STOVES questions and answers here(see mod note in post 1)

BarryD

mel o wrote: »

Thanks Barry. We won't have a heat recovery system so it may not be suitable then? The builder put two vents in the room, I was hoping to close one and have an external air supply in the hope of increased efficiency and a warmer house.

Get more advice. What stage is the build at? Where are the vents? Room vents are normally near ceiling level but your external vent for a stove comes in at or below floor level where I've seen them. You have various overlapping requirements - heating efficiency, draught proofing, air supply for stove, fresh air exchange for the house etc. One effects the other and so on.

mel o

It feels like doing honours maths all over again, it's just too hard!

The two air vents are at ceiling level. The house is roofed, doors and windows in, first fix electrics done and plumber doing first fix now. I only mentioned to the builder about external air source for the stove when the walls were up, so if the air vent was to be below floor level, it's too late anyway.

Thanks for your replies.

BarryD

Well, it all depends on how fussy you want to be. Mostly people (up to now anyway) were happy with a normal dry and reasonably well insulated house. Costs of heating not too unreasonable in Ireland as we live in a moderate climate etc. So a stove or open fire and flues drawing in air from living spaces which in turn is replaced by sucking in air through room vents or gaps around doors and windows sufficed - does the job.

The emphasis in newer builds is towards increasing insulation, heat exchange, mechanical ventilation, improving draught proofing and reducing fuel consumption - so that's where it all gets more rigorous. It's up to your own expectations. In our situation as described above, we spend about €1000 annually presently on heating fuel which is supplemented with firewood (free apart from own labour) for a 2 storey house of c 150 sq metres, which is not too bad.

Joe1919

BarryD wrote: »

Well, it all depends on how fussy you want to be. Mostly people (up to now anyway) were happy with a normal dry and reasonably well insulated house. Costs of heating not too unreasonable in Ireland as we live in a moderate climate etc. So a stove or open fire and flues drawing in air from living spaces which in turn is replaced by sucking in air through room vents or gaps around doors and windows sufficed - does the job.

The emphasis in newer builds is towards increasing insulation, heat exchange, mechanical ventilation, improving draught proofing and reducing fuel consumption - so that's where it all gets more rigorous. It's up to your own expectations. In our situation as described above, we spend about €1000 annually presently on heating fuel which is supplemented with firewood (free apart from own labour) for a 2 storey house of c 150 sq metres, which is not too bad.

I think its worth noting that many stoves emits most of their room heat as radiant heat that does not depend that much on heating the air, and hence will work in a well ventilated room. Indeed, I find this more comfortable.
( I often leave my east facing back door open, even on winter mornings (the dog loves this too) and the kitchen still remains warm due to radiant heat of stove)

Evenidonhnaill

I know there is a high probability that these questions are probably answered on this thread somewhere but so many posts to scroll through.

Im hoping to get a stove put in my existing fireplace as soon as I can get the money together and wondering what my options are in terms of low cost stove that provides a decent amount of heat.

An issue I foresee is that the cast iron surround on my open fire the hood isn't a straight cut so possible it would need to be cut to insert a stove? has anyone had to get this done was it expensive or is there other options like putting in a metal panel between stove and fire?

Is the best option to go for an insert stove are they cheaper to install or roughly the same price?

By rough calculations i need appox a 4kw stove but is it worth my while getting say a 6kw stove and leaving my sitting room door open so heat can filter into other rooms? ( I have a 3 bed semi) a boiler stove isn't an option for me unfortunately

and lastly any recommendations on a low cost stove option and ball park figure would be really appreciated

Big Nasty

Hey folks. Looking for recommendations on a double sided multi fuel stove. This is the type of look I'm going for:



Opinions on this lad?

http://www.thestovedepot.ie/index.php?id_product=185&controller

Harry Palmr

I have a very old gas powered back boiler which is decommissioned due to it's decrepit condition, I've been pondering the replacement of same for some time but with a solid fuel stove.

So I'd have to remove and dispose of old boiler, buy and install solid fuel stove - looking at a small unit of about 5 KW output, would the chimney need lining? Anything else I need to think about? In terms of costs the price of replacing a back boiler looks to be no cheaper than installing a stove and while I'd lose heat to the radiators I have an electric immersion heater so that's not a problem.

What should my budget be?

