Newbie guide to wood burners in the home please.

[ajlelectronics]

Congratulations, not yours until you move in tho.....

You would be surprised what people will work for, I’ve been undercut on a few jobs and he’s not earning £100 a day

How would you feel about being put in charge of our proposed LPG heating / hot water system? I know it's a bit of a trek, but far better someone that can be trusted, rather than Joe Bloggs and Co.

 

[Kayos]

How would you feel about being put in charge of our proposed LPG heating / hot water system? I know it's a bit of a trek, but far better someone that can be trusted, rather than Joe Bloggs and Co.

Just about to head out but I will pm you when I’m home

 

[ajlelectronics]

Not getting on very well with this wood burner. I have tried wood, smokeless coal and a 50% recycled version sold by Been and Queued. I am feeding it with about £6 a night for a few hours and can get six inches of warm bathwater or just discernable warming of the radiators, but then no hot water.

One point I have noted is that it takes some while to get the top boiler pipe warm and it never gets too hot to touch. Boiler return is always cold no matter how long the system runs for. Now I don't believe that the exchange coil is 100% efficient so it looks like there is no circulation going on. There is no pump in that circuit that I have found, nor any motorised valves of any type. Should it work on thermosyphon principle and does it need bleeding or something perhaps?

 

[gaz1]

depends on the system best way is to trace those pipes to where they are going

it sounds like heat is getting to it only just so look for a bleeder valve near the water tank

there is a few types but the above pic is similar to old gravity fed systems with open vents

gravity fed large output pipe
semi gravity has a pump to rad system
sealed system has pump

you also didnt say which wood burner you have ?

 

[garethp]

When you say 6 quid what are we talking about in volume of material burned? B n Q etc charge a fortune for wood, coal etc. 6 quid for me is around 200kg of wood from the local sawmill!

Is the room getting hot instead of the water side? Stoves can differ in the ratio of heat to room and heat to water, also is the stove complete? I've used one where a baffle was missing so most heat went straight up the flue.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

The top pipe (the feed from the wood burner to the hot water tank) should get too hot to touch if the wood burner is heating the water efficiently.
You need dry logs (<20% moisture) for a good fire.
As a test smash up a dry pallet and see how hot the water gets.

 

[ajlelectronics]

The wood burner is a Aarow, as per page 2 of this thread. My problem is that I know SFA about such things and I could do with sorting it smart ish. ;-) the sweep turned up his nose at it and said he wouldn't bother with spending any money on spares for it. As it going to be six weeks plus to get a gas tank, I need to use the stove for the time being.

The room doesn't get warm particularly. The £6 a night is in fuel I bought from B&Q because I wanted something quick. I have since bought smokeless coal from a local supplier in 25Kg. That was £15 though!

 

[ajlelectronics]

One thing that I have noticed is that the vent pipe seems to be discharging quite a bit, making the overflow run quite a lot. That again suggests that the water can't circulate.

 

[gaz1]

this will but be warned it will get really hot

it is hardwood, but softwood needs a much smaller fire it can get too hot but the idea behind is that draft in the center of that fire, I freaked OUT how hot the fire burnt and turned shut everything completely off, DONT MAKE THE FIRE TO BIG you have to learn how to build it up, we saved a lot of wood and money that way

only use this reference if the water problem is sorted

build it smaller until you learn how best to load it too much wood isnt best until you know how it controls

page 2 is that front sealed ?

 

[GW8IZR]

have you got a way of measuring the flue temp, even one of these cheap magnetic gauges or maybe you have an IR thermometer..

How are you controlling the air - coal is best with air from underneath the bed, wood is better with air from the top. Is there a damper on the flue?

My burner here is running at 500F as its getting late, earlier when I was trying to warm up the house it was sitting at 700F which is a bit too high. Are you anywhere near those figures?

It might be that your not used to it yet, I found mine a bit tricky to get the air just right at first, If I put in a bit of effort I can get the pipe dull red ( not advised )

 

[GW8IZR]

I have since bought smokeless coal from a local supplier in 25Kg. That was £15 though!

20Kg of smokeless here is 7 quid, so shop around but for testing thats not important, on coal are you feeding air from below the bed and are you able to choke the flue?

