Which woodburning stove is the best? 18 January 2012 at 2:05PM in LPG, heating oil, solid & other fuels 196 replies 354.9K views

tee-bee_2

bobthedambuilder wrote: »

If you need additional ventilation, you don't need to dig up the floor - an air brick just above floor level behind the stove is fine (assuming the stove is in front of an external wall!). That's not a massive job.

Unfortunately not, (1968 house build) our fire place is not located in front of an external wall....

Would love to hear from ppl who own 5kW stoves as to whether it is sufficient for a 3 bed semi-D...

fin7

Swipe wrote: »

I hope this wasn't a recent installation as the regulations now require a CO alarm to be fitted for it to be signed off.

No, I was told about needing a co alarm when he first came to look at the job

fin

highrisklowreturn

That stove will easily heat the space provided, trust me. I live in a victorian mid terrace with no neighbours and poor insulation. I have had a 6kw Stanley Oisin stove for 3 months and the heat is lovely. In front of the fire is comfortable after 30 minutes of housecoal (longer for smokeless as it takes longer to get a large amount of it ignited) and after an hour the other side of the room, where the downstairs backroom would've been before the partition wall was removed, is nice and warm. The living room can get up to 33c 2.8 mtrs in front of the fire to maybe 28 at the other end of the room where I have my computer, but usually reaches a cosy temperature of 24/21 in front of the fire and away from it. The stove also raises the temperature in the house by maybe 2 or 3 degrees more - I never open the doors when running it.

You could in my view get away with a 6kw - even a 5kw - but I have no doubt a 7 or 8kw would easily toast up your living room and surrounding areas.

Btw if you haven't bought your stove yet don't believe the propaganda against cheaper brands; mine cost £370 and is perfect for my needs.

Swipe

A 5.5KW stove will be fine for a semi. If it were for a detached bungalow with the chimney on an external wall I'd be tempted to go for a 7 or 8KW.

Ectophile

tee-bee wrote: »

Unfortunately not, (1968 house build) our fire place is not located in front of an external wall....

Would love to hear from ppl who own 5kW stoves as to whether it is sufficient for a 3 bed semi-D...

I have a 1968 3-bed semi. A 5kW stove easily heats the living room and dining room. When things get warm enough, I open the door to the stairs and warm the rest of the house as well.

I wouldn't rely on it to heat the whole house, but it should heat the downstairs without any problems.

That assumes that you have decent insulation, not draughty single-glazed windows.

pineapple

I've got an Esse Montrose stove which is out of production. I can still get parts from Esse through. It's small but so is the house. I think its 5.5 kw maximum. Enough for my 2 bed cottage.
Rather unhelpfully I can't remember the make of one in a previous house which 'kept in' better.
This one will do a good 3 days continuous though - before it needs a thorough clean out.
If I was starting from scratch I would have one with a back boiler. Also one with a fraction more area on the top (for pans).

I'm doing an experiment at the mo to find which is cheaper - gas ch or solid fuel. I think gas is. An £8 bag of Excel will only last 3 days if on continuously - running hot in the evening and just turning over the rest of the time. So ground floor day time temperature around 16/17 degrees. Around 20 in the evening.
The only trouble is I don't feel warm without that fireplace heat source.

A._Badger

Nice stoves Esse - shame they stopped makiing the wonderful Dragon model and went al minimalist on us!

And I agree, mains gas (if you have it) is probably the cheapest energy but I'm with pineapple - I never feel properly warm in winter without a real fire!

Loanranger

We've had a Rofer and Rodi woodburning stove for 13 years. Very happy with it. They are a Spanish company but operate in UK from Skipton.
I agree about the wood being well dried out. If you burn newly cut logs or ones that have got wet you'll get a lot of smoke in the room and it'll also mark any brickwork around the fireplace.

bobthedambuilder

Loanranger wrote: »

We've had a Rofer and Rodi woodburning stove for 13 years. Very happy with it. They are a Spanish company but operate in UK from Skipton.
I agree about the wood being well dried out. If you burn newly cut logs or ones that have got wet you'll get a lot of smoke in the room and it'll also mark any brickwork around the fireplace.

You shouldn't be getting smoke or discolouration in your room if the stove and flue are properly sealed and airtight - unless you customarily leave the stove door open I suppose.

zymotik

I've just written a review of our Charnwood C4 on WhatStove.co.uk because I was so impressed with such a small stove. Thought I may as well chime in here as its in the same vein:

"My brother recommended and installed this stove for us (Charnwood C4), heowns a log burning stove installation company in Birmingham https://www.heatash.com He recommended it as it was small and efficient.Even he was surprised by the heat output of this little beauty.

We have the defra approved version, so it isn’t ascontrollable as the standard. It also has the multifuel kit so the fire box iseven smaller than it normally is. This is the only reason I’ve rated it down, otherwise it is really is excellent. It is really small, sodon’t expect it to burn all night long on a single load, it just hasn’t got thecapacity. But the heat output is much improved over a similar sized stove as itdoesn’t have firebricks inside, just an extra steel plate.
It does heat our 3 bed 1920’s house without cavity walls allon it’s own (writing this in November), we are well impressed. Very chuffedwith this stove, although we will be buying a bigger version next year andmoving this one to the front room. Mainly due to it being undersized, so may evenbuy another of the same."
Ian