eBay Stove giving no heat hardly

crphillips

As a general guide a stove capable of putting out 8kW should measure around 600mm x 600mm. If it ain't then I doubt you could get enough fuel into it to give out 8kW. Usually they are 6" outlet too but there are a few 5" 8kW stovse around.

grahamc2003

My little wenlock appears to be physically bigger than your stove, and that is rated at 5kw - and as far as I can ascertain, I'd say the rating is about correct. Seems odd something apparantly smaller can throw out more heat than very well designed slightly bigger stove.

I notice your photos show very little of the stove pipe exposed, and that it's silver. I have about 2 feet of black stovepipe exposed below the register plate, purposely desgined that way. I probably get much of my heat radiated from the stove pipe, I'd guess about 30/40% as much as from the stove itself. I've never noticed any detrimental effects of the exposed pipe, although I suspect there are regulations saying heat shouldn't be lost from it for many reasons (and I also suspect that all those reasons are negated by running my stove very hot all the time).

When I knocked out my opening, I expected to reach a lintel of some sort, but never did. I'm thinking of the messy job of removing another layer of bricks (held there I doin't know how) and raising the register plate another six/nine/twelve inches. Mine's a Victorian house - if I do remove another layer or two of bricks from the breast front, will I eventually reach and recognise a lintel of some sort? Or should I leave well alone?

IvanDrago

hi doesn anyone know what is the best vent to use for the room the stove is in?

im confused if i need one or not as the general opinion is my stove isnt >5kw and the 'nominal output' is 3-8kw.

link me to the vent if possible :P

thanks

is this suitable?
http://www.i-sells.co.uk/DOUBLE-SIZED-AIR-BRICK-CAVITY-LINER-VENTILATOR-CW-AIR-BLAST?m1track=googlebase&utm_source=m1_googlebase&utm_medium=export_feed&utm_term=utm_term&utm_content=m1_googlebase&utm_campaign=m1_googlebase_security_passive&source=googlebase

IvanDrago

grahamc2003 wrote: »

My little wenlock appears to be physically bigger than your stove, and that is rated at 5kw - and as far as I can ascertain, I'd say the rating is about correct. Seems odd something apparantly smaller can throw out more heat than very well designed slightly bigger stove.

I notice your photos show very little of the stove pipe exposed, and that it's silver. I have about 2 feet of black stovepipe exposed below the register plate, purposely desgined that way. I probably get much of my heat radiated from the stove pipe, I'd guess about 30/40% as much as from the stove itself. I've never noticed any detrimental effects of the exposed pipe, although I suspect there are regulations saying heat shouldn't be lost from it for many reasons (and I also suspect that all those reasons are negated by running my stove very hot all the time).

When I knocked out my opening, I expected to reach a lintel of some sort, but never did. I'm thinking of the messy job of removing another layer of bricks (held there I doin't know how) and raising the register plate another six/nine/twelve inches. Mine's a Victorian house - if I do remove another layer or two of bricks from the breast front, will I eventually reach and recognise a lintel of some sort? Or should I leave well alone?

the silver bit above is the door that comes off for sweeping, although mine wont come off. i expected the opening to be higher but there was a brick arch lintle about 200mm above the stove so that is where the register plate is.

MrsCrafty

Hi I have had a fireglow from Saltfire for about 4 months now and it's brilliant. I do agree with the others that you need to make sure it's installed correctly. Not necessarily by a Hetas fitter but correctly otherwise of course it will not work efficiently.

Also, you have to make sure you are preparing and lighting your fire right. I put on about 12 small pieces of kindling, wait 5 minutes and then nearly a small scuttle of coal. This lasts for about 4 hours and belts out the heat. My room is about 23 at the moment and it's a bit too hot. This is an old house and very draughty. We also have a loose catflap in our double glazed back door:eek:

Here is mine right now I have opened the door to show you how much fuel I have on it.

Munketytunkety

Don't forget that all that hot air going up the chinmey has to be replaced....this means the room will be pulling in cold air. Cheap stoves struggle to close the air off, which means they do burn hotter BUT it also means they pull more cold air into the room.

