wood burners

[wyeman]

Hi everybody out there,
I have been looking at getting a woodburner now for some time but keep going round and round in circles as there are so many choices and so much apparent snobbery when it comes to this subject. I want to get a good around 7.5 -9kw wood burner for a 4.5x4x3m room (where I hope the heat can spread throughout the house as it has three floors). Can anyone recommend a good make that is value for money. I am told it has to be cast and tha the likes of Villager being steel are an inferior make ??

Also I have heard it costs as much to install as to buy - is this true ?

Would appreciate your help and comments.

Cheers,

Wyeman.

[marshlander]

Ours is made by Hunter with a wrap around back boiler and we're very pleased with it. At full pelt it heats all the radiators and hot water. I think it cost about £1000 but the total bill was £5800!

Of this £1800 was for the plumber incl pipework to the hot water cylinder and Dunsley thingy.

We also had the chimney breast rebuilt with a bigger opening and a lovely oak beam over. And an external soot door fitted to the outside of the chimney stack to it can be easily swept.

In all we had 2 bricklayers and a plumber for a week, an electrician for a day(new 'stat and connection to existing central heating controls), two carpenters fixed the beam into place and finally, a plaster for a couple of hours on two consecutive days.

And all it took was 7 tradesmen and about a thousand cups of tea!

[wyeman]

Thanks for the reply, I am glad you are pleased with your boiler. Unfortunately I need someone who has researched wood burners so they know whats good and whats bad - but again thanks for replying.

[Martin]

I really can't be stuffed!

[contadino]

A lot of the snobbery seems to revolve around one brand - clearview. Clearview owners always seem to find a slot for "it's worth the extra £n" into a conversation.

Personally, I know several people with different brands of woodburner and IMHO, clearview aren't worth the extra. Mine is a charnwood country 6, which is good. I know people with Morsos and Aarows that they're very happy with. Sadly I don't know anyone with a Villager so I can't say.

Regarding installation, it depends where you are. If you're in the UK, there are strict building regulations to adhere to, so you either need to pay the inflated price of a registered installer, or you need to get a buildings inspector to certify the work. If you're outside the UK, things may be different. The price of installation entirely depends on what work needs doing. Do you have a functioning chimney that you can use, for example? How long is it between the fireplace and the stack? Flues are expensive, and if you're at the bottom of a 3-story building it's likely to cost around the price of the stove.

As an indication, I installed my stove (outside the UK.) The cost was EUR40 for a stone plinth, EUR90 for the flue, EUR35 for the cowl, and about 2 days work as I had no prior chimney to use.

Also, without running radiators and a room that size, a 7.5 to 9kw stove will likely make the room intolerably hot. Heat doesn't circulate much beyond one doorway (i.e. one connecting room will be alright, but beyond that you'll be struggling.)

[Millymollymandy]

What country are you in, Wyeman? It might help with the answers as different countries have different brands!

[baldowrie]

If you're in the UK, there are strict building regulations to adhere to,

Should adhere to in an ideal situation.

so you either need to pay the inflated price of a registered installer, or you need to get a buildings inspector to certify the work

No you don't need a building inspector to to certify the work unless it's a new build. If you sell a place that doesn't have a certificate for installation you can't mention the stove. Any installer will sort that.

You can do the the job yourself. You don't always need a flexible flue if your chimney is sound. You do need at least 1 mtr of vitreous pipe to go a chimney. If you need to make a chimney you will need double insulated flue to go through ceilings and roof to the exterior, but I don't know too much about that side of things.

Technical information is available at natural heating, who are also happy to answer any questions (for Britain only)

http://www.naturalheating.co.uk/manuals-i-9.html

[wyeman]

Hello everybody, I am in sunny Herefordshire. We appear to be making some progress on the wood burner front ! Thanks to those that have replied so far. The room I want to put the burner in is a 4.5x4x3.2m room which leads to a hallway that goes up two floors. It is a drafty old victorian house who's oil boiler is drinking more fuel than a jumbo jet.

My problem is still that I need someone who has compared wood stoves. Unfortunatelly when people say "they have a this or a that and they think it's good" - this isn't much use because it's not being compared to something else.

Useful info on the installation front - if my chimney does go up two floors how far do I have to stick a pipe up ? If I understand it right I only have to stick a couple of metres of enamelled pipe up the chimney. Also interesting comment about the room getting too hot so the thought of having rads connected to the burner is looking like a good idea. Is it possible to connect the wood burner to my oil fired boiler to work in tandem ?

Ta da for now.

[red]

depends if you chimney needs to be lined. if it does.. that will be the spensive bit. but I had a woodburner in last house without a lined chimney as it was n good order

I have had a yeoman stove, and now a Dean stove, which is steel not cast iron. there is a lot of snobbery about cast iron,but not particularly backed up.

there have been lots of discussion on woodstoves on teh forum , worth doing a search to see what has been said before.

[dudley]

It is possible to have an oil boiler and a wood stove on the same system, ie sharing the pipe work to heat the hot water cylinder and do C/H but I think you will have to have thermostats and divert valves fitted. I believe it is to do with not pumping cool water around one or other of the appliances when their not on or something. As you may guess I am not a heating engineer, but we had exactly this set up some years ago with an oil boiler, a Bosky wood oven in the kitchen and a wood stove in the lounge. It all worked really well, in fact so well it even worked on gravity when there was no power and the pump was not working. Great when power lines came down
We did then and more recently again in our new house have to line the chimney. Evidently it is best to have a warm insulated flue so that tars and creosotes to not build up on the inside of the chimney from burning wood. It also helps flue draught, but with three floors you should have a good draught, so beware of just sticking a 1mt length of flue pipe up the existing chimney.
It may be worth getting a couple of stove companies in to quote you and give tech advice.
You don’t have to say yes and their advice may help.
Good luck. Steve.

[possum]

Why don't you ask the NZ contingent on here, in NZ wood burning stoves are the normal method of heating your house. Ours is a NZ made one, so no point recommending it, but if you are going for one, things to look out for are
a) it has to be a wetback, no point in anything else
b) get one that you can also cook on, perfect for a slow cooking,

[snapdragon]

Wyeman - I think you may find it difficult to find someone who can compare boilers - most people only buy one in a lifetime, if they buy more than one then in all probability the first one is no longer manufactured.

Perhaps you could ask a dealer or a fitter?

[Martin]

or they're stupid enough to ignore the very real safety aspect of having their flue done by a professional installer, and get gassed with a bit of pipe shoved up a leaky flue..........

[Millymollymandy]

I have a 3 story house and my flue (installed by a professional, Martin! ) is a double stainless steel one and goes all the way up to the top of the chimney stack. That is what I would recommend to anyone from a safety aspect.

[Sky]

I have a wood burner too, it's fab!
In comparison to the last three we've had in NZ it's just the best but I'm no expert.
I bought ours for $1000 cos it was shop soiled (had a chip out of the enamel ) and another $2000 to install.