Woodburners / multifuel stoves....

[Davek0974]

Hi all

Does anyone here have a woodburner or multifuel stove for room heating?

Thinking about getting one as we love real fires, looking for views on them.

The sums I have done so far point to being able to save some cash on the gas bill too which is a bonus.

Any info?

 

[rtbcomp]

I've had a cheap and cheerful Clarke pot-belly stove for for ages. Puts a lot of heat out but build quality is poor.

 

[Davek0974]

Is it in the living room or workshop though, this will a major part of the living room for us so will be a Morso or Stovax unit most likely.

Just looking for views on living with one really

 

[Shox Dr]

I fitted a Stovax Riva 66 in the living room in Jan. Wish I had done it yrs ago. We gone from a "shut that door" house to nearly taking all the doors off

Bear in mind you need Building regs to install a stove

Bought as an insert, I converted it to freestanding. Not the best picture but you get the idea.

 

[rtbcomp]

It's my office, the downside is cleaning the ash out, topping it up with wood and collecting cutting and storing the wood. You get quite a bit of dust in the room too.

On coke it's more convenient but much more expensive.

I also use it for cooking and the kettle's always on.

I wouldn't like to be without one.

 

[Davek0974]

Excellent stuff, love that picture Shox,

As far as ash goes, I build and run model traction engines for a hobby so shovelling a bit of extra muck out of the fire is nothing compared to sweeping the tubes on a half size engine

As for the dust, well the mrs does the cleaning

 

[rocketron]

have a morso for main use. fab tool, a real good friend. cats, dogs, wife and kids all fight to get to it first. i burn pallets and any freebie bits of wood, even though i live remote in a huge forest, cos not allowed to get any of it any more. a friend had a biggy which supplied 13 radiators. 30 +tons of wood usage thru winter took some collecting: land rover with large trailer, heavy usage of chainsaw and fuel, handballing from trailer to shed then to house was a heavy commitment. that wood burner was certainly a voracious monster!

 

[mrcheese]

I have had one in the front room for a few years now. Brilliant.
We live in a old terraced house and since fitting it we have not had the heating on in the evenings or after the morning central heating run. During colder spells we do run it on coal as it lasts longer. Don't have much space for wood, but we get by. Saving on our gas bills, but it will take a long time to recoup the outlay.

 

[breezer]

We have a lovenholm - very clean burning (hardly any smoke out of the chimney)

Heats the living room dining room easily and when kept roaring will heat the kitchen as well (3/4 of the downstairs)

Yeah there is a bit more dust and you find it impossible to walk past an abandoned pallet. You need to be quite organised to ensure you have dry seasoned wood when you need it.

I'd rather sit and watch the fire than the telly though!

 

[Shox Dr]

We don't find there is any more dust than before. The ash needs removing around every 2-3 days and is only a pan full, you need to leave a bit in.
The glass does black up if you run it shut fully down. In normal running at 25%* the glass does get a little black around the bottom corners but doesn't take any cleaning off.


*any more and you'll be sat in your undies


For some reason I can put up with far more heat in the house, from the fire, than form CH. I fact our lass complained a while back, I told her she'd been whining for the last 20+yrs that the house was never as warm as she would have it and to shut the duck up

 

[the artfull-codger]

I have a rayburn for cooking/domestic & central heating & an arrow stove in one of the front rooms with a back boiler coupled to the heating system, & in the other front room a stanley stove, the good side is-- they're nice & cosy & the kitchen & bathroom are allways warm[heat shunt rad in bathroom to dissipate surplus heat] we've had cheap heat & cookinf for over 30 yrs but the downside is-- they're dusty & dirty, you need a LOT of wood to feed them [well the rayburn but the stanley's not quite as bad] & as every man & his dog seems to be getting wood burners for ''cheap heat'' unless you've got a cheap/free supply they're not so cheap,the price of logs has rocketed, we have no choice as we cook & heat with ours, having said all that we love ours even after 30 odd yrs.
slan go fol

 

[breezer]

I'm working on the basis that a lot of people who get stoves will not like all the graft they have to put in or the cost of having 'seasoned' logs delivered and will give up on them after a couple of years.

 

[rtbcomp]

I have a friendly packing case maker who lets me have wood for free. His offcuts are ideal kindling.

A builder lets me take wood from his yard when I happen to be passing.

I got a table saw from Aldi for about £30.00 for cutting it up.

 

[Davek0974]

Now we're talking

Even if it costs the same to run as the GCH, I would still go for it, we love real fires and I too can stare at a fire for hours on end! The idea isn't to save money, any saving is a bonus in our case, it's just pure enjoyment really.

I have an endless supply of wood pallets, are they any good? Mixed crap timber and chipboard? I can get loads of them from work for free but I would presume that any money spent on seasoned wood or coal would be money not spent on gas so we still getthe benefit of a real fire.

 

[the artfull-codger]

I'm working on the basis that a lot of people who get stoves will not like all the graft they have to put in or the cost of having 'seasoned' logs delivered and will give up on them after a couple of years.

good point breezer I think you're right on getting fed up, mrs codger has cling film on all the tops of the kitchen cupboards & I sweep the rayburn chimney every month 'cos we use a lot of softwood for cooking but bank up in winter with hardwood & coke & coal [which david cameron kindly gives me £200 to buy]
slan go fol

 

[brightspark]

good point breezer I think you're right on getting fed up, mrs codger has cling film on all the tops of the kitchen cupboards & I sweep the rayburn chimney every month 'cos we use a lot of softwood for cooking but bank up in winter with hardwood & coke & coal [which david cameron kindly gives me £200 to buy]
slan go fol

awld git

 

[the artfull-codger]

he he he jealousy's a terrible sin, I bet you'll be ''accepting'' your heating allowance when time comes!! mind you they'll probably have stopped it by then!! ps of course not all the coal goes in the rayburn, some of it goes in the engine!!!

 

[rtbcomp]

Gordon Brown gave us £250, Cameron took £50 off us!

 

[eetherington]

I have a villager log burner that we have connected to the mains heating and it is worth it's weight in gold during winter!

 

[the artfull-codger]

Gordon Brown gave us £250, Cameron took £50 off us!

yes you're right there rtb, I got the first couple till they dropped it £50 [the bar stewards] they'll probably stop it by the time b.s. is old enough to collect.
slan go fol