 

[gaz1]

quick question go up stairs find out which pipe is hot in the cylinder cupboard

also trace for any warmth within smaller pipes rising up to a tank

also trace which pipe is hot to central heating system

these are your pipes you need to trace whilst testing dont dare fire it hard until its resolved if air is in system its not a good thing

if you have a goodish fire with heat then those feed pipes should be scalding hot to touch so be warned you could also have sticking tap valves not opening fully when system has to changed this wont allow the flow of water properly within the system

 

[GW8IZR]

if you have a goodish fire with heat then those feed pipes should be scalding hot to touch so be warned you could also have sticking tap valves not opening fully when system has to changed this wont allow the flow of water properly within the system

100% agreed but he's saying the room isn't getting particularly warm, as you know its easy to have flames and little heat. I still reckon its worth knowing the flue temp we are getting here?

 

[octo0072000]

not found any switches that don't seem to do anything sounds like a pump should be in there somewhere may just be on a on/off switch

 

[gaz1]

One thing that I have noticed is that the vent pipe seems to be discharging quite a bit, making the overflow run quite a lot. That again suggests that the water can't circulate.

you are correct if its the old gravity fed system the safest route is out the vent pipe fed with more cold water from the tank

you could have sludge in the system

as gw8izr is right have you got a deflector plate in the system otherwise you could be sending full heat up the chimney its really not a good thing

no heat gun try to touch it with wet finger not hand it will sizzle before it burns

 

[garethp]

Just looked back and its a bigger version of the aarow we used to have for room only heating, I think we used it correctly with the top vent for controlling the heat when burning wood with the bottom closed and the top closed and bottom used for controlling heat with coal.

Looking at the state of the stove with the overheated/bent fuel bars before you moved in is it complete? The wife's cousin had an aarow and he ran it so hot the steel baffle deformed and it sagged - result was he binned it allowing the majority of the heat to go straight up the flue. A flue temp gauge is cheap and will give an idea how hot its running.

 

[gaz1]

this pic is more based on gravity feed yours is connected into one pipe leading from back of boiler system

 

[julianf]

If there was no circulation, your back boiler would just boil.

I'd say you just need to keep chucking on fuel. Go pick up a load of pallets and just keep chucking them on - something is bound to get hot after a while!

 

[fizzy]

The wood burner is a Aarow, as per page 2 of this thread. My problem is that I know SFA about such things and I could do with sorting it smart ish. ;-) the sweep turned up his nose at it and said he wouldn't bother with spending any money on spares for it. As it going to be six weeks plus to get a gas tank, I need to use the stove for the time being.

The room doesn't get warm particularly. The £6 a night is in fuel I bought from B&Q because I wanted something quick. I have since bought smokeless coal from a local supplier in 25Kg. That was £15 though!

Anyone who has to buy wood will have problems. They go through vast amounts. You will get more heat from softwood - as someone mentioned cut up a few pallets.
I never found coal very good - loads of ash and very inefficient burning unless you have a very good draw.
In my new house which is well insulated and also has oil I go through about 70kg of wood a day. In my old house I was using about 180kg a day!

 

[julianf]

I went out this morning, and filled the back of the disco with pallets. Not whole ones, but broken down. When I loaded the last few bits, they caught on the headlining. Ie it was full, not just a few bits in the back.

My partner drives home past another yard. She will probably pick up another 4 or 5 pallets in the course of the week.

I'll do the same next Saturday morning.

All our heating and hot water will come from these, and some of our cooking. The rayburn even heats the water for the dishwasher.

Our house is very poorly insulated in some areas, well insulated in others.

I mention all of the above to give context. If my load today was minced up and pressed into b&q heat bricks im sure they would cost a fair bit!

If you want, give me the weight of the wood that you are burning per day, and the capacity of your tank, and I'll do you some very very rough maths as to the temperature rise.

I'm sure, however, the end result will just be that you need to burn more wood.

I think I said very early on in this thread, heating with wood required you to be getting the wood for free. Sure, plenty of people buy a bag of logs for a nice pretty fire in the evening, but that is very different from heating your entire home and dhw supply!