wood burning stove

team47b

Good tip on glass cleaning Dorsetknob, I will try that when the time comes to fire it up.

I use wood from the trees in 'my garden' (abandoned land next to my house) which are fruit trees, Almond, carob, Japanese Loquat. If I had to buy wood it would be oak from the cork industry.

Tried wood from fig trees, but as the smoke is toxic it's a bit unfair on the neighbours :shock:

So what wood do you all use?

DorsetKnob

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long 'tis laid away.
But Ash new or Ash old
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last.
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E ' en the very flames are cold.
But Ash green or Ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense like perfume.
Oaken logs, if dry and old.
Keep away the winter's cold.
But Ash wet or Ash dry
A king shall warm his slippers by.

Redhog14

Got 2 in the house, both Morso's one 4kW and one 6kW - stoves are some 80%+ efficient and are a lot nicer to look at than radiators or a boiler! Good man toy.

Chimney is unlined - no problems
large one burns coal briquettes and wood
Small one wood only
Small one heats up very quickly and burns very efficiently - prefer it to the large one.
Would reccommend a chimney cowl though.

You can at certain times of year "scavenge" fallen wood from managed forests for free. Also after storms etc get in touch with any large estates, local council etc as fallen trees are always needing cleared and you don't usually have to pay a penny - esp for council - you will need a chainsaw or large bow saw though as well as transport. Stock up a year on advance the longer you season it for the more effeciently it burns.

Cleat Eastwood

I've never got wood burning a stove - I have, however, got wood dreaming of riding this hairy beauty

team47b

one for Cleat...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ngnwb

It's radio, it doesn't have pictures, you have to supply your own from your imagination, on second thoughts...

Phil Fouracre

brit66 - not a problem various chimney systems available. Depends on layout may be possible to route internally

Simmotino

Would love to stick a woodburner in the fireplace in our dining room, but I think size is against us (of the fireplace, not the dining room)

rhext

We have a Clearview in the lounge, which is excellent. Simple design, efficient operation, and I never get fed up of watching the fire.

We have a Vermont Castings in the kitchen. While the Clearview heats the room and is nice to look at, the Vermont Castings stove is clearly designed simply to pump out heat 24 hours a day, all through a rather colder winter than we're used to in the UK. If you load it right, it will burn all night and it does have a rudimentary thermostat that you can use to adjust output a bit. But it's only really useful in the coldest of cold snaps, during which it can keep all of our living areas (not just the kitchen) warm.

Point is that you do need to make sure that the stove is sized to the room.

DrKJM

Simmotino wrote:

Would love to stick a woodburner in the fireplace in our dining room, but I think size is against us (of the fireplace, not the dining room)

There's a good chance a builder could open the fireplace up a bit. That's what we had to do to get the clearances needed for ours.

Simmotino

DrKJM wrote:

Simmotino wrote:

Would love to stick a woodburner in the fireplace in our dining room, but I think size is against us (of the fireplace, not the dining room)

There's a good chance a builder could open the fireplace up a bit. That's what we had to do to get the clearances needed for ours.

Quite possibly, but with an original cast iron fireplace (approx. 110 years old) in there currently, I'm loathed to rip it out.

DrKJM

Simmotino wrote:

DrKJM wrote:

Simmotino wrote:

Would love to stick a woodburner in the fireplace in our dining room, but I think size is against us (of the fireplace, not the dining room)

There's a good chance a builder could open the fireplace up a bit. That's what we had to do to get the clearances needed for ours.

Quite possibly, but with an original cast iron fireplace (approx. 110 years old) in there currently, I'm loathed to rip it out.

Talk about giving half a story

brit66

by Phil Fouracre
brit66 - not a problem various chimney systems available. Depends on layout may be possible to route internally

Thanks, and outside flue like this would suit my property more.

lucan2

£3.5k? :shock: For a metal box to burn stuff in?

I bought one from this company: www.greymetal.co.uk.

Less than £350 and works like a charm. Plenty of heat out of it and looks as good today as it did when we put it in.

It was this one: http://greymetal.co.uk/product_info.php ... ucts_id=51

BelgianBeerGeek

Had the beast on full last night, woke up and still had embers, so...bit of wood on. Vent opened and it's away!
Toasty, and As I had a gas bill on Friday I'm determined to use it more and more.
As DorsetKnob has pointed out, they can dry the room out, but this is a good thing. My gaff is open plan and I am paranoid about damp/condensation and one of the benefits of a wood burner is its de-humidifying properties.
Major drawback? It makes me agoraphobic.

Phil Fouracre

Me too, especially when it's bloody miserable outside

Yellow Peril

Got the "little Thurlow" going in the dining room, going to sit down with a bottle of fizz and watch last night's strictly before the results show. Nice and toasty in here and nice and wet out there!

will3

Another Town and country "little thurlow" operator here. (like clearview but cheaper ;-) )

2 points
1) getting the wood really really dry is really really worth it. Buy your wood in the spring and store in an open sided but protected from the rain outdoor store over the summer. Or buy kiln dried if you're feeling flush. Burning wet wood is a waste of time and "seasoned" from the supplier might not be as good as it could be.

2) Back boilers for the hot water are lovely if they're convction operated. If they need a water pump, then you'll curse about them when you have a power cut.
*power cut, no heating. Great, at least we have the stove....oh wait. :twisted:

Anyway our builders took our boiler out last week, so the stove is all we have

will3

PS espresso pots and mulled wine work nicely on top of the stove.

bianchimoon

well, some interesting replies, but to suit house have plumped for the Bodart & Gonay cassette stove main reason is style, wattage (12kw), ability to pump heated air to another room takes off upto 5kw. Will not know if it's right decision until bought, fitted and working but it's best on paper for my needs

fevmeister

bianchimoon wrote:

well, some interesting replies, but to suit house have plumped for the Bodart & Gonay cassette stove main reason is style, wattage (12kw), ability to pump heated air to another room takes off upto 5kw. Will not know if it's right decision until bought, fitted and working but it's best on paper for my needs

I've been following this thread and now interested in one myself! How would a wood burning stove pump air into another room?

bianchimoon

The Bodart and Gonay, and i guess a few other cassette style log burners have a fan in base and ducts that go up into loft space where you can attach 1 or 2 flexible ducts to vent to another room video on here shows how it works
http://www.archiexpo.com/prod/bodart-go ... 45821.html

rubyrider

I was very resistant to replacing our open fire with a wood burning stove. We had a Clearview fitted and I am a complete convert! I love the safety, the convenience and our glass does stay clear, so we can watch the flames. We only went for a small model - I think 8kw or less, but we often open all the doors to let the heat spread to other rooms. We also get through an awful lot less wood than with the open fire.
Enjoy!

p.s there's a great (but expensive) gadget for lighting fires that works brilliantly called a Grenadier. Gets the fire blazing really quickly without firelighters.

fevmeister

If I were to replace an open fire with one would I need to modify the chimney in anyway??

nmcgann

Fevmeister wrote:

If I were to replace an open fire with one would I need to modify the chimney in anyway??

Not necessarily. You do need to comply with building regs part J though. The simplest way of doing this is to use a HETAS-certified installer that can sign off the installation as compliant. (you can also DIY install assuming you know what you are doing and then get building control to inspect and certify the job)

I recently had a stainless steel chimney liner installed in a cottage (the chimney stack was leaking in the loft space) and it took a bit of shopping around to get a sensible quote. I ended up using a HETAS-certified chimney specialist (a sweep in old-school terms) that wasn't trying to sell me a stove as well - he did a good job.