Woodburning central heating system

Lou49_2

I can't recommend one of these enough although there are a few drawbacks everyone should be aware of and I wish I had known about them or I would have installed another system but you live and learn!
Our house was derelict when we moved in and we had to do a full renovation job. We bought the place because it was the only way we could afford to move onto the South Downs National Park and the house came extremely cheap.
I didn't want gas central heating because it's much too expensive and would have been around £150 a month during winter.
We decided to install woodburning central heating and solar power for summer.
The woodburner is very good, it has a backboiler and is attached to 7 radiators around the house and you can use it for extra hot water even in the height of summer as very little heat is exuded from the woodburner itself - it's designed to feed directly into the hot water tank and go round the central heating sustem.
We've had free winter heating now for 3 years and have already paid for the central heating system. We rang all the carpenters and builders in the town and told them that we collect waste wood and they all bring their wood over and dump it in our garden, it is cheaper for them to give it to us than pay for it to be dumped at the council tip, all we have to do is cut it up with a chopsaw which is pretty good outdoor exercise. We also collect wood from the countryside, fallen branches, logs from councils cutting trees down etc. If we go out with the trailer in our ford fiesta (no 4x4 required) we can get a months load of wood in a morning or afternoon. We also have a small chainsaw for logs.
Buying wood/logs is expensive round here, expect £70 at least for a months supply so it's essential to source wood elsewhere. We have found a supplier at £35 for a months supply but it self collect so we need a trailer.
We are both out at work for 10 hours a day, this is a distinct fail as someone needs to be at home to top up the woodburner. It needs to be on all the time on a very low heat or the radiators do not heat up properly or even work at all. Luckily I work in the town and can go home at lunchtime to put more logs on.
It's no good at all going home at 8pm putting the system on for a few hours and expecting heat and water because there will be none.
the system is best for someone who works from home or where one partner is at home all day.
In hindsight I would have put in a wood pellet system as it self feeds so you can go away for a week and the system will still be working when you get home. They run blocks of flats on wood pellets up north apparently. A bit more expensive as you have to buy them in but if you have a separate ordinary woodburner as well could be very economical.
If you are interested and want to install alternative heating join CAT first (the Centre for Alternative Technology) in Machynnleth Wales. For a very small fee you can suscribe for a year and they will advise on all aspects of alternative technology BEFORE you decide which one to go for which would have saved us loads of money and time and we would have put the right system in for our lifestyle.
Hope this helps.