neiln

To respond to your earlier question witterings, a cat stove isn't any more efficient than a secondary air stove but because of the whole house system and the way users run them, cat stove owners often report using less wood.... Or rather owners of stoves with secondary air report burning much more than their old stove did. Remember, a lot of stove users in the US are in cold winter climates and the stove is their primary heat. They want ease of use. They often light them and run them continuously for months. Secondary air stoves can't be run that low and owners will open windows on milder days, plus the house will be toasty warm all day even if the owner is out at work, and all night when tucked in bed (under just a light sheet). The cat stove other has the convenience of constant heat but turns it really low when out, asleep or mild.

Correct. When set low the glass will also blacken, so there's absolutely nothing to see.... It's an efficient and simple wood heater not something for ambience

Exactly, the water in the wood and the water produced by burning the wood makes a lot of water in total. How did we get from cats and secondary air to heat exchangers!?

You've answered your question

I think the advantage is not from necessity to meet the regs but rather it separates the wood from much of the heat/'burning' and allows a really low and long burn. The cat sits up above the baffle in the neck of the flue I think, some way from the load of wood. Once lit and up to temp the cat is engaged (by pass closed) and a thermostatic air control set. The stove can then close right down so the wood just smolders. In a regular old stove that gives a long burn but very very little heat and a lot of smoke and creosote. In a modern stove with excess secondary air it just can't be done, but in a cat stove the wood load smolders but the cat burns the smoke. I've read loads of bk owners comments about how the heat comes mainly from the cat area, not the stove body. The result is a long smoldering burn that still gives much useful heat and doesn't create smoke. As to does the cat allow graphite Like soot particles to burn, I've no idea on the mechanism but I'm pretty certain that the EPA tests are more stringent for cat stoves, as I said, to allow for cat degradation over a few years.

I think the market for big stoves is not that strong here. In the US there are a lot of rural homes, big homes with plenty of space and these are often built with wood heat in mind. Their way has been much more a single, large, centrally located stove, loaded to the gunnels and set to chug along for 8-12-24 hours. Iirc the bk Princess is 80-100000 btu/ HR which is 20-25kW. The bk king is even bigger. The size is probably limiting the take up over here. I couldn't fit one, but I do like the thought of it!

i understand the regs are tighter for cat stoves to allow for some degradation. If the stove is run properly, clean wood, dry wood, and the right temps etc, then i believe the cats do 2, 3, 4 years. They can be cleaned and given a bit more life..think its boil in vinegar or something like that, but definitely need to factor replacing them every few years and they cost high hundreds of dollars i think.

Blaze king stoves are pretty much the top of the line I believe. Go on hearth.com and look I'm the long running bk threads. Bkvp is indeed their VP, posts regularly and sorts out issues when the crop up. Don't believe they are available this side of the pond. Shame, I like the thought of loading a stove once every 24-36 hours.

Yes, once the cat is up to temp.

I'm guessing it's a little Briggs and Stratton engine? Or maybe a Honda? 4 stroke. The primer bulb shouldn't have a hole bit it does get fuel into it. A few pumps, 3 I think they recommend, squirting fuel into the carb inlet. If you take the air filter off the top and look down you can see the fuel squirt in as you pump the bulb. New bulb comes as part of the carb service kit along with the diaphragm, for just a few pounds.

I love Holly, burns very hot.

I've thought about getting some ABS plumbing waste pipe and heating that and forming into a close fitting collar. ABS is very impact resistant and softens at a fairly low temp, about 110C iirc. Never got round to trying it though.

I like the heat shrunk bottle idea, might try that. What bottle did you use?

Also, Norwegian wood is a good read but Dudley cook's the ax book has more practical tips and Vincent thurkettle's wood fire handbook too possibly (I've just started on this). Best tips I could give.... Get more wood than you think you need, soft wood CSS by Easter should be good to burn in winter but hardwood I like to dry for 2 summers. Stack off the ground on pallets.

It's not a matter of how many stoves you have, it's how big is the house you are heating? How insulated is it? And how is your weather? In suburban South London I heat a medium sized 3 bed semi that is a 1930s build and not amazingly insulated. WFH this winter I've heated the place solely with wood in two stoves, even through the snow the house was comfortable. I had an 8-10 day break and used the c/h at the end of January as I was fed up of hauling wood in, but otherwise it's been purely wood heat. I've burnt ~9m³ since October, give our take 1/2 a cube. I expect I'll burn another 2.5-3 before the weather finally warms up, usually my last evening burn is around May BH. Mines all ARB waste too. As said, try and use the longer uniform pieces at the ends/sides of the stack. A lot of mine is stacked 4' wide and 4' high along my garden fence. I crib stack (criss&cross) 2 rows at the end and intersperse acrib stack row every 8' ish. It's not fallen over yet and been doing this for 5-6 years. I do check it when ever I'm in the garden, especially for the first few months after stacking, and bash any bulges back in with the poll of the axe. The occasional long length left in the stack also helps tie it together.

Holly, numerous primus and black locust are common enough in towns/cities (but we call it false acacia). I've been disappointed burning locust, after reading the views most Americans seem to have of it. I guess different climate and it ends up quite a different wood. My view of common trees is a city scroungers view from suburban South London. I get a lot of oak and sycamore, a bit of Holly, a little ash but not much, hardly any beech, a bit of cherry and silver birch and then bits of apple and random things from people's gardens.... Currently burning strawberry tree which is pretty good and dense, related to madrone i believe. I could be mistaken but seem to think I've read oak is our most common woodland tree, ash most common hedge row tree.

Like most, I really miss the interaction with others and find WFH hard to be as productive. 3 young kids makes for a noisy house to be working in! However it's great spending much more time with them, that is special. Wood wise WFH means I've burnt more, I'll probably use a couple of cube more, but I made 2 more local tree surgeon contacts in lockdown #1 and got waaaaaay more wood dropped off than usual. I'm expecting another couple of truck loads of Oak next week and that will bring my total for the year to about 25 cube, this winter AND next covered off! With no commuting I've had the time to cut and split most of it too.

Exactly, but wet wood won't get hot. Please keep quiet about softwood. We don't want everyone to know it's good!

The flue, but I hadn't thought of twinwall to solve it. the stove...check the distances. might be ok if its a convector....i guess it might even as a radiating stove but...maybe the recess is bigger than it appears to me. dunno if original but I think possibly. if the brick arch above were original it seems a bit heavy for a later install to hold a bit of infill. It does seem the fireplace has been altered a few times!

clearly. but it means a stove install won't meet regs. Likelihood of a problem...low, but it won't meet regs. As I said, 'Slight' problem

Errrmmm, you have a slight problem. Is that not the cut off end of an Oak lintel in the brickwork? ie. a combustable?

Yep, plenty of evening standard or metro, some twigs/kindling, two logs but I go for on top. It lights.

You're all wrong. Let me put you straight. It's firewood. Oh and oak comes from acorns.

It's rare but had it this morning, racking out the stove and notice it's warm still then find a few glowing embers buried in the ash.

The smell of oak is unique, no strong and hard to describe smell (I'll say cidery, tobacco-y....I dunno-y but nice) no oak.