opening up and old fire place

aycor

I am thinking about opening up a fire place, in a 1920's house. We already have one open fire but have seen multi fuel stoves and cassettes, has any one had experience of these and also used them as a form of warm air heating ?

mike_paterson

We have a multi fuel log/coal burner. Have never used it on coal but is absolutely brilliant on logs. Very safe as you can shut the doors if you need to go out. It is also easier to control than an open fire.
You need to make sure that the chimney will pull well enough so worth checking first.

aycor

I took the plunge and ordered a new fire in february having had every thing checked out. It is in an old fire place and does not stand in the room,
it was installed last week and am delighted with the appearance and although I cannot have a hugh fire for a week ....have to let everything dry out and settle the thought of all that FREE heat from the logs the dog and I pickup is exciting

northern_star

aycor wrote:

I took the plunge and ordered a new fire in february having had every thing checked out. It is in an old fire place and does not stand in the room,
it was installed last week and am delighted with the appearance and although I cannot have a hugh fire for a week ....have to let everything dry out and settle the thought of all that FREE heat from the logs the dog and I pickup is exciting

I'm SO envious aycor. I would love to open up the fireplace in my lounge and inset a multi fuel stove. I'd like to primarily burn wood as I'm a dog walker too and I gaze longingly at the free energy available. I used to collect fire wood with my children to burn on an open fire in our previous home and we had great fun seeing who could find what. However, I wonder about a couple of things; is it legal to collect wood, twigs, branches when out walking in public woodlands etc? and would the cost of installing the stove be prohibitive?

ariba10

I hope you had the chimney flue checked for leaks.

aycor

yes I had everything checked and the chimney was lined.
I do not think it is illegal to collect dead wood as long as you don't clear the lot. I also have friends who have let me have logs from their gardens.
It was expensive but I negotiated; I have sold one or two things on ebay and that helped. It certainly will open up a room which we did not use much in winter as it has french windows
It is a neat stove go to for a view RIVA 40
http://www.stovax.com/products.htm?cid=4&sid=13&pid=28

eilz

How do you clean these units, are they easy to clean, also are they safe with children around, what about health in terms of fumes etc? I also have french windows in the main room, and instead of paying high prices for double glazing was looking at a duel fuel unit, are their any real cost benefits making it worthwile? I mean how much in comparison to say gas does wood cost, and how much gas would you need to burn for the equivilent pieces of wood burining?

aycor

I have not run it for any length of time but as a enclosed unit they are clean and the handle comes off to stow away from children, as with any fire it gets hot and needs to be guarded with children around.
the cost benefits to me are as follows I have relatively new oil fired central heating systrm 10 yrs old and no gas to the house, why change when there is no problem. I have a fairly cheap supply of wood locally and 4.9 kw of heat output sufficient for my room and I can then use the room on cool summer evenings planty of them here in scotland.

mike_paterson

eilz wrote:

How do you clean these units, are they easy to clean, also are they safe with children around, what about health in terms of fumes etc? I also have french windows in the main room, and instead of paying high prices for double glazing was looking at a duel fuel unit, are their any real cost benefits making it worthwile? I mean how much in comparison to say gas does wood cost, and how much gas would you need to burn for the equivilent pieces of wood burining?

The Units are easy to clean - they burn really well so that it takes several days of burning to fill the ash tray.

Simply dispose of the ashes in the ash tray, and brush dust from the ridding grate. You will need to clean the glass with a scourer every now and then to remove carbon and oil deposits. It is recommended that you clean the chimney every now and then (yearly ?) to remove tar deposits. You can buy special 'logs' to burn that do this.

The fires are safe with kids around as you can shut the doors. You might want a fire guard to prevent very young children from getting too close.

There are no fumes at all if the chimney is working correctly. The design is that the heat carries all the smoke up the chimney. If anything they are much more efficient and cleaner to use than an open fire.

You can buy different sizes and styles for different room sizes. You can even get one with 2 doors so that it can sit between rooms!

Some can be used to heat your water supply too so dependent on what you want to do, you can save a lot of gas.

We find that ours can over heat the lounge so we turn it down and open the doors to heat other parts of the house.

paul_h

mike_paterson wrote:

If anything they are much more efficient and cleaner to use than an open fire.

Typical efficiency of open fire - 35%

Typical efficiency of enclosed stove - 65%

:j

Debt_Free_Chick

northern_star wrote:

However, I wonder about a couple of things; is it legal to collect wood, twigs, branches when out walking in public woodlands etc?

In general, no. It's not legal as you would be walking on someone's land and everything on it would be their property. A public footpath is simply a right of access across someone's land - not a right to lift everything you find on it! And straying from the marked path is a trespass.

And the verges alongside the road are generally owned by the County Council .......