Newbie guide to wood burners in the home please.

[gaz1]

from a person who has a rocket stove built i get more heat out of mine for very little wood used

you guys cut pallets up to my few logs thrown into the rocket stove

so at that statement has anyone actually given that video a go with less wood in it for a test trial and see how it goes from there

i will say this if you do you will like its consumption much better for more heat and yet less wood loading

ive built in a normal wood stove and run it up at holmfirth with central heating system a big woodstove massive compared to what im using now it eats wood in that stove compared to my homemade rocket stove

so would you guys care to try the inner built rocket stove in your stove just to see the difference you get from it ?

 

[fizzy]

from a person who has a rocket stove built i get more heat out of mine for very little wood used

you guys cut pallets up to my few logs thrown into the rocket stove

so at that statement has anyone actually given that video a go with less wood in it for a test trial and see how it goes from there

i will say this if you do you will like its consumption much better for more heat and yet less wood loading

ive built in a normal wood stove and run it up at holmfirth with central heating system a big woodstove massive compared to what im using now it eats wood in that stove compared to my homemade rocket stove

so would you guys care to try the inner built rocket stove in your stove just to see the difference you get from it ?

I have always done that for lighting the woodburner. I usually knock it down then to chuck extra wood in there. I also run a stove top fan to get extra heat into the room.
You may increase efficiency a little but at the end of the day the calorific output of the wood burnt is what counts. Dry wood is essential.

How big an area does your rocket stove heat? The woodburner I use heats the big living room and conservatory - the big bedroom directly above it - and I have a desk fan which sucks air out of the living room and heats the rest of the house fairly well.

In my old house I was heating the whole place with just wood - running 10 rads - cooking and heat from the big woodburner as well.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

from a person who has a rocket stove built i get more heat out of mine for very little wood used

you guys cut pallets up to my few logs thrown into the rocket stove

so at that statement has anyone actually given that video a go with less wood in it for a test trial and see how it goes from there

i will say this if you do you will like its consumption much better for more heat and yet less wood loading

ive built in a normal wood stove and run it up at holmfirth with central heating system a big woodstove massive compared to what im using now it eats wood in that stove compared to my homemade rocket stove

so would you guys care to try the inner built rocket stove in your stove just to see the difference you get from it ?

Are you heating your house with your rocket stove though or just your shed. It's a big difference between heating a single room with radiant heat to heating a whole house and providing hot water as well!

I light my woodburner each evening and I refill it till I go to bed, dry wood used is loosely about 350mm3.
This heats a floor space of about 50m2 as well as charging up a 205L thermal store which provides hot water for showers and radiators for >24hrs.
The other massive benefit is it gives me something to stare at over my evening beer as I don't have a TV!

 

[addjunkie]

If your struggling to get enough heat from wood, burn ovaloids. Or good quality coal, they have a higher calorific value than wood, therefore will put more heat into your system.

My system is similar in description with heat store etc as described by @Wendelspanswick above. 4 bed detached stone house, we dont burn anywhere near the quantities of wood described above.

But when its really cold out we do notice the difference between burning all wood and all ovaloids.

One thing I will say, your wood needs to be fully dry, and flue clear, a good draw, gets a good fire.

Out of interest according to google how much heat output does your fire have

 

[gaz1]

Are you heating your house with your rocket stove though or just your shed. It's a big difference between heating a single room with radiant heat to heating a whole house and providing hot water as well!

I light my woodburner each evening and I refill it till I go to bed, dry wood used is loosely about 350mm3.
This heats a floor space of about 50m2 as well as charging up a 205L thermal store which provides hot water for showers and radiators for >24hrs.

fair comment im only heating the shed however i am building the central heating side of it with a thermal store attached is my intention

how much wood do you go through ?
as a rocket stove goes through 1 1/2 cords of wood in severe winter its what attracted me to build a rocket stove in the first place instead of 4 cords of wood usage

i will admit i like your fire but take a look at this the only downside it has to have an electric fan

 

[fizzy]

If your struggling to get enough heat from wood, burn ovaloids. Or good quality coal, they have a higher calorific value than wood, therefore will put more heat into your system.