Once the fire is burning nicely you need to wind the airwheels in and let it smoulder, this means less cold air entering the room

That stoves physical size looks to me it's fit for nothing. 6kw is the smallest I would go to in any room. If it's the sole heat source then 8kw. The spinlock wheels are generally better than slide controls, try to find a stove that can be shut right down. Better the quality the more heat you get back and don't forget damp unseasoned logs will give off 5x less heat than seasoned wood.

Firefox6 or even better a Firewarm6 or go for the 8 if you have space. Nice cheap stoves but much better than usual ebay rubbish.

ixwood

IvanDrago wrote: »

so if my house burns down due to the stove my insurance wont pay out?

what if it already had a coal fire im sure i didnt have to tell them how my house was heated.

i might get building control after ive got a proper flue liner fitted anyway

Open fires send a lot of the heat up the chimney warming it, preventing tar condensing.

Stoves are much more efficient and don't send as much heat up the chimney, so gases can condense in the colder chimney/liner and cause tar build up, which can then ignite and cause chimney fires.

There's also the fact that stoves are potentially life threatening appliances if incorrectly installed. I'd get a CO2 meter at the very least.

grahamc2003

ixwood wrote: »

Open fires send a lot of the heat up the chimney warming it, preventing tar condensing.

Stoves are much more efficient and don't send as much heat up the chimney, so gases can condense in the colder chimney/liner and cause tar build up, which can then ignite and cause chimney fires.

There's also the fact that stoves are potentially life threatening appliances if incorrectly installed. I'd get a CO2 meter at the very least.

I'm no expert at all, but I'd say the exact opposite is the actual case. Open fires exhaust loads of smoke (i.e. unburnt hydrocarbons) mixed with lots of air at temperatures much lower than a stove. Correctly installed, a stove should burn virtually 100% of the hydrocarbons and emit no smoke at all, and it's the condensing components of the smoke which cause tar, and the depostion of other components (carbon) which causes soot. That's essentially why stoves are (or at least should be) very much more efficient than open fires - I have read technical literiture which says the overall benefit of a stove is 6 or 7 times that of an open fire. (i.e. put a log in a stove and you get 6 or 7 times the amount of useful heat as one on an open fire). The benefit arises not only due to complete combustion, but also due to much less room air going up the chimney - correctly adjusted, only sufficient air to supply the oxygen for complete combustion should enter the stove, whereas an open fire just gulps gallons of air each second, cooling both the room and the fireplace/chimney.

Shedgirl

Hiya, I bought a cheapo chinese made stove from ebay last year and it's been great! I tend to burn anthracite in it with occasional logs and it packs a punch. Installation, stove rope, type of fuel etc area all very important factors, along with the size of room/correct size of stove.

crphillips

Ivandrago - if the stoves manual says it is upto 8kw then you should have a vent installed. You only need a vent measuring 550mm squared for every kilowatt over 5kw.....so basically you need a vent giving you a cross sectional area of 1650mm squared. It's tiny really.

Also to the post talking about cold air coming in through the vent........this is a bit of a myth. A chimney works by sucking air out of the room.........therefore air needs to come into the room........if you have a stove or fire then cold air is going to enter the room whether you have a vent or not. The theory is that houses leak a certain amount of air, through gaps in windows, doors, floor boards......etc which is enough to feed a 5kW stove........anything over 5kW requires additional air to be let in. The air vent you install should be a black hole vent which stops wind blowing through it.......therefore the vent only allows in the amount of air required by the fire. The massive bonus of installing a vent is that YOU choose where the air comes into the room so you can put a small vent in a tidy place behind the telly where nobody will see it and nobody will get a draught behind their lug holes sat on the sofa. If you don't have a vent the cold air is coming in whether you like it or not and probably via that big gap under the door just behind your head creating an unwanted draught.

The regs have changed a little regarding vents though......now if your house was built since 2006 then you have to obtain the figures from your builder which tells them how much air the house leaks. If the house leaks less than 5 cubic metres of air an hour then your even supposed to install a vent for a 5kW appliance.