Multi-fuel stove not really heating the house.

Tabby_cat

Hi there, all you knowledgeable stove people, I have a problem with my Stovax 7 inset multi-fuel stove.

Basically, in the height of the winter, the stove doesn't really throw out as much heat as we were expecting. This became apparent when we recently visited someone with a different stove and the difference was enormous.

We don't have any other general heating in the house (just a couple of electric heaters for the bathroom and bedroom) so the stove has to work pretty hard. It does however nicely warm up a bedroom wardrobe that is build onto the chimney breast.

We had it installed last September and this is our first year. We previously had a gas fire which wasn't working well, so we removed it, and had the inset stove install, which fitted in the hole that was left in the facing brick surface. Fuel lined with liner.

The suppose the question I'm hoping one of you helpful people can answer is this: As it's an inset stove, could it be that it's warming up a gap behind the facing brick, before it warms up the house. If so, would opening up the fireplace a little either side and filling the gap with bricks/blocks help. My OH wants to do this but I'm not sure if it's worth it as it would spoil the look somewhat. We currently don't know for sure what's behind the facing brick. It could be already filled in and we're doing something else wrong. Who knows. We get it running good and hot (from what the stove thermometer says) but it's only really warm just in front of the stove.

Thanks in advance.

rustyboy21

Bit of a weird one this and not exactly my forte, but may have a bit of an idea what may be happening.

Few questions first.....

When you say you replaced the fire with the stove and kept the opening the same size, is it approx 20'' wide x 24'' high?

Did you have a closure plate fitted over the stove to cover up the open flue?

Just thinking that it may be due to the hole being so small, the only part of the room which is getting warm, is the brickwork around where the stove is fitted. A stove mainly gives out conducted heat and radiant through the heat emitted from the stove casing. If the hole is too small, then the air in the room is not being warmed as it cannot travel around the stove.

If you did not have a closure plate fitted, to cover up the flue opening, then most of the heat is rising through your flue, that is why your wardrobe is very warm.

I would suggest opening up the chamber wider, so it can allow air to circulate around the stove. If you cover over the brickwork with some insulating board and render over the top of that, it should stop a lot of the heat escaping into the brickwork. You do need some clearance around the stove. If it is a stockton 7, it states you should have a min of 150 mm around the stove on all sides. Check if you have.

I don't think your idea of it warming your whole house is realistic though. You may warm the air in a few rooms, but not the whole house. This is also dependant on how insulated your house is. Your friends houses may be more insulated than yours, so keeps the heat in better.

Hope above helps

John_the_Boy

I have one of these and you need to have them well insulated to ensure the heat is output to the room.

The void behind the stove should be insulated. They can either be bedded in with a cerment/vermiculite mix or rock wool. Rock wool has been used on mine.

I get a good amount of heat but not enough to heat the house (ours is a 4 bed). I would not have expected 7KW would be enough to heat a house but it depends on a number of things such as size of house, how drafty, how the air flows around the house, if the stove is on all day etc.

You could use a fan to help circulate the heat better.

Tabby_cat

Hi rustyboy21, The stove is indeed a Stovax Stockton 7 but it's an inset model, specifically designed to be inset into the fireplace. No air gap is needed around the stove (but I was wondering if it would work better it it did have a gap?) It was installed by a HETAS engineer. I know there has been some less than impressed comments on this forum about HETAS engineers, but to us complete duds at doing anything DIY, it was what we decided to do. Also, time was short.

Hi John_the_Boy, Our house is a 2 up, 2 down turn of the century end of terrace, with bath/kitchen in an extension. The downstairs has been opened up so our lounge, where the stove is, is about 24 feet x 12 feet, but we also have an open plan stair within the lounge so the heat obviously goes upstairs. The upstairs landing is I guess about 10x5 feet). All doors upstairs are closed in the evening to keep the heat in the main room, and the kitchen door is just kept open a slither to allow our cat to come and go. We don't bother lighting in the morning as we up and out to work ASAP, so the stove is only alight between say 18.30 to 24.30 during the week and longer at weekends/holidays. We've had new windows installed last summer in the lounge. The pouch on the front offers some protection from drafts but it is what I'd call a cool house, always in shadow from other buildings, which is great in the summer, but not so great in the winter.

You mentioned we could use a fan. Do you mean one of those specifically for a stove, or any old fan. The stove we have has a canopy top. Can we still install a fan? The stove was installed with Rock wool I believe, I wasn't at home at the time but my OH seems to remember it.

