How to keep range hot overnight

thecelt

Having moved into a house with a solild fuel range,
Has anyone got any suggestions on how to get the range to keep the house warm overnight and not just die out.

yoshytoshy

Not sure about ranges ,but I remember slack being used on open fires to keep house warm at night.
It was a sloppy mix of water and all the little bits of coal ,tapped on top of a lit fire.

crosstownk

Not sure about a range but in my parents house that had a back boiler, we used slack to keep the boiler hot when it was left unattended for a long period of time.

uSmellLikeSoup

Both my house, my parents house, and my siblings houses all have ranges.

We burn turf mostly, and a little wood. Turf is the best. Before bed, fill the main compartment with as much turf as you can fit in. Close over the back (a swivel type thing with a single groove in it to move between open and closed) and close up the front vents too. This seals the range, allowing a slow burn throughout the night.

Works a treat.

phelixoflaherty

mate of mine got the old bricks from storage heaters and filled the oven with them.They heat during the day with oven closed then open during the night

reilig

You have to be very careful about closing off the air vents on a range in order to get an overnight burn - I learned the hard way. Cutting off the air supply is a major cause of creosote in your chimney. It causes condensation in the top of the chimney which will flow bacjk down into your range - picking up soot on its way and clogging your chimney flue as well as your range.

We had been closing up our range to get an overnight burn up until last sunday. Early in the morning, a smoke alarm went off in the house. I got up to find a lot of smoke coming out of the range. I managed to get what was left of the fire put out and I cleaned out the range. I took out a lot of soot and some wet tar from the bottom of it. I thought I had my problem sorted, but when i lit it, it continued to smoke. I then opened up the flue to see wah the chimney blocked and I found that my 5 inch flue was completely blocked down very close to the range. It was full with solid black soot and I had to use a poker and wire brush to remove it.

I have read several pieces of information on the internet about the causes and it seems that my main cause was closing up the range and cutting off teh air supply in order to extend the burn. We used to light big fires, let them blaze until the house was warm and then close it off and fill it up with turf to keep a fire that would maintain the heat. You cannot do this with a range. The fire needs air all of the time. Our range has only been up and running for 2 months in a brand new house and a steel flue lined chimney and this happened. We were at a very high risk of a chimney fire and only that we have our house properly ventilated, we could have been killed from Co2 poisoning last sunday.

The storage heater bricks seem like a good idea.