Cloudy Thoughts

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Cloud
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Re: Cloudy Thoughts

Post: # 155840Post Cloud »

Is there any merit in burning wood in a good old fashioned open fire place, or is that a shooting crime also? New old house has three fireplaces with chimneys - it would be nice to make use of what we have. Still like to get the wood burner, but we need the money, and new old house might have lots of other things we need to fix first.

The kitchen might have a flue already installed. Previous owners got rid of the Aga for an all electric Esse - now that's a shooting crime. And the boiler's 10 years old, so maybe a new Aga boiler should be higher on our priority list.

So many choices, so little money left :sad5:
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Clara
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Re: Cloudy Thoughts

Post: # 155853Post Clara »

open fires look pretty but massively inefficient which means you'll have to buy more wood - i reckon our jotul uses about 1/3 of what we burnt in the fireplace. Most wood burners have a glass door so you can see the fire for cosy effect, ours is a solid door which hinges at the bottom and can be slid completely underneath if we want an open fire moment!
And you can shut them down at night so they tick over and it's warm in the morning and you can get it going again very easily.
baby-loving, earth-digging, bread-baking, jam-making, off-grid, off-road 21st century domestic goddess....

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Cloud
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Re: Cloudy Thoughts

Post: # 155872Post Cloud »

Clara wrote:open fires look pretty but massively inefficient which means you'll have to buy more wood - i reckon our jotul uses about 1/3 of what we burnt in the fireplace. Most wood burners have a glass door so you can see the fire for cosy effect, ours is a solid door which hinges at the bottom and can be slid completely underneath if we want an open fire moment!
And you can shut them down at night so they tick over and it's warm in the morning and you can get it going again very easily.
I'm green with envy :mrgreen:
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wolfsong
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Re: Cloudy Thoughts

Post: # 155905Post wolfsong »

yes open fires are largely inefficient, but if you really haven't got the money for a burner, and if you can get cheap wood they are really the only option...
But stand alone burners are the most effective you'll get, and i'm sure you can get cheapish ones... it all goes back to the flue, I don't know any alternatives...
Oh i forgot! You can reduce the cost of the burner by making one... a few fire-bricks and some Vermiculite, which are the big costs, really aren't that expensive, and i seem to remember there are a few companies who will install them. But I haven't had first hand experience with these burners, though there are a few books about them... other cheap alternatives are around, but they take space, for example the Rocket Stove, a couple of oil drums, some bricks and your away, but its designed to be a bench, and takes a couple of square meters, but there are alternatives... try hunting around.
As I ping from tree to tree I wonder... why do I seem to have transformed into a pinging tree-dwelling thing?

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Re: Cloudy Thoughts

Post: # 155927Post MuddyWitch »

Welcome to ISH :flower: Cloud

My two pen'oth:

Our woodburner in our lounge also heats the house & (coupled with the solar panel) provides all our hot water. Yes, the chimney cost about £1k to have lined with thermocrete & yes, the stove cost about £450 & the plumbing cost £500, but we had no central heating & a gas vertion would have cost £2000 to install and carried on costing in fuel. The stove costed nowt to fuel, (friend is a tree surgeon) till the local authority were forced, by a sixty year old law, to require us to burn 'smokeless fuel' so now it cost us £600 a year.(We're appealing this as we are SIX house from the 'smoke controlled' boundary & the 'smokeless fuel' makes MORE smoke than the seasoned timber we used to burn. The local authority are backing us as timber is zero carbon & 'smokeless' truly isn't!)

Agas are lovely but check the running costs...

MW
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CyberPaddy66
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Re: Cloudy Thoughts

Post: # 156053Post CyberPaddy66 »

Just saying Hi.
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