Dazza95

It was 3C at 06:00 today and similar temperatures are expected tonight. Even with some sun today, it was pretty cold in the house when I got in earlier.

Glad I’m not the only one who’s had to light the fire in June.

I’ve had some Scots pine sulking when first lighting the fire recently, this stuff was split pretty small and has been in my log store for over 24 months. It gets going eventually but certainly not as easily as I’m used to. I have some oak, laurel and field maple that was processed at a similar time and this seems OK. Perhaps the pine has re-absorbed moisture more readily?

I’m burning quite a bit of horse chestnut this year and I’m quite liking it. I’d read that it’s poor firewood but I don’t think it’s that bad at all really.

I had a mix of Scots pine and oak last year and found it to be fantastic. Oak was great at providing a long lasting, consistent heat and the pine got up to temperature very quickly. As said though, it’s always nice to have a good mix of dry wood on hand – I find a variety of sizes helps too; bigger pieces for long burns and anything in between for getting a fire started.

I have a Valiant one. Just don’t go pushing the pins too hard or you might break it. 😉

I scatter them on the lawn once they’ve cooled.

2 to 3 heaped barrow loads of mixed hard and soft wood. We use the oil fired CH for a quick blast morning and evening as we’re usually out 12+ hours a day in the week.

I’ve had success with big lumps of ash, oak, field maple and yew before. After loading the stove, I let it it get up to temperature with the air open for around 15 minutes or so before shutting it down - just enough to have some visible flames. In the morning, there’ll be enough embers to get it going easily again. The glass is usually clean as well if I’ve done it right. I do this quite regularly in the depths of winter as our house isn’t very good at retaining heat.

Ditto, well, last night anyway but just got it going again.

Crikey, definitely in the minority here. I should probably stop being so tight and get the fire going 🤣.

We haven’t. The house is cool and we have run the oil heating for an hour or so a few times but with outdoor temperatures still getting up to 18c, it just doesn’t feel right to start burning full time just yet. Looking at the forecast, we’ll probably start needing the fire from November.

I do wonder if there’s any wisdom with what Clearview are saying. I haven’t used many other stoves but we visited some friends recently who have a relatively modern Stovax stove (not sure if it was Ecodesign) and I was surprised at how little control it seemed to have and how often it needed refuelling. Our Clearview can be loaded with some decent chunks of wood and with the draught set right, it’ll happily go for a good few hours before it needs reloading. There’s no visible smoke (though I’m sure there’ll be some invisible pollutants) and the glass stays clean too. It might not be as efficient on paper but it makes it much easier to manage when using it as a main heat source as we now do.

Thank you, all interesting and good to know. I’m not in the market for a new stove; I was just interested and there’s not a lot of information on what Ecodesign compliant stove are like in practice. We’re renting at the moment and have a Clearview which was already in place when we moved in. Honestly, we’re very happy with the stove itself, although I do find Cleaview’s stance comes across as somewhat arrogant.

I’d say yes too. It’s good to have the flexibility.