Steven P

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?

Do you need to take the banner down afterwards? Might limit what you can do if you can't climb. If you can't climb then anyone who can't climb can untie it if that is the intention. For fun (many years ago....) we used to throw the seat of a rope swing over the branch it was tied to to put it out of reach - weight of the stick or a monkeys fist knot was enough to get it to go over - as above if you can tie the banner you can lose the end of the rope high up like that. As for the knot? Tie a loop in a rope, at the 'top' end, tie the banner to that just below the knot. Throw the other end over the branch, and then through the loop - pull into the tree (same knot we used for rope swings) and then wrap the loose end around the branch - throw it up and over, pull tight and repeat, then throw the loose end out of reach to finish. Now as for getting it down again....... Might need a long stick to start unwrapping it from the branch until you can reach it and throw it over to unwrap.

Norway is an expensive round trip to buy an axe - I'd go for what I can get locally and save myself about £1000. For quality, you get rubbish and after that a lot of the quality is not the tool but the user, bet I could split as much with my Fiskars from the local store as I could with the best from Oyo (ignoring the tourist grades or whatever).

I've done some internet reading - and I'd agree, the solution to the problem is a taller chimney, how big I am not sure. Cause of the problem could be a combination of turbulence off the roof ridge creating a higher pressure in the chimney - forcing the smoke to go down, and a taller well sealed building next to it creating a chimney effect. Chimney effect - when the wind blows past a ventilation brick in the house, an upstairs open window or roof tile vent (I think well sealed houses need some sort of vent bricks in to stop them getting damp?) physics says the wind will suck air out the house, plus some 'heat rises' from central heating. A combination of the 2, wind blows over vent, lowers upstairs internal pressure, and then causes turbulence on the other side above the chimney.. and smoke goes downwards. On their own both features are OK, in this case together a problem is created. Taller chimney and turbulence effect is reduced and taller chimneys draw better (so long as not stupidly tall that the flue gasses get cold as they rise)

and another one from me for now, what is the overall height of the chimney just now? I don't think you need 20' of chimney but an extra couple could be good

If the pressure at the air vent was a problem a lower pressure there than the roof would see smoke going out the vent and not into the room? (assuming the room is well sealed as noted above)

I was looking at the first picture. cowel isn't quite at the top of the window, Don't want you crawling on the roof but if there are fewer than 8 ridge tiles I reckon you will be within 10' of the main house, and pushing it with 8 ridge tiles (450mm less 25mm overlap? less distance from the edge of the roof for the chimney (200mm?), less the overhang of the gutter (200mm),8 tiles, sums in my head, 118", or 2" short......) (based on the link I found above). If it is then the link above suggests you should be 2" above the building edge - an extra 4'? If you are OK and good the 10' quoted then you would need a 3" chimney and not 2"? Optical illusions on the photos of course, best one would be from a distance away.

Bricks are quite easy - based on my stove, 1" thick and covering the edges and back, 2/3 of the height of the firebox. The backs of mine have a 45 degree chamfer at the back so they lock together. I made a template for them ages ago and just make my own as and when I need to. There are many after market suppliers out there. If you look online I bet some of the supplier will even p[ublisj the dimensions of them Baffle plates, I have bought in. I'd get that first if you are replacing both and then you can see if the firebricks you have will work or not.

Looking at the symptoms, you can get a roaring fire when the wind is in the right direction, CO detector stays quiet (by the way, a good time to test and check the batteries), says that mostly the fire is getting all the air it needs in a pretty well sealed room. When the wind is wrong, smoke comes out and not up, the fire dies away (Have you ever checked when this happens what is happening outside the air vent - whether smoke is going out there too). Opening the window and the smoke starts to rise up the chimney again and the fire bursts to life again Fire stalling to me sounds like it has too much smoke in the fire box and not clean air when you consider smoke coming out of the air vents. Backdraft. Air pressure from above pushing smoke down. Need to improve the draw of the chimney and this could be an easy fix, another length of chimney strapped to the top of the first (get a professional advice how to do that) Have a read of this quick link Chimney Height Above the Roof - Tiny Wood Stove WWW.TINYWOODSTOVE.COM How much chimney height do I need above the roof? Chimney height is one of the critical factors affecting the performance of your wood stove, and whether your wood stove installation is...

