Aga / Rayburn cooker?

clusk007

hi all,

I'm in the process of building a new house at the moment and looking at putting in a traditional looking cooker. I'm interested in possibly an Aga or a Rayburn but not sure which model to go for which would be the most efficient and cheapest to run. I looked at the Electric Aga but at 10,500 euros it's far too expensive! I am not on mains gas but I will be running the underfloor heating on gas so LPG is one option but I have heard they are very expensive to run. I would like to avoid oil if at all possible but there is space for a tank so has anyone any suggestions? would a small oil tank and oil cooker be the best and cheapest option?

00dec

hey,
if you are concerned about running costs an aga is out of the question as they are on 24/7.
we had a waterford stanley Brandon oil range in stalled last november. waterford stanley, rayburn and aga are owned by the same ppl.
we are very happy with it.

Are you looking for just a cooker or do you want the range to heat hot water and power your central heating? Cooker only models are a lot cheaper and would use less oil because reguardless of how efficient the range is residual heat from cooking will always heat some amount of water.

When we had our range installed we also installed an eirin solid fuel stove, also by waterford stanley to heat water and heat the house. We mainly just use the range for cooking and only use the range for heating when we feel lazy or just want to top up the heating for a while.

We usually keep the stove ticking over to heat the house keeps the house nice and toasty.
Using the stove to power our heating and hot water (we have solar pannels aswell) have saved us a fortune on oil. Heating water with oil is quite expensive especially when we have a lot of space to heat.

i would advise you to install a stove for heating always good to have the backup if the power went out. If I was buying a range again i would just buy a dry cooker model and just have a separate boiler.

volvo 240

In France LPG tanked gas is the most expensive form of central heating then oil. We ripped out our 12 month old oil boiler as it was using 650 litres of oil in 6-7 weeks running 10 rads in a 100sqm stone detatched house with reasonable insulation. I have heard of people using 1 tonne of gas in less than 3 months!! I think if it was me I would buy a solid fuel cooker with a boiler and have it interlinked to your gas boiler if possible using a thermal store and have the underfloor circuit from the thermal store. I think you may well end up using the solid fuel cooker more. Get the most and best insulation you can get installed as, as you know it will save you a lot on your heating bills. If your insulation is superb and you are at work and not in all day you may find the gas reasonable to run.
In this case I would fit a oil/gas range with the option of a boiler and also being able to convert it to solid fuel if wished.
We stayed in a cottage in Kerry in January just after the very cold spell and stayed in a 1970's dormer bungalow. It had a very old 1980's oil fired stanley range cooker and boiler and ran 4 radiators and a very tiny hot water cylinder. In 4 days we had used 48 euros worth of oil!! The property had no wall insulation and virtually no loft insulation and once the heating went off it was cold the next day. We were glad of the coal fire as well!! If I owned that property I would insulate all of the walls and roof and rip out the stanley and replace it with a solid fuel stove with back boiler! James:)

clusk007

thanks for all the replies. well I have made my decision after talking to a few people. found an excellent guy in Westmeath who refurbishes the likes of these cookers and I'm getting what I think is an excellent deal. going for the aga in the end, run on oil and I'm getting a separate tank to do this. only using the cooker for cooking. the aga is costing me less than a new Rayburn, will be on 24/7 and makes very little noise unlike the Rayburn. if anyone wants the details just PM me.

The kitchen/dining room/living room is all open plan and I'm going for a multi-fuel stove in the living room also. as you said, the installation is top-notch and this is the first thing I looked at. I'm in a wheelchair and feel the cold very badly so there is no way I'm going to let this heat escape! also going for triple glazed windows with the high u value. thanks again for the advice

alfie123

Hi folks have any of you guys installed a Rayburn and underfloor heating. I was on to the Waterford Stanley peops and they advised me that the Rayburn solid fuel cant be used for Underfloor heating. Has anyone done this in a 3500sq ft 2 storey.

kate1966

Hi just wondered if anyone how there has converted a stanley twin series gas range to any other fuel type (preferably solid fuel) I rang stanley themselves but they say it can be done but they don't recommend it? But i've googled it and can't find any answers at all?! Can anyone help?? Thanks.