Stoves feedback

[Dean Lofthouse]

It would be interesting to here anyones thoughts on log burning stoves and how they perform.

 

I had a Dunsley Yorkshire Stove fitted, the non back boiler type because we have a combi boiler with no hot water cylinder and it would have been hard to plumb.

 

We also live in a smokeless zone.

 

I am beginning to regret not having the back boiler type now.

 

The stove is extremely efficient, I light it around November and keep it lit 24/7 till april sometime. Closing down the odd time for cleaning.

 

When up to heat, I can get one decent size log to last an hour and a bulk bag nearly a week. Logs Seasoned to around 15% moisture nearly melt the stove on low draw.

 

The only problem is I have to leave all internal doors open in the house to allow the heat to move around and the room with the stove gets stifling.

 

I am now thinking it may be worth taking that one back out and having a back boiler one fitted with an exchanger thingemyjig. £3K ish total ?

 

The stove I have cost me £1200

 

Anyone else got an efficeint stove with back boiler and how does it perform / compare.

[Peter]

I'v got a stovax stockton 8. Cleanburn, although not offically exempt under smokeless zone regs.

I run 6 radiators off the back boiler on a closed pumped system.

The first time i ran it, it got so hot it blew a hole in a section of plastic pipe. After that, i fitted a pump and more radiators, and a 3 bar blow-off valve from a combi boiler.

It heats the whole house no problem. I tend to light it in the evening, burn it overnight, and let it go out early in the morning, unless I'm home and want heating all day.

Can you not retrofit the boiler to a yorkshire stove?

I think they are one of the best on the market, but if you want the rolls-royce of woodburners, have a look at Clearview.

[High Scale]

Great advice Peter, I really have to investigate a wood burning stove.

[wills-mill]

If you want to circulate your hot air better, you can get ducting kits that blow hot air from ceiling height or the fireplace around into other rooms... If you blew some upstairs it would circulate back round bit cheaper than a whole new stove and boiler system

[Peter]

Had a little experiment with that when i first fitted mine.

Some things to bear in mind;

Some get circulation, you need a send and a return for warm and cool air. I cut a slot in the floor above the stove, this brought warm air up, and left the bedroom door open to bring cool air down. This worked a bit, but better still would have been an equally sized slot in the floor on the other side of the room.

Secondly, as hot air rises, it tends to get trapped in the space at the top of the room above the tops of the door openings. Vents fitted above the doors can help bypass this.

Thirdly, relying on air circulation for heat distribution ineviteably leads to the room with the burner in it being very warm, and all the rooms further away being progressively cooler.

 

With my very simple pumped radiator system, the room with the burner in is actually quite cool. In fact, my next addition to the system is going to be the sixth radiator in the same room, with a TRV. None of the other rads have trvs, simply because then the water in the boiler and pipework could boil and become superheated pressurised steam, while all the rads are off. Hopefully in that scenario the blow-off valve would cut in before the steam burst a pipe.

I reckon my whole rad system cost about £500. If you connected into an existing system i'm sure you could do it very cheaply indeed.

When i get round to fitting a combi boiler, i want to put a thermostat in the back boiler that switches the circulation pump on when the temp in the boiler reaches about 40 degrees c. At the moment, the pump is just on a 3 pin plug, light the fire, plug in the pump, away you go!

[detritus21]

I've got a stratford Tf50 boiler stove and its very good. Run 8 radiators off it and the hot water. Only problem I'm having is the wood I'm burning isn't exactly dry so I'm not getting the required heat output well enough. When i do burn good seasoned stuff the fire will get very warm. Does about 2kw to the room and 8kw to the boiler. I've fitted the whole system myself and don't regret it. We used to have a combi boiler. I just need to sort myself some better seasoned timber for next winter and I'm laughing. Our gas bill for the last 1/4 was only 4 quid.

[Dean Lofthouse]

You can link into the combi boiler system with a funny looking exchanger, looks very complicated

 

http://www.dunsleyheat.co.uk/layout.htm

 

I think a seperate system such as yours will be a less complex setup. They do mention about having an auto divert valve which, when all your radiators switch off, diverts the flow to a large radiator say in your garage which disperses the extra heat so the system doesn't boil.

 

Our gas bill has gone from £375 per quarter to £50 per quarter, I have a large kettle on the stove all the time and come sunday lunch simmer all the veg etc.

 

Our lass just thinks I'm tight

[Peter]

That system on the dunsley site is for a system boiler rather than a combi system. I dont see why you couldnt just insert the back boiler into the radiator pipe run somewhere. All you need then is a way to make the pump run without the combi heating the system. If you do have trvs then the divert valve would be sensible.

I havent paid a gas bill in nearly two years!

[Dean Lofthouse]

I dont see why you couldnt just insert the back boiler into the radiator pipe run somewhere.

 

Yeh, your probably right Peter.

 

The system on the combi is sealed pressurised so joining it into that should work. You would have a built in pressure relief valve and all the anti corrosive stuff in one big system. You could even just switch the combi to hot water only mode.

[Mr Ed]

Hees a tip for anyone wanting an excellent woodburner, I have seen these and the quality is equal to the Clearview

http://www.greymetal.co.uk

These are superb stoves, and unlike most stove manufacturers, they quote nominal output rather than gross.

 

I run a thermorossi 'BOSKY' stove, 20kw output with 2 ovens. I'm soon replacing it witha vigas chip boiler, as I want the automation, and need slightly more output in this freezing cold old farmhouse.