neiln

Me too, I heat the while house with stoves in lounge and dining room, coldest bedroom still gets to 19C +/- 1. Wife will run the Ch if I'm not in for the evening.... About once or twice a month basically.

Whole house Vs room heater definitely a part I think, so perhaps house layouts and design drive that?

I read a fair bit on the US based sites and it strikes me that the stoves they have are much more capable than anything in our market. Many stoves with fans/blowers to shift heat off the stove, and also many catalytic stoves with a cat matrix above the firebox to burn the smoke. This then allows them to be loaded full of wood but run low, the wood in the firebox smolders but the cat burn the smoke so emissions are clean, and with most of the heat coming off the cat the firebox itself can smolder really slow so a load of wood can last many many many hours. Stoves such as the Blaze King Princess add thermostatic control to this, not sure but probably just a bimetallic strip type thing like a thermostatic shower valve, the user sets a temp on the knob and the stove varies the burn rate to auto adjust as the load burns down to coals. Why do we not have stove like this in the UK? I can see that the market would be somewhat small by comparison, but I'm a bit surprised it's not big enough for someone to start importing these US stoves. I'd be interested to hear from both stove owners and users if they wold like these kind of stoves, and from our resident stove retailers on if they think they would or wouldn't sell.

A snazzy stainless steel U type thing that about 12 hours worth of logs stack in and it has the companion tools hang from it. It passed the appearance test well. It doesn't contain the debris. It's not so much the bark.... Rather the little black dots of, I guess, insect shit, that drop everywhere!

same here in South London. my lawn is sodden and forming puddles. It feels like its rained continuously since mid september!

Blimey, I just looked that charnwood up out of interest, at £2k it's fairly pricey!

Not the stove but the liner yes. The sulphur in the coal produces SO2, the wood burns giving H2O, these combine to sulphuric acid.

I've had a few splits hit my shins and make me since, did it just now with a bit of strawberry tree. I will wear shin pads sometimes.

As always, every tree is different. Normally ash is a synch to split green but the only time I had a load it was virtually impossible as the grain was folded. So I left it and tried it 6 months later when it was a teenie bit easier but only for a brief window before turning to rock. Get it split.

yes I know, but I'm not sure its the most efficient way to store energy.

There is a balance though isn't there, vents wide open gives most complete burn but a lot of heat goes up the flue, close the vents a bit and you may send some unburnt fuel up the flue, but a lot less heat so overall efficiency can be higher. Close them too much and temps drop, logs smolder, lots of unburnt fuel wasted up the flue and low efficiency. Finding the balance point is the hard part where we can obsess to our *n*l heart's content. I'd love to read some treatise on it but I've not found anything.

Yes, until we find the hydrogen mines, the hydrogen economy seems a misnomer.

Gas made from coal, before my time. The BBC article says 1/3 of our carbon emissions come from domestic heating with gas.

Article on BBC site about blending hydrogen with natural gas and reducing carbon emissions from domestic heating

I like the idea of a wood boiler. Don't suppose they should be used in a smokeless zone though, and knowing my luck my wood scrounge source would dry up if I installed one.

You'll learn through experience what works best for your set up. Other things to try are smaller logs and different types of wood as well as how quickly in the cycle you reload and how quickly you close the vents down. If it's all about looking good then keeping vigorous flames and regulating the heat is not easily done, the flaming/off gassing part of the cycle is hottest

I'd tend to think wonky is right and in practice it would be difficult for the council to prosecute/enforce action as their powers arent strong enough. however, the complaint will go away fastest if it is false/you do all you can to help. So, only dry wood, properly dry, and lots of air and fast dancing flames, keep the flue temp high. you probably know all that. i find smoke is virtually never visible from my flue, the occasional wisp for a couple of minutes on reload and thats it. my neighbor burns coal, smokeless i assume, and that is clean once hot but smokes well for half hour at the start.

Those purevisions are very attractive looking, lovely.

My downstairs is also in the 40s RH and like others I actively dry clothes around the stove to add a bit of moisture back to the house, and it saves a few pence Vs running the tumble drier. And yes, any logs that are as bit damp can dry a bit on the hearth.

Atmosphere as in ambience? True,. A radiator can keep me entertained all evening but not the rest of the family ;). A stove shifts air and dries the air out too which is good for many houses.

If you run a 5kW stove a few evenings a week and a bit more at weekends, you'll use 2-3 cube over a winter.

Less economical than mains gas Ch, but not badly. I scrounge all my wood but by comparing gas bills from winters before the stove went in I estimate a cube of wood saves £65 on gas, give or take a fiver, and the house is run quite a bit warmer. Most people seem to pay ~£100/M3 for hardwood, give or take £20.

but steel starts to lose its structural strength at about 425C and is half strength by about 650C. temps vary according to the steel. stainless is lower than structural. I've a warped baffle in one of my stoves (not a morso) not badly...one corner just sags a bit. cheap aftermarket baffle and cheap steel me thinks. BTW, steel will start to glow a dull red in a dark room at the same sort of temperature, so if its glowing, its not going to be happy. I had my flue pipe at almost 500C last week....stove survived...I sweated a bit ...nerves and heat.

Reading this I think next spring, after I sweep the flue and clean out the stove, I'll wipe the inside over with an oily rag as a bit of extra moisture protection over the summer. Other than spots of rust flakes on my baffle I don't seem to have any trouble but a wipe of oil seems a simple bit of protection for the summer.

The maths seems okay to me and 7 quid a day on oil doesn't sound nuts, although a bit high for autumn and early winter maybe? dunno really..I'm on mains gas. Jeez it would cost lot oto het on oil for a winter though!