Wood / Coal burner advice

The_Biff

I've just been quoted for a new cast iron wood/coal burner in my living room. The smallest part of the quote is for the actual burner. The largest part is for flue-liners.

Why do I need flue liners? Does anyone know. At the moment I run an open fire.

Trudi_Lavigne

Now, I think this is right... solid fuel burners are more efficient than open fires, so the flue gasses are cooler which means that tar builds up more easily which lines the chimney and can cause fires, so it is recommend to line. This site may be useful: http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/woodburning_stove.html

We had a similar experience to you a couple of years ago and in the end hunted around on the internet and found suppliers of flexible flue liner, then got the local supplier to match the price and fitted it ourselves. It depends how DIY skilled you are, but it took my husband a couple of days (and a fair bit of swearing it has to be said) to do it on his own, although i think it should be 2 person job really. We now have a lovely woodburner, and wouldn't be without it, it's fantastic, better than telly to sit and watch on cold winter nights!

EP90

I've installed a woodburning stove in our house. As Trudi mentions, a flue liner may be requried because a log burner can generate more heat than an open fire. Wether one is required or not depends on the heat output and condition of your chimney. Our log burner is 4KW (quite small) so did not require a liner.

Also be aware that larger log burners require an air inlet (from outside).

Another point (you may know this already) but actually calculate the size of log burner (kw / btu) for your size of room. I was looking at models much too large before I did this, even my 4kw log burner can get my sitting room over 30C in the middle of winter!

I bought our burner from https://www.firesonline.com who were the most competitive from my model.