WOOD BURNERS

[jondy]

I have looked at ways of installing a woodburner and come up against the problems of suitable flues and legal requirements. An outside flue is the only way I could go and that presents me with many problems. The high costs of a suitable system that would satisfy the council or a buyer of the house in the future would not give any cost savings in the forseeable future.

There may be an answer (depending on neighbours perhaps).
I saw an American website that showed an 'Outside' woodburner. No red tape, no safety issues, DIY could be OK and very low cost on a small unit. The well insulated woodburner heats water, it is only hot water that enters the house...radiators etc.

Any ideas on this?

John

[Annpan]

I can't see an outside woodburner being much use

You'll still need to go out to load it and keep an eye on it - I certainly wouln't fancy doing that on the coldest days, when you want it fired up at full pelt.
Plus you loose all the direct heat and the lovely feel a woodburner gives you in your house, and a woodburner can take excess moisture out of the air in your house, a benifit for 99% of homes (in britain anyways)

I really think that you should see the flu as being a worthwhile investment, especially with the prices of other fuels at the moment, which are bound to rise even more in the coming months/years.

[CaundleMama]

I also think it would be more hassle than gain,we bought a Clearview Pioneer a couple of years ago,& then brought it with us as the buyers of our house didnt want it fools!! Now we have had one tank of oil since August last year,our neighbours also filled up in August & have used 2 & half tanks,with one whole tank being used between just aftr Xmas & end of Feb with a tank costing around £400 pounds,if you used oil like them you would be quids in with a Clearview after a couple of years.

I spent savings on ours & have never ever bought anything that has has repaid me in so many ways & will continue too for years & years to come,I dont have time to waffle too much at mo but I can waffle for England on woodburners

[red]

I'm with you there.. I love my woodburner.. was oin the 'must have' list when we moved house. well new house didn't have one.. but had to have chimney.

i would invest in the flue.

[Meredith]

I would agree that a woodburner is a good thing to have, heating the house. Sometimes we have to lay out a quid or two to get what we want but it pays in the end.

[Sky]

I've seen those woodburners jondy, they're more like a furnace aren't they. I thought they were good but agree with the others that you just can't beat the ambience and natural radiating heat of a woodburner indoors.
I love my woodburner

[ina]

You can also do you some of your cooking on it, and heat a kettle of water - unbeatable if you have a powercut!

[ilan]

Whilst the instalation costs can be very high you need to ofset that against future fuel savings which can only go up ! The big proviso is if you can get enough fuel for it and can spend the time cutting it up ? I cannot see how an outside system could be practical as the chimney will still need to be higher than the house to prevent problems

[witch way?]

a. Wouldn't a woodburner outside waste a lot of heat that you could use inside?

b. Also, although I love our woodburning stove, it does need regular attention throughout the day. I would hate to have to go outside to check on it.

c. You can cook on an inside one.

d. You can put your feet up and burn your toes on an inside one.

e. You might be able to find a timber factory locally. We get all our wood for free from a timber truss factory about a mile away.

All in all, if you plan to stay in the house for a while, I'd bite the bullet and get an inside stove.

Happy toasting. W.

[possum]

We have no chimney (ie not a brick thing built as part of the house), but we do have a long burner. In out case the flue goes straight up and through the roof (which is a metal roof), yes ours is a single story, so possibly easier to do it with this place than a two story one.
I love ours, heats up the whole house, gives us very hot water and I can cook on it in the winter.
I would not bother with a log burner if I had to go outside to keep it fired up, it is bad enough lugging in wood from the outside when it is cold and dark outside.

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

Another wood burning stove fan here as well !

Best thing we have ever done in this house, are you looking a flexi liner or a twin wall all the way to line your chimney ???

We've got flexi most of the way and then twin wall to go up out of the roof and it all works a treat

[Louiseh]

This is how the Spanish do it, and nearly everybody in our village, and their friends, and relatives who own houses, do this :

have woodburners which simply sit in the room, with the flue going straight up through the roof

The spanish do not bother making chimneys, when we bought our house and asked the builder to build a chimney, our spanish friends asked us why?

They think our wood burner is a complete waste of money, because they say we are not getting all the benefit of the heat which travels up the flue, and to be honest I would now agree with them and we often consider having the chimey removed, this is always in the winter of couse, when we need the heating most !

They also cook on theirs, (slow baked jacket potatoes are fantastic) and heat water, and do many other things as well!

Probably doesn't help.

[possum]

They also cook on theirs, (slow baked jacket potatoes are fantastic) and heat water, and do many other things as well!

How do you cook baked potatoes on a log burner? (really want to know because our oven is broken)

[Sky]

Same in NZ, flue straight up through the ceiling with no chimney built around it.

[Annpan]

They also cook on theirs, (slow baked jacket potatoes are fantastic) and heat water, and do many other things as well!

How do you cook baked potatoes on a log burner? (really want to know because our oven is broken)

I think - though I haven't tried myself yet - you wrap the potato in tin foil and put it on the hot (not flaming) embers.