Steven P

Your memory doesn't do inflation justice! Speaking to the coal man at the start of the season 'house coal' was going for about £35 for 50kg, smokeless £30 - he can't get normal coal and the prices because of it have gone right up, he can't get coke either (even pet coke from the oil refineries), his anthracite is about the same as smokeless.. Oil benefits that is is fairly hassle free, light it and go?

I've got my rowan tree by the back gate - between mine and the cemetery, for much the same reason..

Laurel can give off cyanide - OK if it is drying outside but if you have it inside (perhaps to dry of a bit more before burning) then there -could- be a problem In an open fire that released smoke into the room (as the OP) again could be a problem Yew, no idea, thought it was OK. Don't eat the seeds they are poisonous but burning thought was OK

Sorry - open fireplace... doesn't above doesn't all apply but there could still be a problem getting the fumes to go up the chimney, perhaps you have put too much fuel on the fire, overloaded the chimney capacity? (is that possible), maybe chimney needs cleaning. Still applies though when do you smell the smells (leaving my first answer above in case others with a stove are looking)

playjng devils advocate here for fun.... wood burner goes for 15 hours here, frying for 15 minutes, toaster for 5.. multiply that up I guess 15x5=75 (stove), 411x0.25 = 102 (frying), and 451x1/12= 37 (toaster).... Though I would go with the other argument that there are a lot of other things to consider, sitting in a car in the commute, whatever is in the house already. Interesting tests though to measure what there is in a real world situation. Back to the OP, what is the smell you can smell, and does it happen through the burn or for example, when you open the door to put new fuel on. A stove shouldn't really put fumes into the room - all the airflow should be from the room up the chimney, especially when it is burning hot. Might be then that the smell you get could be burning house dust (if the stove isn't used for a while - that smell you get from electric heaters first time of use each year).... so what is the smell and when do you get it? If it is a wood smoke smell when the door is closed, and not just refuelled then to me that sounds like a problem with the stove itself

I wouldn't store them in the garage. If you can stack them outside in the sun that is better. The sun isn't as important as wind - logs will dry to a point in the winter and rain, so long as there is wind flow through a stack of them. Not sure how you are set up with your house but can you find an area or the logs? 1m x 1m stacked 1m high is a 1m cube, 1/2m wide x 2m long, 1m high or even about body width the length of a car and not quite 1m high all 1m cube, should be able to squeeze them in somewhere (having said that, half the garage to logs, that could be a lot of logs)

Understandable and happens all over. If you have been on a forum for a while giving good advice, the questions come around and around again and again - only so many times you want to answer the same thing (I used to keep text files with stock answers in another forum the questions were that predictable). Then you become just a lurker and adding to threads if they interest you.... but essentially I reckon over time you have given all you want to a forum, and the interest dies away. Doesn't explain why there they arn't replaced with equally knowledgeable members though

and if you do find it, don't disable it, keep it at yours or where a handy friend might live - a risky option of course, or let is live in a few friends houses for a day or so, move on a few times, and then stash it away.. in the dog kennel.... no somewhere like an empty industrial unit (so there is no 1 place where it has been, no obvious home)

My suggestion is pure heresy and turn her phone off! Don't they log onto available iphones to log their location, if there isn't a phone within bluetooth range then no location. Obviously it will pick up the next signal it finds though

"You weren't in so I put my package in the wheelie bin"?

Yes, water and sewerage gets paid for - just paid direct to the council and not the water company - and I guess the council passes on the charge (but.... I bet they deduct a handling charge, there is never a payment that the SNP doesn't want a cut from)

It doesn't bother me either way. The trolls and so on come, they make a post or 2 for a few weeks and some times the members here bite. Then the members get bored and the trolls wander off to vindicate their existence somewhere else. It is a brief distraction from daily life for a day or so and then gets boring. The others are those that come along just to argue and insult, again to vindicate their life (and in my opinion to compensate for something small and insignificant), they reach the limit and get removed, again a small distraction from life for a while, then they too get boring. Sometimes there are clashes in personalities - going to happen wherever you are but these are guys who know their stuff, just wind each other up. But their arguments would just warrant a warning "play nice guys" The moderators could have a cull, but generally the system works as it is - the trolls and so on move on soon enough, or make their posts interesting (and not insulting) enough to stay.

