Selfsufficientish.com

i work on the ferry now paddy so i still get plenty of the wide open sea
in fact i did hold onto 'conqueror' for a couple of years hoping to go clam diving on my week off. but there's just to much to do round the croft and i do like to spend time with wife and child, also in the summer there's plenty for an old hippy to do and even if you dont use a boat it still cost you an arm and leg in insurance, antifouling, and most of all sleepless nights in bad weather

anyway back to your range, if your not actually going to cook on it i would not get one. get a good woodburner with a back boiler and if possible use a rear exit flue. aga's rayburns etc are fine if your doing lots of cooking especialy baking so they are designed to keep heat inside. stoves on the other hand are designed to put heat out into a room. so for the same amount of fuel you will get more warmth quicker into your kitchen/house. we have a woodburner (which i converted to oil but the principle's the same) in the kitchen next to a gas/electric range we bring stuff to boil on the cooker then just slide it over to the stove to simmer or use it as a slow cooker. if you do go down this road however don't get a stove with a surrounding type of water jacket as they don't get hot on the top.

good luck paul

Thanks Paul

Yes i intend to cook on it, ie............ There are only two of us, we have a free supply of fuel which is wood from coppicing trees and left over wood from me making things in my work, also my mate has a kitchen manufacturing business and has to pay to get rid of his waste board materials.

So i see plenty of free heat...........we also love Stews Indian food and Steak and kidney pies, if we fry we use the George Foreman thing to get rid of fat which go to the dogs, anything else in the microwave.

So you see it will suit us down to the ground.

We have a Effel wood stove in the living room for the cold days which really arent that many here, whereas Scotland is a lot colder.

As for the boat, well never mind perhaps you are like me wacking the Mackeral from the rocks in the summer months But i do know someone who has a kyak ( canoe ) and he fitted a fishfinder to it and goes out in the bay after bigger stuff

Thanks for your help guy's but the idea is dead cause to comply with building regs i would have to have a 10 foot steel chimney out of my roof cause i cant use the excisting chimney for my Range and the steel thing would look a total eyesore.

Bugger!

paddy wrote:Thanks for your help guy's but the idea is dead cause to comply with building regs i would have to have a 10 foot steel chimney out of my roof cause i cant use the excisting chimney for my Range and the steel thing would look a total eyesore.

is it cos of the flue diameter? cos up here regs say 6" for wood but only 5" for coal so when i fitted one in our chalet i just said it was for coal

No the flue would have to be higher than the gable of the roof which would mean coming up 8 feet from a lower roof and it has to be 2 feet from the nearest part of the roof, so all in all it would look like an industrial chimney on the side of a house.

I have one of them, just like that, for my central heating (not that I use the central heating though). It doesn't look too bad as it is situated on the gable end which has the chimney and we don't really notice it, but I can understand how you feel.

I have been wondering reading this thread - if you were reliant on a wood stove for cooking, wouldn't you and the house get rather hot in summer?

Millymollymandy wrote:I have one of them, just like that, for my central heating (not that I use the central heating though). It doesn't look too bad as it is situated on the gable end which has the chimney and we don't really notice it, but I can understand how you feel.

I have been wondering reading this thread - if you were reliant on a wood stove for cooking, wouldn't you and the house get rather hot in summer?

yes your right i'd forgot all about that looking back with rose tinted glasses!
having to have the windows wide open and my girlfriend having to knead the bread in her underwear

I didnt think anybody used them in the summer, but cooking in the nude could be a bit dodgy with all that hot cast iron around

Millymollymandy wrote: I have been wondering reading this thread - if you were reliant on a wood stove for cooking, wouldn't you and the house get rather hot in summer?

It depends on the type of house. Mine was an old farmhouse and the kitchen was in the original dairy so it was a cold and damp room to start with. It faced north and had 2ft thick stone walls so it was always cool in there plus the floor was flagstone laid directly on earth so they stayed damp and cool.

It was the best kitchen I have ever used - no good if you're the sort of person who wants everything fitted and sterile though.

Shame about the flue pipe/chimney thing. Could you build a new chimney? The cost would probably be astronomical though.

Zoe

Thomzo wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote: I have been wondering reading this thread - if you were reliant on a wood stove for cooking, wouldn't you and the house get rather hot in summer?

It depends on the type of house. Mine was an old farmhouse and the kitchen was in the original dairy so it was a cold and damp room to start with. It faced north and had 2ft thick stone walls so it was always cool in there plus the floor was flagstone laid directly on earth so they stayed damp and cool.

It was the best kitchen I have ever used - no good if you're the sort of person who wants everything fitted and sterile though.

Shame about the flue pipe/chimney thing. Could you build a new chimney? The cost would probably be astronomical though.

Zoe

That's the sort of room that I'd want to keep cool in summer, not heat! My bathroom is cool like that and is the best place in the world in summer. I store my spuds and onions in it!

I suppose it depends on the summer temperatures where Paddy lives though (where are you Paddy?), and don't forget the climate's getting warmer........!!

Oh we had plenty of other rooms that were cool enough in the summer. They certainly knew how to build houses 400 years ago. It just kind of kept itself the same temperature inside - once the draughts were sorted out that is.

oh how i envy you guys that live in these warmer lattitudes we never let our stove go out in the kitchen and the woodburner in the living room might get a rest for a few days in august i don't think it's so much the temp but the permenant dampness. we get 90-100" of rain a year sometimes we get 30" in a month! there are clothes and washing hung to dry constantly so the house is like a chinese laundry most days

that said we have just had 6 dry calm days in a row which is most unusual so the veg patch finally dried out and we managed to get 2 piggies off to the abattoir without any drama

wouldn't swap it for anything

cheers paul

Yep we get lots of rain too much really, and lots of wind too, but at least it is warm here

camillitech wrote:oh how i envy you guys that live in these warmer lattitudes we never let our stove go out in the kitchen and the woodburner in the living room might get a rest for a few days in august i don't think it's so much the temp but the permenant dampness. we get 90-100" of rain a year sometimes we get 30" in a month! there are clothes and washing hung to dry constantly so the house is like a chinese laundry most days

that said we have just had 6 dry calm days in a row which is most unusual so the veg patch finally dried out and we managed to get 2 piggies off to the abattoir without any drama

wouldn't swap it for anything

cheers paul

Bloody hell that's more than we get in a year!!!