Help with heat output of open fire v. woodburner

111KAB

I am trying to work out (expenditure wise) if it is worth having a woodburning stove instead of the current open fireplace in my house/living room. I currently burn coal on an open grate and whilst this creats some heat the room is mainly kept warm by the two radiators which are served by the gas central heating boiler. With the size of fireplace available I can get a woodburning stove (I will probably burn coal) with an 8kw output. I cannot connect the stove into the central heating system so a lot of the heat will 'go up the chimney'. The stove and necessary flue lining are costing in the order of £1,400 but I cannot work out if this is money well spent as I cannot find anywhere to calculate the output of an open fire realising it really depends upon how much coal is loaded into the grate. Would appreciate some advise. Thanks

muckybutt

With an open fire you can expect at least 80% of the heat to disappear up the chimney, with a woodburner if its a decent make then you can expect at least 60 - 80% of the heat to be kicked back into the room.

We've had woodburners for years, our last one was an 8 kw not connected to the central heating and was more than sufficent to heat the living room and the upstairs too if the door was left open.
Next week we are having our new multifuel stove connected upto the heating as the new stove has a boiler.

Oldernotwiser

You won't need to run both a multi fuel stove and the central heating at the same time; your place will be like an oven, particularly if you're burning coal!

If you already have two radiators in your room, I don't understand why you need another source of heat; if it's because they're small it'll be cheaper to just to put in a larger radiator.

111KAB

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You won't need to run both a multi fuel stove and the central heating at the same time; your place will be like an oven, particularly if you're burning coal!

If you already have two radiators in your room, I don't understand why you need another source of heat; if it's because they're small it'll be cheaper to just to put in a larger radiator.

Large room plus CH system runs on LPG at 42p/litre so spending around £400 pm in the winter on fuel.

imho

Muckybutt wrote this.......... Next week we are having our new multifuel stove connected upto the heating as the new stove has a boiler.

You said this ......... CH system runs on LPG at 42p/litre so spending around £400 pm in the winter on fuel.

Jeez why dont you get a multifuel stove and do away with your LPG.I gather multi fuel means coal or wood ? But would look for a Wood burner that heats the radiators and water up as well as £400 a month is too much to pay out.
Be handy if you can get a cheap supply of wood.

jim_will_fix_it

let me ask some silly questions, if you have central heating that doesn't central heat your house then what does it do, I would be looking for a old style central heating engineer to come and check your system, it should take 3 to 4 hours to set it up properly and check if its working correctly, controls, rad stats, zone valves all help to put the heat where you want it and last not lest is insulation, pipes as well as everything else, age of your radiators is another one, as I said get some professional help from a old bloke that knows what he is doing, not a young one that will try to sell you a combi condensing boiler.

Hintza

Don't run the central heating if the fire is on, just get closer to the fire and then upgrade the house as funds allow.


Spend your money on insulation and double glazing first.

muckybutt

£400 per month ? :eek::eek: !

We origionally had oil fired central heating and the old stove, we found that the heating went off when we had the stove lit.

IMO you would be better off all round if you save that bit more and get a stove with a boiler and get rid of the LPG system, even if you burnt say a ton of wood in a month in winter it would roughly cost £110 tops depending where you live.

Get a quality stove though and it'll last you years, dont be tempted by the cheapo import ones available on fleabay. Decent makes are Charnwood, Clearview, Morso, Yotul etc.

111KAB

Just to give you a little more information so you can see where I am coming from! Firstly it is a large/old house built c 1890 with 22 radiators and three open fireplaces. There are 16 rooms (some have two rads). We originally had a large wood burner but we were having to fill this every 4 hours or so in the winter and it became a real chore so we removed that heat source and went for LPG tank/boiler before the prices really jumped. We still have the 'old' woodburner but due to extending the house there is no chance this would cope. The house is triple glazed and I guess there is around 300 mm of roof insulation and where possible we have lined the exterior walls and insulated. The current system has been thoroughly checked out and I think I am doing a good deal to get LPG at 42p/litre so a fill up costs us around £450.00 with VAT. In the cold winter we have just had one fill barely lasted 4 weeks. Thanks for you advise (particularly muckybutt) - first stop is a woodburner and flue lining in one of the open fireplaces.

imho

Oh and there was me feeling sorry for you when you live in a Mansion LOL . Do you have to heat all 16 rooms ?I be tempted to close some of the rooms off and maybe have another woodburner put in the house as well or a multi fuel Rayburn or Aga .

Oldernotwiser

111KAB wrote: »

Large room plus CH system runs on LPG at 42p/litre so spending around £400 pm in the winter on fuel.

I know that LPG CH is expensive but you won't need to run a multi fuel and the central heating, so you need to allow for this in your calculations.