Boredom, that's all

Looks OK, the website says all the right stuff. I am no expert though - someone will no doubt have experience of this one. Are their any reviews online? It is a larger stove, 7kw nominal and so yes, you'll need an air vent in the room - googling the rules to check, you should get 5kw before you need an air vent and then each kw a 50p sized hole (so 2 off them), of course as close to the stove the better. I only have 5kw but also have an air vent coming up directly by the stove from the under floor crawl space (which has plenty of air bricks) - I can seal the house up all I want - point is you might get a bit inventive as to where those air vents are? Last comments, if you are getting the lintel fixed in Feb, then that sounds like an ideal time to have worked out the stove you are getting and make any other changes you might ned by then (might be the opening needs to be larger, it might come into the room further and need a wider hearth and so on). Did you also check that the lintel has been removed, some older stove cottages had tall fire places, the lintel further up an then filled downwards to their current height - irrelevant maybe I'd still want a lintel above the opening I think

Above 5kw you will need to add an air brick into the room won't you? Can't rely on the house drafts to keep air for the fire.. Sound like you want to go larger than 5kw, if 5kw at the moment isn't doing the heating. Most of big brands will be good - we looked at Stovax, Burley sounds decent (in the end we got the one that Mrs P liked the looks of). If the surroundings are built to a 5kw stove then they will need to be adjusted to fit a more powerful one

Throw in a garden incinerator 'bin' with the little chimney pointing out the container, it's garden waste then?

I suppose a container counts as a building doesn't it in relation to smoke control zones? Not sure what temperature you'd need inside, more important is airflow and keeping the rain off I think - however 'massively upgraded' would be a lot of insulation?

No offence taken, pointing out that 'cheap' log burning stoves aren't really as cheap as people think all things considered. Like you am outside of town, I can see the gas pipe - but they need 50m of trench and a river crossing for me to get it (I think it was £5k just to get a quote). My choice was electric heating or get a stove to lower the cost a bit. In 10 years of stove my direct costs are about £3500, plus it is multifuel so (at this weeks prices) £6000 in smokeless coal, plus whatever it costs me in time, and petrol to acquire those all so important free logs. If I was using kiln dried logs and not coal my fuel costs would be higher again, and I still have to use the electric for hot water and cooking. Certainly not as cheap as people would have you believe.

Alkali and oil makes soap I think - lye from wood ashes is quite akaline 9thats the inner geek in me knowing this stuff)

Chimney question: At 10 to 12kw you will need to use the flue size specified by the manufacturer, 5" will be too small I suspect, and sorry to say. Reducing from the stove to the flue never sounds like a good idea. For stove size, I'd consider your opening and allow at least 6" air gap around it to give the maximum size you could fit in Power cuts - we don't often have them but could see a problem if you have just gone out, leaving the fire running. The open ended pipe is a simple pressure relief system, so you don't blow up the boiler with pressure. If your heating only water, and it's not under pressure then the maximum boiler temperature should be 100 deg C (ish) if there is always water there. The header tank should ensure that - and will be needed as well (run the boiler dry and max temperature can easily get to 500 to 750 deg C (we've all pulled glowing nails and screws out of a stove) and that could be a problem)

For the air wash control, nudge it till the fire starts to die away and then knock is back open a bit. Control isn't instant, it takes a little while before what you do gets to what you set it at. For example, air fully open, loads of air in the fire box, and hot coals, half close it and there are still hot coals and still lots of air - but a few minutes later the air has stabilised to the new level and the coals have cooled to match. So patience might be needed, close the air half as much as you'd think and then wait and see what happens. It takes a while to learn for your exact setup and stove the positions you will need. Your logs shouldn't make too much difference but too big and limited air supply will also produce similar effects - maybe split the logs in half? Baffle plate should be obvious if wrong? this might help that. Exploded Diagram for Stovax Stockton 4 stove WWW.STOVESPARES.CO.UK Exploded Diagram Stovax Stockton 4 stove

Am sure I don't know what you mean, £2500 for a stove install, plus £100+ for a saw, plus £150 for a couple of axes, and half hour of time to collect, split and stack logs for a days heating (lets value my half hour leisure time at £10), plus lets say £10k of garden space for the logs (that is a hidden cost), these free log things are a bargain.

Mind, the coal I got this week is costing me about £40 a week (60-40 coal / wood - don't have enough space inside for 100% wood heating), £5.50 a day for 4 months of winter. Suspect if I bought in logs that figure would be higher. (not directly comparable to you - house size, insulation, number of jumpers owned, we are further south though in Glasgow)

Smokeless fuels and ash.... a big difference what you buy, the ones I pick up from the garage / discount supermarket / big warehouse DIY store are just black ash, the 50kg sack from the local coal man is OK - ash pan emptied every day and a half with that, hourly with the others. For me I have coal and logs, the coal ash has a lot of nasty stuff in it for the plants. I have a pile in the garden, generally used to fill in holes in the patio, though it is also quite good to throw on the road to get a bit of grip (not the drive since that gets walked into the house). Sawdust is also quite good to put on snow, adds grip. Ash fires..... Cameron house hotel at Loch Lomond started when a night porter put some hot ashes in a cupboard

Give your wrists a few days to get better and if you still have it try your other axe - if the problem stays then it isn't the axe, and if it goes away, could be the axe, could be something else, so I'd use the Fiskars again and see if the pain returns - if not it is something else. Never had a problem with mine. Are both axes comparable, length and so on?