How new is the extension? I could look back but did you say how big the stove is? My old house is quite leaky - draughts everywhere, but a modern extension I think would be pretty much sealed, not so many draughts. A 5kw Stove is generally OK for the amount of air available from draughts - you know that though. Does this happen more are high pressure outside or low pressure (I am guessing at higher pressures?) So looking at your description, smoke comes down the chimney (or doesn't rise) and out into the room - suggests to me that this is the easiest path for the smoke to take - higher pressure at the cowl than in the room? Might sound odd but if the room is well sealed, could the air from the room going up create a lower pressure in the room and eventually that is enough to get a backdraft? Opening the window a bit, the pressure equalises and then back to hot air rises. Air flow from duct won't affect this - maybe your extension is too well insulated? Try cracking the window open a touch when the fire is going. Would be worse if it was high pressure outside I think Just off the top of my head from your description I'd also look to houses all around here, the chimney is generally higher than the rest of the house

Wonder if this would work (if you want to experiment properly), get a hurricane lantern and set some plastic alight where the wick would be - maybe on a tinfoil tray or something to keep it all nice. See which method soots up the glass the most?

Rings will never fit in exactly to the space available, there will always be some space I think. Split logs can fill the available space better - imagine if the space available is to the 9th blue line in the image above to see some left over space. For me I'd go split logs - able to stack then 5' or 6' high - not sure I'd want to manhandle rings that high, up and down too often

Out of curiosity isn't converting to Aspen bad because the petrol affects the seals and rubbers (fuel pipe, carb internals and so on) and that's why it all goes wrong? Change everything but the metal and you should be OK?

Looking at the sample in your photo, should be able to split the lengths in half reasonable quickly with an axe - starts the drying process as soon as you can (Laylandii should dry pretty quick though). After that with personal experience I have pretty much ditched the petrol saw these days, the battery saw doesn't quite have the power but..... if you have split the logs down a bit first this difference in power isn't really noticeable, a second per cut? Even with an underpowered battery saw halved or quartered logs will cut OK... keep the chain sharp I went battery just for the convenience I can take it wherever I am - also just in case I want one away from the house. So if you are going electric..... what do you keep in the garage by the way? I tend to cut my logs in mine (with the battery saw) - much easier to sweep up the sawdust and it is contained domestically from wind blowing to the neighbours, shut the door over and it blocks a lot of noise. Sawdust... mixes with grass cuttings on the compost heap, and a few buckets go on the fire as well. Can set up a saw horse in there - pallets are great... but if you have some decent length split logs fasten them together (I Like doing stuff for free!). and then I go and ruin it all by using the petrol leaf blower to tidy up after myself! Final thing, half m3 of logs thrown over a neighbours wall if they have a fire or stove buys a lot of tolerance This is on ebay this morning fairly cheaply with batteries: Spear & Jackson Cordless Chainsaw WWW.EBAY.CO.UK <p>Spear & Jackson Cordless Chainsaw. </p><p> Used for the job I bought it for no longer needed as the job is done comes with brand new blade. As it come with a spare blade</p>

If you can still type after emptying the gin.... let us know!

Put a load of apple trees in the woods (spares I didn't need, some grown from seed) - and they did OK till I mowed a path through the nettles to take a look and see what they were like. Went back the next week, all the leaves eaten off them and a very full deer sat underneath one thanking me for the free meal and handy access route. Got a plan for a row of hawthorn on some spare ground near the road - far enough away though that they won't get trimmed, renimnds me, I should go out and harvest the seeds for them (it is a longer term plan...)

8 hours squatting to 1 baby bell to 1 fire ?

I reckon in 5 to 10 years they will all be recycled Siemens Gamesa pioneers wind circularity: launch of world’s first recyclable wind turbine blade for commercial use offshore WWW.SIEMENSGAMESA.COM Wind power is one of the cornerstones in the quest to tackle the climate emergency. With more than 200 GW of new offshore capacity projected by the Global Wind Energy Council to be... ... which should have an effect on everything else that uses fibreglass being recyclable too

You gave the forum 8 hours in the middle of the working day to send you an answer...... Patience is a virtue, let us get home from work, have a brew and put the computer on

Same here, cheap and cheerful. When Aldi start selling them it is time to light the fire. If you want you can splash out on those twisted bits of wood, at about £5 a shot, all green and what ever. Could go old school and make small kindling with an axe and knife, slower than a fire lighter but nothing nasty in there, or just go cheap and cheerful. I often wondered whether a milk carton would go through a domestic paper shredder, shred them over the year and use them, but haven't experimented with that... yet....