Wood Burning Stoves

Eric_the_half_a_bee

They are expensive, taking the significant cost of the flue into account. But once installed, there is simply no comparison with an open fire. I would guess from experience in our home to create the same heating effect as an open fire requires 1/4 of the quantity of logs. From what I understand there are at least 3 factors that go into this:

1) a smaller percentage of the heat is lost up the chimney
2) a far smaller "draw" of air up the chimney means that a lot less cold air is sucked into the house to replace that lost air (apparently this effect can be enormous with an open fire, severely limiting its ability to heat a house as a whole,as opposed to the 10 feet of the house in front of the fire)
3) the (usually cast iron) stove itself is a much better radiator of heat into the room than the (brick?) surround of the open fire

FreeBear

eithnemc wrote: »

we can hear the water running down into the stove when it is raining.

Do you have a cowl fitted to the top of the chimney and is it in good condition ?

It is also possible that the flaunching at the top of the stack is breaking up, and if you don't have a full length liner, water could get in this way.

FreeBear

Eric_the_half_a_bee wrote: »

3) the (usually cast iron) stove itself is a much better radiator of heat into the room than the (brick?) surround of the open fire

The brickwork will also absorb some of the heat and act like a storage heater. The chimney breast above my inset stove can reach 120°C just above the fire (have temperature sensors embedded in the wall) - After the fire burns out overnight, the room is still at a reasonable 18°C on a cold, frosty morning.

Tincancat

They are relatively easy to take out but you need to think what you are replacing it with?