Wood burning stoves>

AGBAGB

Thanks. Just a bit confused will there be enough head in a bugalow for gravity feed to circulate fast enough to dump excess heat? or is it a pumped system?

I'm just remembering back to my old system boiling one night when the Auto Damper got stuck. Scared the life out of me.

crphillips

Nah it'll be fine in a bungalow....just make sure at least 28mm pipe is used and have the cylinder as close to the stove as poss and as high as poss.

Really there's no less head in a bungalow than a house as in a bungalow the cylinder is up in the roof and in a house the cylinder is on the first floor.....probably around same kinda height. It doesn't matter how high the water tank is as long as it's above the cylinder.

gemsurf2

I'm tying myself up in knots looking at multifuel stoves!

I only have £300 to spend (another budget for installation) and there are plenty available at the size I want (6-7kw). The cheapest of the 'known' makes I've found is an Evergreen 7kw for £250 delivered. There are plenty of what appear to be Chinese imports but does this mean that they are all necessarily poor quality, or are some better than others? Some reputable looking websites are selling the same imports as are appearing on eBay, stating they CE approved but there's no real way of checking.

Generally you get what you pay for, but as Evergreen stoves are naturally all CE approved, and I can therefore buy a 7kw, efficient stove for £250 what major advantages are there on spending £300-£700 more on one? My reason for not immediately buying this though is that it's too 'twee'!

redlady_1

Hi there,

I have just been through this in the last month. I completed on a house purchase on 21st December. It is a total renovation project. There was no heating and no gas connected. I decided on a multi fuel stove (and indeed investigated the wiring up to boiler etc). After lots of discussions with various bods I decided to purely go with a multi fuel burner and use the immersion for the water. Now, I dont do "cold" for anyone! I have also had this fitted since the first week in January - when we had all that snow?!

It has been the best thing I have ever done! I dont need any other heating (but I have a back up oil fired radiator). I was toast throughout the cold spell. However, a few words of advice. Do your own research once you know the size of stove you require. Dont get one that is too big for the room and dont be swayed by sales talk. Mine covers the living room (15 ft x 10) and kitchen 10 x 6 and in the bedroom the chimney breast is warm and my bed is right next to it.

I can honestly say I am really happy and toasty. Downsides, you need to look at the weather forecast, it takes time to get to know your stove so you can get the best out of it and what burns the best, make sure you always have a good supply of wood in the house (in case the weather is pants and you dont want to get more!). The weather can also affect the draw so some days are better than others.

Oh and my cottage is about 200 years old.


Hope this helps

patjenkins

gemsurf2 wrote: »

I'm tying myself up in knots looking at multifuel stoves!

I only have £300 to spend (another budget for installation) and there are plenty available at the size I want (6-7kw). The cheapest of the 'known' makes I've found is an Evergreen 7kw for £250 delivered. There are plenty of what appear to be Chinese imports but does this mean that they are all necessarily poor quality, or are some better than others? Some reputable looking websites are selling the same imports as are appearing on eBay, stating they CE approved but there's no real way of checking.

Generally you get what you pay for, but as Evergreen stoves are naturally all CE approved, and I can therefore buy a 7kw, efficient stove for £250 what major advantages are there on spending £300-£700 more on one? My reason for not immediately buying this though is that it's too 'twee'!

Which Evergreen Stove are you talking about? We looked at the Evergreens when we bought our AGA Little Wenlock Wood Burning Stove and asked about the difference in the price brackets. The salesman showed us the difference in quality of the door mechanisms, air controls etc and we were sold with the AGA.

The salesman actually said that the Evergreens are good stoves for the price, but you lose the controllability and efficiency that you get from the stoves you pay a few hundred pounds more for.

hethmar

Just a tip, if possible would a 5Kw be sufficient as any appliance with an output over that has to have a external air source - basically a vent in your wall - to comply with HETAS installation regs.

As the above poster says, they all do basically the same job but at different levels of controllability and satisfaction. Have you looked at the Stockton range or the Dovre?

