Replacing open fire with a multi-fuel stove?

Alfietinker

Well just an update really. The sweep (and HETAs engineer) came on Saturday and has confirmed we will not need to have the chimney lined. :j So we are looking at approx £400 for the stove (Stovax Stockton 4) and £2-300 for installation and register plate as we will be doing all the initial and finishing work ourselves. So approx £7-800 total which is much better than we thought, although we need to find out flue pipe costs.

He has recommended we don't use normal house coal to prolong the chimney life but apart from that it's fine. We're aiming for the Spring we think.

TheDink

It's worth shopping around for your stove. If you are in the south west, Mole Valley farmers offer stoves at a discount:
https://www.molevalleyfarmers.com

Otherwise, try Flue & Chimney Specialists/South West Wood Burning Centre- based in Devon but I think they deliver nationally and they supply most of the stove retailers we contacted:
http://www.flueandchimney.co.uk/ and http://www.stoves-cookers.co.uk/

We saved about £300 buying through these people.

Alfietinker

Thanks Sarah, unfortunately we are on the other side of the country in Essex. The cheapest we've found so far for the stove we like is actually on Ebay and is £380 + £30 delivery. We've got plenty of time to shop around as we've got 2 other rooms to finish decorating first.

John_3:16

We have a Stovax Stockton 5 we were going for the 4 but got away with a bit bigger one. Also the 5 you can get as a multi fuel opption. The clean burn is fairly good so is the airwash pay more and you will get better airwash. What is this about normal house coal and why?

Alfietinker

Not burning house coal (which we have always done) was suggested to prolong the life of the chimney as it wouldn't be lined that's all. Smokeless fuel and properly seasoned wood is fine.

The way he explained it was along the lines of: with the current open fire, 80% of the heat is going up the chimney. The draw of air through the room and up the chimney means all the smoke is being drawn straight out, almost 'washed' out with the rush of air. With the stove there isn't as much air being drawn through, with 70-80% heat staying in the fire box which is a closed unit. So any smoke/tar deposits will disappear up the chimney much more slowly, giving more time to settle and potentially erode the existing original lining quicker.

This is only because we're saving approx £1000 by not having the chimney lined, and to prolong the amount of years before it needs doing. I suspect it's advice for our particular situation.

We haven't removed the old fire yet so we are unsure of the exact size of the opening but we suspect we won't have the room for much bigger than the Stockton 4. According to the calculations we only need 2.5kw to heat the room anyway. Also, if we were to go bigger than 5kw we need to have extra vents put in the room to comply with the building regs.

John_3:16

The information I have about the 5 is no vent is needed. I work on the rule that if you burn the stove hard and keep flames in the firebox you have less problem with smouldering regarding chimneys? We also have the optoin of a boiler on the back, I don't think we ever will though.

navig8r

stovesandchimnmeys wrote: »

I just wanted to share this site with you which I came across. It is recommended by FASA and HETAS approved stove retailers and enables you to create a wishlist of stoves and get info and price information from a range of local stove retailers. I’ve just bought a Jotul wood burning stove through this site. They are incredibly helpful and help you shop around for the best price. I would urge you to use them f you are consiering buying a multi fuel or wood stove and they give great advice on some of the ‘rougue’ online sellers of stoves. Go and check it out.

DON'T GO TO THEIR WEB SITE!!...my antivirus went mad and the PC froze on the page..only way to gain control was to bring up task manager and shut it down.
g8r