Multi Fuel Stove advice for clueless

Size66

Hi Ive just bought a Edwardian house ( 3 bed semi ) with Big rooms, a basement, huge hall way and a temprature problem. My fist gas bill was £160 for 33 days - 10 of which i was away on holiday !!! so i need another heat source! gas boiler only really runs to heat water for the 9 ineffective rads that we have so im thinking open the fire place and get a multi fuel burner ( live in smoke free zone ) the room we use for living in is 17 foot long 18 wide and 10 high, thats where the burner will go. so here is the rub - i have a £2000 budget for buy, install etc - im no DIY so it will all be GSE ( GET SOMEONE ELSE) so - what do i need to get and how much will it cost - im open to the idea of running hot water off the stove to heat the rads - is that possible or too much of a pain for the benefit it gives - all advice welcome:)

Leif

I suspect a stove would not be cheaper unless you have a source of cheap/free wood. You are probably better to look into cavity wall insulation (I'm assuming you have wall cavities) and loft insulation. Double glazing if you do not have it does take a long while to pay for itself. Various energy saving web sites will explain this far better than me.

muckybutt

To be honest a wood burner will cost you a lot more to run in the long run than an efficent gas condensing boiler.

For starters £2000 isnt going to get you anything like a decent - efficent stove for the room size you have quoted and it certainly wouldnt warm the house unless you have your own woodland to run it full pelt 24 -7.

I would invest the 2K in a more efficent gas boiler and get thermostatic rad valves on all the rads and look to add to any insulation you already have, a wood buner might look nice but they are by no means cheaper to run.

aelitaman

Before you make a purchase I would suggest you need to work out what you want to achieve.

If you want to heat one room and leave the rest of the house cold (ie the central heating off or only on in rooms that you use) then a multifuel stove may be the solution, as long as you can bear being in one room for most of the winter.

whereas if you want to heat most of the house and reduce your bills then a multi fuel stove is not the answer.

So I have a Large Georgian house with solid walls so I can not have cavity wall insulation and I have sash windows that it is pointless putting in double glazing (because the drafts come in from the frames).

If you want to reduce your bills then the short term solution is to cut out all drafts. The best place to start is with the windows and use temporary double glazing (cling film stuff at 5 quid a pack) in my house it made a very noticable difference, the house immediately felt warmer and heat rentention was very much improved. Best of all it saved 25% to 30% in gas consumption.

Next check the age of the gas boiler, is it old and ineffcient, has it been serviced? If it is old think about replacing with a modern boiler. Is it with the heat envelope of the house that you want to heat i.e if it is placed in the garage or the utility room then think about getting it moved into the kitchen a room you want to heat so the residual heat from the boiler does actually heat a room you want to.

If you are going to renovate then as said if you can have cavity and roof insulation then do it. If you can not then plan on having the insulation on the inside walls of the house.

The temporary double glazing that is on the market now can be very good and is a better solution than clingfilm. So I would look at that next.

Then if you want a nice feature in a room and you are prepared to clean the mess and feed it, get a stove installed.

I have a stove in my kitchen and I love it, but it does not heat the house and it is no cheaper than gas.

PaulF81

I would sell up and get a smaller house. I have just spent th last 2 1/2 years updating our property, insulation materials alone came to 3 grand, new central heating 5k (big house needs bigger boiler,more 22mm pipe etc) and DIY reclined flue was 500 for materials.... We have a ready free supply of logs and the gas bill for the past 12 months came to over 700 quid.

Big house, big bills.

A._Badger

Sorry to chime-in with the chorus of doom, but they are right. You won't save money using a multifuel stove as a replacement for your gas system.

Leif

What gas boiler do you have? Old ones can be inefficient as mentioned earlier.

Alycidon

A._Badger wrote: »

Sorry to chime-in with the chorus of doom, but they are right. You won't save money using a multifuel stove as a replacement for your gas system.

Against an older gas appliance you would but in this ladies situation then I would suggest that it will cost her 3k plus to supply and install a stove. Payback over gas will be several years based on a cost saving of perhaps 20% over gas. The lady is looking for instant heating reductions, a stove is not that. Better to look at your local council for insulation grants initially.

A

Gloomendoom

Most of the favourable wood vs mains gas comparisons for whole house heating that I have seen refer to dedicated wood chip or pellet boilers, not log burning stoves.

Size66

Im learning - it looks like £100 / meter to get the chimney & flu prepp'd - and its a biggie - i reckon over 20 meters from bottom to top
Then the builder stuff to open up an new fireplace and install a surround etc
Then buy the stove
................extra jumper for me !!!!

muckybutt

Size66 wrote: »

Im learning - it looks like £100 / meter to get the chimney & flu prepp'd - and its a biggie - i reckon over 20 meters from bottom to top
Then the builder stuff to open up an new fireplace and install a surround etc
Then buy the stove
................extra jumper for me !!!!

20M thats a chimney n half ! 3 -4 storey ?

At least you had the sence to ask before jumping in feet first, as said stoves look nice but they do cost a few quid to get started and when they are up and running too.