Wood burning stoves>

AGBAGB

robj_brum,
Its a big choice to make with many considerations.

If you are looking at combi boiler verses a modern sealed tanked system (the later may also be best if you have large houshold)

I'd look at the alternatives first by instalation cost. (roughly a dual system for water heating can be 2+times that of seperate stove and boiler) . And investigate what grants are available and the new loan scheme thats just been anounced.

Second by running costs. ( if you have to buy logs the money saving over piped gas will be close to zero or cost more)

Third what you might want down the line. (e.g. solar. can be integrated in to a modern tank system)

Fourth whats going to make you feel good.

Cheaper and more Efficient. I think it comes down to the time frame that you're after to displace the instalation costs.

The more expensive option will give flexability over your heat source. If I was choosing from scratch and could scrape the initial cost together I would go down that route.

likespizza

We're researching wood burning stoves at the moment. I thought I had a handy supply of driftwood at the bottom of the garden but discovered that you shouldn't burn it because the salt in it creates hydrochloric acid that eats at the stove, and worse - dioxins :-(

A friend had her chimney checked before installing a stove. It was sound and didn't need a liner.

We visited Clearview (Ludlow) at the weekend. They are very helpful and the stoves are excellent. It was a nice day out too. They are very expensive though and we're still considering the options. We decided against heating water with one. For this you need a stove that's big enough to heat the room AND the water. You have to keep a stove at it's optimum temperature so you can't burn a little fire in there one day if you decide you don't want the water heating. The size of the stove determines the size of the fire you have to burn in it. We're looking into solar panels for hot water.

Emielou

Hi
I'm having a terrible time with my stove, hope you can help. My lovely kiln dried wood stops flaming after about 30mins, there's still chunks of charred, smoking wood in there though (I know smoking/smouldering is bad). The flue is nice and hot and the stove is an 11kw Invicta. I have to add more paper and kindling to get it going again. Hope someone can help

A._Badger

Emielou wrote: »

Hi
I'm having a terrible time with my stove, hope you can help. My lovely kiln dried wood stops flaming after about 30mins, there's still chunks of charred, smoking wood in there though (I know smoking/smouldering is bad). The flue is nice and hot and the stove is an 11kw Invicta. I have to add more paper and kindling to get it going again. Hope someone can help

Did you have the stove professionally installed and did the installer show you how to use it? It's surprising (and quite worrying) how commonly people come here who have never been shown how to work their expensive new purchases.

Assuming it was installed properly then it sounds like you aren't giving it enough air. Every stove design is different but often to get a fire going you need all the vents (primary and secondary air) wide open and perhaps even the door slightly ajar, too.

Once the fire is really roaring away, you close the door and the bottom vents (this is with wood - you close the top vents with solid fuel) and control the fire by adjusting the top vents.

Hope that's some help.

Emielou

A._Badger wrote: »

Did you have the stove professionally installed and did the installer show you how to use it? It's surprising (and quite worrying) how commonly people come here who have never been shown how to work their expensive new purchases.

Assuming it was installed properly then it sounds like you aren't giving it enough air. Every stove design is different but often to get a fire going you need all the vents (primary and secondary air) wide open and perhaps even the door slightly ajar, too.

Once the fire is really roaring away, you close the door and the bottom vents (this is with wood - you close the top vents with solid fuel) and control the fire by adjusting the top vents.

Hope that's some help.

Hi Badger Thanks
I paid a local company with HETAS engineers £5.5k for the whole job including stove. A guy came after we couldn't get it lit, made a huge fire and left.
Maybe I'm not getting the fire roaring enough initially though I am keeping the air vents open. Maybe I should get the installers around again and keep them here to show us how to keep the fire going. It never looks like those lovely flaming stoves in all the ads.

A._Badger

That was a very expensive installation - I hope it included a good stove!

I'm glad you mentioned the 'big fire' because I nearly added that in my reply.

Newcomers are, understandably, often rather timid about their stoves and try to run them with tiny little fires, which they're really not designed to handle.

Try building a nice, big fire and running it hard. Don't be scared of it - it will almost certainly respond better to having a big fire than a small one.

Emielou

Thanks so much A.Badger.
Right, primal pyromaniac tendencies to be let lose on Friday night then! The stove is beautiful and was a big chunk and I couldn't resist a really lovely slate and a wood storage unit (not very good mse behaviour but I had saved up for it, so I think it counts)!

AGBAGB

Emielou,
Sounds like a similar problem to ones on this thread
» My Log Burner Not Getting Hot. (Page 1)


I and others gave some answers that seemed to help, Like A Badges says don't be timid! When it's properly Hot you can start turning it down.

If you haven't got enough fuel in to start with, cool air from the fully open vents will be cooling the stove. Try it with lots of small logs and plenty of kindling first to really get it roaring.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Grz.26
..and when i placed another log in, opened primary and secondary controls, waited till it ignited, closed the primary contol and 3/4 closed the secondary small flicker of a flame. not sure it was getting hotter though. I think it was.

Just noticed you said" placed another log". Just the one?

Try filling it with as much as will fit. Leave the vents open, if on a bed of embers it should start flaming quickley if the wood is dry. Let it start roaring and keep it burning hard until the logs first blacken then start whitening with a layer of ash. Only then start closing the vents off a bit at a time and watch the effect. You should keep good but slower flames going for a while. The stove should be hot by now. Close the vents further in stages, check the smoke out of your chimney. Aim for virtually nothing visable, open it up again if you have too much smoke. If the stove is hot enough and the wood at the right stage of burning, very little smoke will be visable, the wood will be glowing the vents almost fully closed and you'll get a long hot burn for 1,2 or 3hrs.

If this works you can then start tinkering with the technique as you learn to get along with you particular stove, installation and logs.

.[/QUOTE]

kenives

Hi: does anubody have any experience of CARRON stoves? I'm new to wood burning and like the look (and price) of the Carron stove and am looking for commentas from other owners. I'm also new to forum using so this request may end up in the wrong place!

Emielou

Oh thanks so much AGBAG I was really worried about filling it up, I thought that would put the fire out - without your advice I would never have done that (so sorry that I am such a dope!)
I can't wait to get home, get the stove hot, fill it up and enjoy a bottle of wine.

Thanks for pointing me to the other advice too - the people on this forum know everything!