Help with buying/installing a stove

shegar

Perhaps you could mix a bit of house coal in with the smokeless......Only trouble with smokeless fuel you dont get the nice yellow flames that make a fire.........

I know house coal is very sooty up the chimney ,:eek: so thats why I have it swept twice a year, and my fire is used everyday but only about 5 hours per day........

drdeakin

A._Badger wrote: »

Yes, that's often the case!

If you don't want to take the risk, try something like Blaze or Coalite perhaps and see how you get on. Both will produce a lot more heat than wood.

But cost a bit more compared to seasoned hardwood?
And seasoned hardwood is more expensive than coal?

A._Badger

drdeakin wrote: »

But cost a bit more compared to seasoned hardwood?
And seasoned hardwood is more expensive than coal?

I'm not sure there has (or even could be) an exact comparison as even 'seasoned' firewood varies to such a degree in its calorific vale.

All I can tell you is that from some years of running both open fires and stoves I would rank the cost/heat (highest cost first) as: smokeless, wood, housecoal. But that depends on where you get your wood, how well seasoned it is, what variety of tree it's from and, of course, how much you are paying for it.

Having said that, the way seasoned wood prices are going, I'm not even sure that the cheaper varieties of smokeless might not work out better value in some cases.

Do bear in mind, please, the point which Mucky made and over which he and I got our wires crossed - in most cases coal is not suitable for use with stoves. If we're talking stoves it's smokeless or wood only.

I'd be interested to hear what other forum denizens think.

PaulF81

Greenfires wrote: »

This must be someone who signed up to the highrisklowreturn advice line....

http://www.inloughborough.com/news/098559/Illegal%20DIY%20job%20burns%20Loughborough%20man

but he didnt follow the regs...

The court heard how an incorrectly installed flue, designed to dispel products of combustion from the burning appliance through the air, was fitted in direct contact with timber and plastic in the eaves of the bungalow

grahamc2003

Greenfires wrote: »

That's the long and the short of it Leif - the fireback and a throat forming lintel at the front create a stronger pull and help to ensure that any smoke rising from the fire gets "caught"

The other reason the upper fireback is the shape it is is to radiate heat into the room. The angle is such that when the black fireback gets hot, it emits lots of radiant energy targetted into the room.

Not sure why highrisk said my stove doesn't heat my room - I didn't say that at all!

As to wood, my belief is that the type of wood is largely irrelevant - the main factor by a wide margin being the dampness of it. There's always some water which needs boiling off, which takes a fair amount of energy which negates the calorific value of the wood. If it's very wet (such as you hear the sizzling, which is the water boiling), then it's likely the stove won't get hot enough and/or may get extinguished.