Wood Stove double duty

annscullamus

Dear Jolaaled I will try to upload a photo so you can see what I mean. It is not the prettiest of pictures but in the context of the kitchen it looks homely, and really does the job.
I made chicken stew today and endless teas and coffees for my pupils!

Sorry, but I don't know how to do the photo thing but if you email me I will send a photo of the setup. It is very similar to your stove!

Hope that helps.

csarina

Jolaaled wrote: »

Csarina...I love your stove..so pretty! do you think i should invest in a fan too?

We find the fan is very useful, instead of the heat going up to the ceiing in the sitting room it pushes it out of the open door into the hall amd bathroom, our kitchen and bathroom are on the north side of the house and get very cold. Its called an eco fan. I was watching celebrity Masterchef and saw that !!!!!! Strawbrisge had 2 on top of his woodburner, I am going to try boiling a kettle on ours tomorrow, We use it in conjunction with our oil centrel heating. The heating comes on 7-30 to 10am when the stove has been lit and takes over, we allow the stove to die down by 8.30pm when the heat comes on in the bedrooms until 10pm when we usually go to bed. Our house is a funny shape the bedrooms being at the end of a corridor and round the corner, so the heat does not flow that far....I am hoping that using the stove will cut down on our need for oil.

We live on an estate where there is plenty of fallen wood, we have a chain saw so are able to cut and store our wood. We also have access to broken potato crates which are fine for kindling......

rachbc

Going to save these cooking ideas for my parents - last year when the power was out they only had the wood burner for heat and cooking and lived on boiled eggs for 2 days!

the.fantastic.mrs.fox

we've done the following on ours (had it installed since April)

Toast bread on it (we've timed it down to a perfect 10 seconds per side and it's done!)

Warmed beans on the top in a pan (beans on toast)

Boiled water in our flat bottomed kettle for tea

Made cheese toasties (toasted bread, inserted cheese and left them in front of the fire)

We tried jackets. Wrapped in tin foil twice and placed on the top they take all day to cook and you need to turn them. We placed them in the fire and the potato disapperead leaving nothing but the foil

I've read online that you can insert empty tin cans in a pyramid shape into the fire to use as a base for your pan but I don't think my fire is big enough.

Will keep my eyes on this thread to see if anyone else does anything good.

Jolaaled

wow...all these ideas are just great! Thanks everyone.

I'm hoping the weather is car-bootable this weekend, as i'm going to go hunting for any flat-bottomed receptacles with a lid, that I can use..plus an italian-style coffee maker.

I've also noticed that I will be able to maybe hang things from the iron lintel strip, that lies about a foot above the stove. Maybe I can hang and dry some herbs???..altho maybe far too hot for that.

Thanks again for all the lovely ideas everyone.

mandragora_2

Has it got a back boiler? That's the best sort of 'double duty' to get out of one, and if anyone's buying one, I'd certainly recommend it. Ours 'tops up' the hot water in the immersion heater throughout the winter.

Jolaaled

mandragora wrote: »

Has it got a back boiler? That's the best sort of 'double duty' to get out of one, and if anyone's buying one, I'd certainly recommend it. Ours 'tops up' the hot water in the immersion heater throughout the winter.

No, sadly, no back boiler..which i do partly regret not getting!

tillycat123

Great read, would love to see more pictures posted.

I have a new woodburner sat in a box in the garage at the moment, installation chap booked up till January! Can't wait to have it fitted. Never thought of cooking on the top. love the sound of the rice pudding, I can smell it now, lovely!

Jolaaled

tillycat123 wrote: »

Great read, would love to see more pictures posted.

I have a new woodburner sat in a box in the garage at the moment, installation chap booked up till January! Can't wait to have it fitted. Never thought of cooking on the top. love the sound of the rice pudding, I can smell it now, lovely!

wow, Tilly..you're in for such a treat, once you've got it house-trained! I think they're a great thing to have, if you're lucky enough to get one..they seem to have a personality all of their own!

Please post a pic when you can. Here's one of my installers threading the liner down the chimney last month!

csarina

The liner going down



The old fireplace out.


What we had taken out.

The old stove was condemend by the manufacturers as it had originally had a boiler to heat the water. Our Lanlord had filled the boiler with sand. It had to come out, it was far too big for the room it was in and ate wood like nothing on earth

The new stove is much smaller, uses much less wood and is more efficient that the old monster........I must admit I will be glad when my son managed to get up and build the new surround, then I can decorate the sitting room.