Aga little wenlock classic

amo.

Hi
I live in a semi and have just placed an order for an aga little wenlock classic se stove which has an output of 4.7kw. As the room I will be using it in is 12 x 14 ft I ve been told this will be more than enough sufficient and anything more than 5kw will be too hot. But in colder day i would like to leave the door open to allow heat to travel to hall/stairway. will this still be o.k or am i better off going for something more powerful?
Has Anyone got one of these and can they recommed one or not?
Any advice will be welcome.

welda

amo. wrote: »

Hi
I live in a semi and have just placed an order for an aga little wenlock classic se stove which has an output of 4.7kw. As the room I will be using it in is 12 x 14 ft I ve been told this will be more than enough sufficient and anything more than 5kw will be too hot. But in colder day i would like to leave the door open to allow heat to travel to hall/stairway. will this still be o.k or am i better off going for something more powerful?
Has Anyone got one of these and can they recommed one or not?
Any advice will be welcome.

I have same KW output stove, different (British) manufacturer though. It you install over 5KW stove, you are required to install an air vent, now you have cold air entering room, kinda defeats the purpose in your case. I reckon for room dimensions you quote above, less than 5KW stove is suffice.

There is no point in going for larger output stove, the aga will be fine, even allowing heat to trickle further around the house.

For your info, and to give you an idea of heat output, our 5KW woodburner heats our 3principles rooms, albeit main large lounge takes a bit longer to reach a comfortable temperature.

HTH?

A._Badger

I wish I could give you a nice, simple answer!

Some years ago, having taken the advice of several 'experts' I bought the same stove's predecessor to install in the living room of a holiday home - and it was a smaller room than yours, at that.

I don' have the precise measurements in my head but I'd imagine it was no more than 9 x15, though it also opened into an attached, small, galley kitchen. Either way, I was assured by several suppliers that a Little Wenlock would 'roast me out' of a room that size.

But it didn't. Cranked-up and using smokeless fuel rather than wood (wood produces less heat), after a couple of hours, it would eventually get the room hot enough, though on a really cold day it was touch and go. And though the heat did permeate through the rest of the building, I wouldn't have called the effect dramatic.

This wasn't the fault of the stove - it as a fault of the maths. The stove was installed in a small inglenook and the 18th Century, insulation-free, building was in a cold trap at the bottom of two hills, and was also subject to biting winds.

What I learned from this is that rules of thumb are never universal and you need to take into account the reality of the house and room in question. It's no good some chap telling you everything will be fine, over the phone, or on the Internet, or you reading the maker's charts that assure you a stove of X output will do the job.

My advice is, if you have the slightest doubt that your building may be unusual, get a retailer/installer to visit before you buy. If it's a bog-standard property, you will probably not need this belt and braces approach - but this is an expensive game to start making mistakes in!

Welda is right about the air brick, by the way - yet more rules and regulations applied with a trowel - so you may want to stick below 5KW if you can.

As for Aga stoves, I gather the latest incarnation of the Wenlock is better than the one I had, but they are still quite expensive and a little primitive compared with some of the newer designs on the market. They do have bags of charm though, I must say!

Hope that's some help.

amo.

Thanks for info!. Orginally I was thinking of around 6-7 kw but the room calculator showed approx 2.8kw for my room size. So hopefully the wenlock will be fine.

crphillips

With regards to the air brick............you'll have cold air coming into the room regardless of whether you install an air brick or not. A chimney works by permenantly sucking air out of your room and up the chimney......this can't work under a perfect vacuum so air comes into the room from outside the house whether you have an air brick or not. With an air brick your simply controlling where the air comes in so you have better control over draughts as you can choose the air to come in through a grill from behind the telly rather than under doors or from a window behind your head. It's simple physics......you can only suck air out of a box if air is allowed in to replace it. Ever tried drinking out of a take out coffee cup if the hole in the lid is blocked?

It's correct that under 5kW you don't legally require an air vent but a well sealed, modern house may still require one to get adequate draw although it's very rarely the case.

citroennut

We have the Aga Little Wenlock Classic installed in our sitting room which is around the same size as your room. Ours is a bog standard room with no inglenook and I would have to say that the Little Wenlock is more than adequate. In fact it does sometimes get too warm if that's possible!

We always leave the door open and the heat drifts out into the hall and upstairs. I wouldn't part with my wee Aga.

PennyForThem_2

About the air vent...... I got a 6.5Kw Morso Owl and a floor vent behind the telly (lol). However the front of the house where the vent is is exposed and the wind whistles up it and into the room - I block it with an old VHF box when not got stove going and I am not convinced need it anyway as it is in effect 2 very good sized rooms knocked through. House is 1920's 4 bedroom - high ceilings large gaps under doors.

A._Badger

crphillips wrote: »

With regards to the air brick............you'll have cold air coming into the room regardless of whether you install an air brick or not. A chimney works by permenantly sucking air out of your room and up the chimney......this can't work under a perfect vacuum so air comes into the room from outside the house whether you have an air brick or not. With an air brick your simply controlling where the air comes in so you have better control over draughts as you can choose the air to come in through a grill from behind the telly rather than under doors or from a window behind your head. It's simple physics......you can only suck air out of a box if air is allowed in to replace it. Ever tried drinking out of a take out coffee cup if the hole in the lid is blocked?

It's correct that under 5kW you don't legally require an air vent but a well sealed, modern house may still require one to get adequate draw although it's very rarely the case.

And, equally, an old, draughty house or one with a large volume will have to have one fitted, whether it is required or not. Which is why it is a
bad regulation. It doesn't take account of individual circumstances.

crphillips

Pennyforthem.......what kind of vent did they fit? The reason i ask is because the ones we install have baffeling inside the ducting and also a shroud on the outside so air cannot blow through them on a windy day.

Maybe yours isn't like that? Is it just a standard, straight through type vent rather than a black hole vent?

With regards to the building regs.......i personally think the vent ain't a bad idea......who's going to decide whether a house is draughty enough? And whos to say that the owners aren't going to draught proof everything with new windows, doors, skirting, flooring, cavity insulation.....etc?

I hate fitting them but they've got to enforce it accross the board and have a general rule otherwise lazy fitters will just not bother fitting them.

PennyForThem_2

okkkk - crphillips

Don't have a mobile so cannot take a photo. Floor vent, can't really describe it but suspect bog standard.

Is there a web site for vents? When son returns could get him to take mobile piccy.

I think in principle the idea is sound, especially in well insulated properties. For instance, I had my house painted externally and got the painter to fill in gaps in downstairs toilet window which was wooden and i couldn't open. Big mistake, as now I get condensation on the window which before would have been 'dried' by the draught!

patjenkins

We have the AGA Little Wenlock SE Wood Burning Stove. We find the heat output very good. I was told although the 'nominal' heat output is just under 5kw, the maximum heat output is higher depending on how you burn it.