A._Badger

The only Chinese stoves I have seen that look up to the job are the Tiger ones - but even then, you won't get one with the output you want for £300. Some of the cast iron types sold by Sussex Woodstoves are cheap, too, but still won't fit the bill for you, I'm afraid.

crphillips

I'd really avoid the chinese stuff. the Tiger's and Firefox's aren't bad but they'll not keep the glass lovely and clean like a stove for around £500-£600 would.

To get something decent you need to expect to pay around £100 per kW of output.

We get a lot of farmers buying evergreen stoves but i know they're going to be fairly happy with them because they're out and about most of the day and just want something they can chuck a log on and come back to a warm house. If you have a nice living room and want to sit and enjoy the flicker of some lovely dancing flames with a nice glass of red wine, you need to spend more money and buy something thats had the time, effort and money put into designing an airwash system that actually works and keeps the glass clean.

Also the chinese stuff is a nightmare when it comes to replace any parts as everything warps and twists......most of the parts are held in by threaded studs with nuts and washers.......once these have had a bit of heat and moisture they rust and then when it comes to undo the nuts to replace a part you sheer the stud......then you have to grind the remainder flat, drill the centres, re-tap a thread, find a new stud, washer and nut and re-fit the new part.

Get a Charnwood, Dunlsey, Franco Belge, Stovax, Esse or similar and everything just lifts out in seconds and the new parts just simply fall into place.

If you really can only afford £300 or so then i'd recommend getting on ebay and buying a reputable brand second hand. Just make sure the essentials are in good conditions i.e., glass, baffel, grate, friebricks......etc. Don't worry too much if it looks a bit faded and used. 10 mins and £10 for a can of matt black stove paint and it'll look like new!

pinkmami

redlady_1 wrote: »

Hi there,

I have just been through this in the last month. I completed on a house purchase on 21st December. It is a total renovation project. There was no heating and no gas connected. I decided on a multi fuel stove (and indeed investigated the wiring up to boiler etc). After lots of discussions with various bods I decided to purely go with a multi fuel burner and use the immersion for the water. Now, I dont do "cold" for anyone! I have also had this fitted since the first week in January - when we had all that snow?!

It has been the best thing I have ever done! I dont need any other heating (but I have a back up oil fired radiator). I was toast throughout the cold spell. However, a few words of advice. Do your own research once you know the size of stove you require. Dont get one that is too big for the room and dont be swayed by sales talk. Mine covers the living room (15 ft x 10) and kitchen 10 x 6 and in the bedroom the chimney breast is warm and my bed is right next to it.

I can honestly say I am really happy and toasty. Downsides, you need to look at the weather forecast, it takes time to get to know your stove so you can get the best out of it and what burns the best, make sure you always have a good supply of wood in the house (in case the weather is pants and you dont want to get more!). The weather can also affect the draw so some days are better than others.

Oh and my cottage is about 200 years old.


Hope this helps

Ad I mentioned in my post our cottage is about 400 yrs old. Walls are super thick & stone. We've had the nook totally knocked & measures about 9ft high & 8 feet wide & includes a priest hole. The living room will be 21feet x 12feet (approx) so Im thinking of getting a 12kw stove. I went to the specialists house on Monday to see his nook & he had a 12kw stove & a bigger nook that mine but a much smaller room.
Just wandering what KW your stove is & trying to see if a 12kw would be ok.

gemsurf2

Thanks ever so much for all your advice it is really appreciated.

To respond to some of the queries, it was the Evergreen Ash ST1047, which is looking more likely, it sounds like a good stove - I can put up with the aesthetics and I understand the problems with the imports now.

We live in an old cottage which is far from air-tight and have been told that that should be sufficient for air intake, plus there is some sort of ventilation brick in the wall already.

£300 unfortunately is the limit. I was a bit apprehensive about a secondhand one, only because I don't have any knowledge of replacing bits, but having looked again there are a couple on eBay at the moment which I think I could tackle!