A wood burning stove running all radiators/good or bad?

ziczac

We are starting a new build soon.We have decided to fit an insert stove with a back boiler which is 25 kw.We are hoping this will run all our radiators but also throw out enought heat around the room.WE will also have an oil burner as backup.Does anyone have this ?Is it a bad idea?We dont want to end up with a heating system which will cost a fortune to run .

katnia

ziczac wrote: »

We are starting a new build soon.We have decided to fit an insert stove with a back boiler which is 25 kw.We are hoping this will run all our radiators but also throw out enought heat around the room.WE will also have an oil burner as backup.Does anyone have this ?Is it a bad idea?We dont want to end up with a heating system which will cost a fortune to run .

We have a similar system in our house, Oil burner running hot water & rads, house is 2,500 sq ft. Last year we bought a multifuel stove and got it linked in to our existing system, it's backboiler is I think in and around 25kw, it only throws out 4.5kw to the living room, but this is plenty. My rationale at the time for buying it was that I like lighting a fire in the house and all this heat is going up the chimney, why not have it heating the water and the rads. It heats all the radiators redhot when it running, not one cold radiator in the house so it's adequate for this size of house. However, as it's a large stove it takes more fuel, we currently burn ecobrite smokeless nuggets in it (€15 for 40kg bag) and it runs well, but as I said because of it's size it takes more coal than a 'normal' open fire. If I wanted to run it for 24hrs it would take 3 large full coal buckets, which I suppose isn't too bad considering it quite a large house. Overall I am very happy with it as it's hard to beat a fire in the house and when you run it it does make the house toasty warm, so that you only wear a tee shirt because of the heat. I haven't burned wood in it yet as I figure the heat from wood won't be as intense and may affect the current performance, but this is only my perception and I may be wrong. The other thing to consider is that it's not really a fire as such, it's a stove and they are designed to be on most of the time when lit. So my rule is I will only light it if I intend running it for at least 24hrs, as anything shorter than this in my view isn't as cost effective and not what it was designed for. I think if it's something you are going to embrace, for example keeping it going most of the winter (when it gets properly cold) then it's a great addition to the home, but if it's something you intend to use as you would an open fire, then you won't get the benefit from it as it will never be a replacement for this type of fire. As I'm sure you know, it's really another heating system, although I must say it's more pleasant that an oil burner will ever be, but it's still hungry!

I hope this was of use to you. Incidently, the stove I have is a Stratford TF90B

ziczac

The stove that we have been looking at is wood only.I just have this vision of us bringing wood to this every hour of the day.And on top of that the wood has to be bone dry for it to work properly.Around 20% moisture.Meaning we will have to store in indoors or find a way of covering outside.

ziczac

katnia wrote: »

We have a similar system in our house, Oil burner running hot water & rads, house is 2,500 sq ft. Last year we bought a multifuel stove and got it linked in to our existing system, it's backboiler is I think in and around 25kw, it only throws out 4.5kw to the living room, but this is plenty. My rationale at the time for buying it was that I like lighting a fire in the house and all this heat is going up the chimney, why not have it heating the water and the rads. It heats all the radiators redhot when it running, not one cold radiator in the house so it's adequate for this size of house. However, as it's a large stove it takes more fuel, we currently burn ecobrite smokeless nuggets in it (€15 for 40kg bag) and it runs well, but as I said because of it's size it takes more coal than a 'normal' open fire. If I wanted to run it for 24hrs it would take 3 large full coal buckets, which I suppose isn't too bad considering it quite a large house. Overall I am very happy with it as it's hard to beat a fire in the house and when you run it it does make the house toasty warm, so that you only wear a tee shirt because of the heat. I haven't burned wood in it yet as I figure the heat from wood won't be as intense and may affect the current performance, but this is only my perception and I may be wrong. The other thing to consider is that it's not really a fire as such, it's a stove and they are designed to be on most of the time when lit. So my rule is I will only light it if I intend running it for at least 24hrs, as anything shorter than this in my view isn't as cost effective and not what it was designed for. I think if it's something you are going to embrace, for example keeping it going most of the winter (when it gets properly cold) then it's a great addition to the home, but if it's something you intend to use as you would an open fire, then you won't get the benefit from it as it will never be a replacement for this type of fire. As I'm sure you know, it's really another heating system, although I must say it's more pleasant that an oil burner will ever be, but it's still hungry!

I hope this was of use to you. Incidently, the stove I have is a Stratford TF90B

Thanks for the reply and info.

katnia

Mmmm, that seems strange to me that it's wood only, I don't think I could handle that. That's the other thing that has so far stopped me from using wood in mine, the fact that it needs to be properly seasoned with a low moisture content, I did price the wood & it was fairly reasonable, however I would of needed to build a shelter for it to store it correctly. Why don't you consider a multifuel version, instead of wood only?

katnia

ziczac wrote: »

The stove that we have been looking at is wood only.I just have this vision of us bringing wood to this every hour of the day.And on top of that the wood has to be bone dry for it to work properly.Around 20% moisture.Meaning we will have to store in indoors or find a way of covering outside.

If the stove is fairly modern, which I assume it is, it should have a thermostatic control on the outside which makes managing the burn rate very straightforward, so you might not have to fill it as often as you think as you can control the way it burns at the turn of the dial, much handier tha messing about with stoves where you have to open & close vents manually to control the way it burns. When I put a full bucket of coal on our stove, it easily lasts for around 6/7 hours when set to 2/3 on the thermostat, 10 would be the highest setting on it.

bbam

We have a 30Kw multifuel stove with a boiler and it feeds the heating system... It is well capable of heating the whole house (2800 sq feet) but we've also insulated wery well..

I'd also be worried about limiting yourself to wood, we burn 80% wood but a little coal definitely boosts the heat... Seasoned timber is better but we've burned green timber and coal mixed and it works well enough..

We have access to some of our own timber which was our main reasoning and we have space where we are planted some more for the future...

From buying seasoned timber I'd say at current prices oil is comparable enough on price specially if you consider the convenience, we too have always lit a fire so it was a no brainer for us...

femur61

We just lit our <SNIP> last night. Very happy with the heat emitted to the room and loads of hot water. To say I am disappointed with the level of heat given off from the rads is an understatement. Supposed to heat 12 single rads that would be 6 doubles which we have but only three on last night and the heat wasn't up to my expectation.

Poor Uncle Tom

Do not name a product/company on-thread, please read the charter.

bbam

femur61 wrote: »

and loads of hot water

Hi..
Our system is fitted with a tank stat and a solenoid valve at the tank on the loop from the stove.. We set a temperature in the tank and once this is reached the heat from the stove is diverted completly to the rads, maybe your system has similar and needs tweaking, we tried lots of settings to get the balance we wanted..

Cheers...

North West

Hi Ziczac

I have a wood burning stove in my own house. It gives me Boiler output 45,000btu's ( approx 13.2kw) and 20,000btu,s ( approx 6kw ) room heat. It is complimented by my oil boiler. Great job but you will loose at least 45% efficiency using wood only. I use coalite and wood and reckon I am getting a good efficient system.

I also leave the room door open when we go to bed and let the heat distribute through out the house works well. The stove will do 9 radiators no bother but you need great constant fires mix of coal and wood. ( radiators average enough size approx 1.8m x 720mm ) I normally start with coalite and in the evenings after heat output is well up top up with timber later. Bank it down before i go to bed with coal leave doors open and let heat around house.
North West