My system is similar in description with heat store etc as described by @Wendelspanswick above. 4 bed detached stone house, we dont burn anywhere near the quantities of wood described above.

But when its really cold out we do notice the difference between burning all wood and all ovaloids.

One thing I will say, your wood needs to be fully dry, and flue clear, a good draw, gets a good fire.

Out of interest according to google how much heat output does your fire have

In theory yes coal is much better. Not always in practice though. If your draught is minimal then wood will burn far better. If you have loads of clinker left after burning coal then it isn't being used efficiently. In our old house the Rayburn would produce a wheel barrow full of clinker every 2 days - with wood it was a carrier bag a week!

 

[fizzy]

fair comment im only heating the shed however i am building the central heating side of it with a thermal store attached is my intention

how much wood do you go through ?
as a rocket stove goes through 1 1/2 cords of wood in severe winter its what attracted me to build a rocket stove in the first place instead of 4 cords of wood usage

i will admit i like your fire but take a look at this the only downside it has to have an electric fan

Nice legs!

If you are going to heat a whole house you will go through plenty of wood.
The house I was in was rented - I did look into buying it but the woman wanted silly money considering it needed £100,000 of repairs minimum!
If I had bought it I would have done the following.
An electric extractor for the Rayburn - the chimney had very poor draw.
I would have changed the big woodburner for one with a back boiler. Then used it to feed a big heatstore. Also I would have lined the chimney.

Insulation is the real key. The house I was in had literally 5' thick stone walls downstairs. It was the eaves that were the problem. In cold still weather the house was easy to heat. It was the wind that was the killer. Being above the tree line on the Brecon Beacons didn't help - seriously bleak. I think extra loft insulation and new weatherboards would have helped a lot.

 

[wookie]

I certainly don't, hence my preference to go LPG if we can find anywhere to site the tank. Oil is no good as we have nearby Caravan Utilising Nomadic Types and it would not be able to be made secure.

Is there a secure building you could stick the oil tank in to keep the light fingered neighbours away ?

 

[ajlelectronics]

Some progress with the heating system. I have a customer who lives in the village and he claimed that there is a gas main running from Gloucester to Chepstow, down the opposite side of the A48. I called Wales and West who agreed and quoted me £902 to provide a connection to the house terminated in an ECV. So now the world is my lobster and I have had two companies round to assess the possibilities. First one in a tidy Transit turned up after calling ME the previous evening after an enquiry. Seemed to know his stuff and is my preferred installer. Waiting on pricing now.

The second one, a well known and established company with a good reputation. I used to do sat work for the founder. His daughter came to do the assessment. Little taken aback by the Maserati that she turned up in! Not sure I want my bill to go towards those sort of overheads!

 

[ajlelectronics]

Testing of the wood burner last weekend was interesting. I loaded it up with coal and some wood cut up from the old fencing. That really woke it up, we had sparks dropping down the chimney through the broken register plate, which isn't the required steel item. Also the flue just pokes through it, into the unlined chimney.
I was convinced we were in line for a chimney fire as the flames got increasingly higher and due to the lack of glass etc, the airflow couldn't be restricted. Next thing to happen was a boil over! The pressure relief goes to a header tank and then overflows to a plastic pipe outside the window. That suddenly started erupting with high pressure water jets! I turned on the central heating pump in the end, in order to calm the system down. Radiators downstairs then came up to a reasonable temperature until the fire bedded down a bit. So it seems that a) current installation is dodgy and b) the new boiler should be able to run it successfully. Advice is to go for a Baxi 33KW combi which also allows me to junk a lot of the horrendous plumbing, together with the cylinder.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Nice legs!

The 3:1 ratio [male > female] seems a bit greedy. Like the sound track too.

Anyway, back to things 'burning'.