Are we asking too much for the stove to heat our largish lounge? I don't mind the bedrooms being cold and my OH opens the bedroom/bathroom doors when he goes to bed so it equalises the temp so it's not too bad in the morning. What I'm concerned with is, we, here in the South, haven't had a really hard winter and it was just OK. When the temp. was in minus figures outside, before the stove was alight the room was at about 12 degrees C. Once alight the temp got up to 15 or 16 after a 2-3 hours. Does that sound about right to you.

Sorry for having so many questions and Thanks for all your input and advice.

aelitaman

Do you have draughty windows?

I have an old house and this is the first year that I have put temporary double glazing on my very draughty windows. It has made a very big difference.

rustyboy21

Hi Tabby.

I am a bit confused by what you have. Is it like this but you also have a tapered canopy attached to it?

http://www.stovax.com/stoves/traditionalstoves/wood__multi_fuel_stoves/stockton_stoves/stockton_7_stove.aspx

If you look at the top right hand picture, is that how it has been fitted, but maybe a little closer to the stove than the one in the picture?

With regards to Hetas, I got into a little argument on here the other day, with a certain person, who doesn't really like us trades people having a say on here. My point was totally misconstrued by him and I couldn't be bothered to carry on the argument with him.

Hetas and Gas safe are a good thing in general. They are a regulatory body, which should ensure that consumers like yourself can be assured that the person fitting your appliance is competant and has had suitable training and experience to know what he is doing.

The bad points I was refering to is that although they are an accredited comapny and you have to pass their tests in effect, which costs a fortune, they do not actually live in the real world. They have regulations for this and that and you are punished if you don't follow them, even if it is slight and what you did was still safe and ok, just that it wasn't 'as per rules'.

The other factor is that ( in my opinion) Some of the engineers who are accredited let the power go to their heads and slag off another equally as competant engineers work, which even though is fine, is not what they would have done themselves.

Once you are signed up to Hetas or Gasafe, you are open to investigations, you pay a lot of money to be accredited, but they do not seem to back up their members as much as they should do. Instead of making things hard for their members, they should be going after the non registered and 'cowboy' fitters, who fit illegally and sometimes dangerously. They don't seem to have the power or will to do this it seems.The law as it stands doesn't help out investigations and punishments, I feel that it should be illegal to install any 'dangerous appliance' if you are not qualified to do so. As it stands you only have to be competant. I am competant at making a bacon butty, does that make me competant in fitting a stove or gas fire?

I would always reccomend you having appliances installed by an acreditted installer, you have some means of recourse if things go wrong.

Any way, back to your stove, if it looks like the one I have attached, but the opening is very close to the stove, I would say that is your major problem. If you can open it up a bit it should help.

The other poster is on about an eco fan which sits on top of the stove to gently blow the heat out of the chamber into the room. If you have enough flat surface area on top of your canopy, and the chamber is big enough, it could help. A normal fan, I would say will be too strong and may cause spillage of fumes into your room, especially when you open the door to fill it up.
hope above helps

rustyboy21

Hi Tabby again.

You say you live in a end of terrace, Victorian house, 2 up 2 down.

I live in a Victorian semi and the gable end of the house is always cold, so you would find your end wall cold too. The stove won't really heat the whole house in winter. My house takes approx 4 hours to get from 14 deg to round 17 deg when it is minus deg outside. I have my CH stat set for all day to go to certain temps, 20 deg 6am-10am, 16 deg 10 am-4pm,20 deg 4pm-10.30pm then 16 overnight to 6am. In the cold winter it struggles to hit those temps, but this morning the downstairs showeroom was freezing even though the wall stat stated 18 deg. It may just be how your house is insulated.

thefishdude

i think the op has one of these
http://www.firesonline.co.uk/acatalog/Stovax_Stockton_7_Inset_Multi-fuel_Stove.html

Dunroamin

Are you burning coal or wood?

Leif

rustyboy21 wrote: »

Hi Tabby.

I am a bit confused by what you have.

My guess is that it is one of these:

http://www.stovax.com/hearthmountedfires/hearthmountedfires/hearth_wood__multi_fuel/stockton_fires/stockton_7_inset_convector.aspx

I used to go to a pub with something like that fitted, and it was very warm. But they do cost more than a conventional stove, no doubt because there is more engineering involved.

Edit: Pipped to the post by another forum member!

Canucklehead

O.P. : what does your installer have to say about the situation?

Canucklehead