radiators and a hot water tank, but everything keeps toasty with the oven temp still at a respectible 200c for most cooking, could allow it to get hotter but cant stand to be cooking around it over that temp!

 

sorry if i cant explain very well, but im sure a plumber who knows his worth will help

 

joy

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

These stoves should come with a temperature wire which connects on the pipes behind the stove and to the water pump. When the correct heating/water is reached the pump switches on.

 

The one problem with the Clearview is the ash drops behind the back of the boiler and rots it even when using seasoned wood. Expensive to replace and the firm won't take this on board. (We had two go in 10 years) Otherwise great for heating and leaving a stew on for return at night!

[New Forest DEAN]

I've been asking all sorts of people - other HETAS engineers, other stove manufacturer's etc etc and the general consensus is that the Clearview 650 with wraparound boiler (which puts about 2 KW into the room and 10KW into the tank) is not big enough for the job, irrespective of how the pipes are set up.

 

Which is not what I was expecting, given that the engineer is supposed to have designed to system complete.....

 

A couple of people have said that it might work, but on more of a trickle basis, with rads turned down and on for a longer period and cooler upstairs. I may also need to take a rad out, leaving 9 rads.

 

To make matters worse, the flue liner installed is for wood only, not coal, so I can't 'boost' it.

 

Thanks again - all feedback welcomed - DEAN.