Beginner stove tips - First burns

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highrisklowreturn wrote: »

I've contemplated buying a sheet of fireboard - £15 - painting it with heat reflective paint, attempting to cut the hole in the middle, then cutting it horizontally, then fixing it in with some type of sealant. However I'm not an expert and don't want to cause a f up.

It's a simple job with the sheet metal. Measure area and make a lip around the plate. Drill holes in the lip to secure it in place with bolts. Measure flue pipe and cut hole, maybe also create a sweep's access hatch if required. Push flue pipe through, and move stove back into place and seal pipe at both ends and seal any gaps around register plate. Job done. Probably a morning's work if you are a DIY novice.

If you don't think you are up to it you could order one here: http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Register-Plates.html

But at those prices I'd have a go at making myself one first.

highrisklowreturn

You see I can't do any of this because my flue pipe is already secured in position, into the chimney, meaning the register plate would have to be retrofit around the pipe. If everything was being put in fresh I could maybe have a go. Where would I get sheet metal, b and q? Is there a specified thickness for it or special paint? And how would I join it to the walls around the inglenook?

Swipe

highrisklowreturn wrote: »

You see I can't do any of this because my flue pipe is already secured in position, into the chimney, meaning the register plate would have to be retrofit around the pipe. If everything was being put in fresh I could maybe have a go. Where would I get sheet metal, b and q? Is there a specified thickness for it or special paint? And how would I join it to the walls around the inglenook?

You can get scrap metal anywhere. Even a side panel from a kitchen appliance would suffice (£2 from the local scrappy). How is your pipe already secured to the chimney? You bend the four sides of the plate into an L-shaped lip and then drill holes, through which you bolt it to the chimney walls with a couple of long bolts. You will end up with something like this:


If you don't want to remove the stove then your fireboard idea might be a better bet if you can secure it properly.

highrisklowreturn

The stove pipe just runs from the top of the stove into the chimney pipe above it. Around the chimney pipe is concrete. The installer said the concrete should be sealing the chimney up and stopping heat loss, but there is a good distance of maybe 2 1/2 feet from the top of the stove to where the stove pipe connects with the chimney pipe and surrounding cement. This is behind the front of the fire breast in my photo posted above. So a lot of heat simply goes into this cavity. When I put my hand above the stove it's a really nice temperature - even after only 10 minutes burning. This is the temperature I'd like to get the room somewhere near. Unfortunately I can't even fit a fan up as although I could stand one upright on the stove it would be blowing air behind the chimney breast in the cavity I described.

Swipe

Gotcha. In that case, the fireboard bodge should work fine. Just make sure you use high temperature sealant. I get my stuff from http://fluesystems.com/shop/Sealants_and_Caulking.html (no affiliation)

highrisklowreturn

Thanks for advice - have spoken again to the installer and sweep - who is coming out to stick me one in for £50 next week, so should be sorted then. Only question remaining is will a small amount of metal be enough to stop the heat rising out of the inglenook? Won't the heat simply pierce through the metal and continue rising up through the chimney breast.

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highrisklowreturn wrote: »

Thanks for advice - have spoken again to the installer and sweep - who is coming out to stick me one in for £50 next week, so should be sorted then. Only question remaining is will a small amount of metal be enough to stop the heat rising out of the inglenook? Won't the heat simply pierce through the metal and continue rising up through the chimney breast.

Yes it will make a huge difference. The majority of the heat will be convected up to the metal and be deflected into the room. The metal will of course get hot but very little of the heat will actually go through the metal and sit up in the chimney recess as is happening now.

highrisklowreturn

Another question - if the metal is in flat - ie not at an angle - how will it convect it back out into the room? Will the metal need to be painted with reflective paint? What thickness should the metal be? Would it be useful to put fireboard behind the metal, or a sheet of reflective foil, to increase deflection of the heat? And do you imagine then I could get away with half-filling the fire to heat the room? For the latter question, I generally tend to fill the fire to the max after I get it going, with coal. It was fairly warm in the room today, but I would stress this was after 6 hours burning, a good initial start with kindling, and using Esse. It would be wonderful to think I could really roast the place with the register plate in as even my barber was telling me recently he has to open all the doors to his living room after a couple of hours as it gets so oppresively hot. That's the heat I'm looking for, something to completely nullify the need for central heating.

If I ever buy another house my plan is simple: Rip out the CH completely, install an 8kw stove, and put one of those electric hot water heating switches in the bathroom for a shower or bath. CH is a waste of time and money, you can easily, and infinitely cheaper replicate it with a stove and a couple of halogen heaters.

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highrisklowreturn wrote: »

Another question - if the metal is in flat - ie not at an angle - how will it convect it back out into the room? Will the metal need to be painted with reflective paint? What thickness should the metal be? Would it be useful to put fireboard behind the metal, or a sheet of reflective foil, to increase deflection of the heat? And do you imagine then I could get away with half-filling the fire to heat the room? For the latter question, I generally tend to fill the fire to the max after I get it going, with coal. It was fairly warm in the room today, but I would stress this was after 6 hours burning, a good initial start with kindling, and using Esse. It would be wonderful to think I could really roast the place with the register plate in as even my barber was telling me recently he has to open all the doors to his living room after a couple of hours as it gets so oppresively hot. That's the heat I'm looking for, something to completely nullify the need for central heating.

If I ever buy another house my plan is simple: Rip out the CH completely, install an 8kw stove, and put one of those electric hot water heating switches in the bathroom for a shower or bath. CH is a waste of time and money, you can easily, and infinitely cheaper replicate it with a stove and a couple of halogen heaters.

The fact that the metal is there means less heat will go up into the chimney recess so most of it will have to go somewhere i.e back into the room. Hot air is always on the move so won't just sit there unless it has nowhere to escape to as in your current set up. Obviously a little of the heat will go through the metal (probably less than 20%). I wouldn't go to the trouble of reflective paint, it's not worth it for the little difference it will make. Most home-made register plates are around 2-3mm steel. Half filling the stove is probably a false economy unless it's shoulder season.

grahamc2003

HRLW, I'm a bit confused about your setup. Did you say your stove pipe goes up the chimney, then is sealed off higher up the chimney by concrete between the stove pipe and the inner chimney walls? A sort of concrete register plate?

If so, I don't think you'll get much benefit from fitting a normal register plate. The main benefit comes from sealing off the room from the chimney 'hole', thereby stopping room air escaping, and also making the draught through the stove much better. If yours is already sealed off from the room, then you already get those benefits.

This business about heat 'sitting' in a 'well' higher up is nonsense really.

Think of water being poured into a glass, then overflowing as more water is poured in when it's full. Turn that situation upside down, and that's what you have with hot air in a 'well' up your chimney - the air hot air just spills out and into the room (where it rises, not falls as in the wter and the glass) as more hot air risies from the stove.

Also, you use the term 'inglenook'. I always think of a pretty grand ten foot wide cavity when thinking of that word. Is the picture you posted your 'inglenook'?