Dolly-Lu

Hello there,

I could get your opinion/advice on a stove that we had installed by another company last November. To make a long story short, they didn't do a great job. The stove is not level. This was only noticed after the builder cladded the chimney in vermiculite brick effect fire boards.The stove not being level is even more obvious now. The builder also didn't do a wonderful job on installing the fire boards..as he didn't use corner bricks on the corners and the joints between the boards are cracking from the heat.
To be honest, I just want to get the stove and chimney breast sorted.

We would like to get the stove level and also sort out the chimney breast in some way. We had a problem with the plaster board cracking on the chimney breast before the fire boards were installed. We wanted a seamless flush crack free chimney breast surround around the stove.If this cannot be achieved, what options would we have with regards to cladding the chimney breast in some way.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. If you know anyone that you could recommend that could help, please PM me.

Thank you.

Harry Palmr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

......... In terms of costs the price of replacing a back boiler looks to be no cheaper than installing a stove and while I'd lose heat to the radiators I have an electric immersion heater so that's not a problem.

Surely having no heat to the rads is a problem ? The immersion won't heat rads, only the water.

Harry Palmr

Small bungalow, I use electric and would also use the heat from the stove to percolate heat around the house.

Big Nasty

Big Nasty wrote: »

Hey folks. Looking for recommendations on a double sided multi fuel stove. This is the type of look I'm going for:



Opinions on this lad?

http://www.thestovedepot.ie/index.php?id_product=185&controller

Anyone?

Shefwedfan

Hi, I am looking for some advice. I am moving into house in next few days and there is 2 stoves installed. I haven't had a stove before.

One is standalone stove to heat a room. Its not huge but no idea how to check make/model.

The second one is massive. It is connected to the heating system to heat the house. Again no idea where to check make/model

I guess both are multi fuel. Any recommendations on what to burn in them? I read a few things and it said Ovoids but was wondering can you mix them as I think I will be burning alot :P

So Ovoids and standard coal?

I have a large shed so going to buy in bulk to do for winter

Thanks

Attached an image of the bigger one

rpmcs

Looks like a hamco 30b

Shefwedfan

Ok, got another look at stoves. The smaller one is 8KW Green Stove. Doesn't seem to be a model or anything

Any idea if these are good?

Issue is with boiler/stove. I can't see anything to suggest make/model. I would have guessed like the Green Stove it would have something on back but nothing. Took some photos if anyone has any idea?

P.S. Please disregard the mess. Don't know who was the previous messy people but the cleaners are in tomorrow. Both stoves are same. Filthy

Joe1919

Shefwedfan wrote: »

... Any recommendations on what to burn in them? I read a few things and it said Ovoids but was wondering can you mix them as I think I will be burning alot :P

So Ovoids and standard coal?

I have a large shed so going to buy in bulk to do for winter

It take a while to get use to a stove. I would recommend only buying small quantities (e.g a bag or two) of different fuels until you see what works best.

BarryD

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Ok, got another look at stoves. The smaller one is 8KW Green Stove. Doesn't seem to be a model or anything

Any idea if these are good?

Issue is with boiler/stove. I can't see anything to suggest make/model. I would have guessed like the Green Stove it would have something on back but nothing. Took some photos if anyone has any idea?

P.S. Please disregard the mess. Don't know who was the previous messy people but the cleaners are in tomorrow. Both stoves are same. Filthy

Looks like it's reasonably new and probably in good working condition. Give it a good clean and scrape away soot on inside parts you can reach. I wouldn't be bothered about apparent dirt; a bit of dust, ash and general mess is all part of using solid fuel for heating.

Light a fire in it and see how it goes, may smell a bit if it hasn't been used for a while but should dissipate with use. You may have to experiment a bit and have a look around to see if all the rads are working and cylinder is heating.

Fuel? Any coal based product will give most heat and output to rads and water. People often supplement with other fuels like turf or firewood, if they have cheaper sources of these.

Shefwedfan

BarryD wrote: »

Looks like it's reasonably new and probably in good working condition. Give it a good clean and scrape away soot on inside parts you can reach. I wouldn't be bothered about apparent dirt; a bit of dust, ash and general mess is all part of using solid fuel for heating.

Light a fire in it and see how it goes, may smell a bit if it hasn't been used for a while but should dissipate with use. You may have to experiment a bit and have a look around to see if all the rads are working and cylinder is heating.

Fuel? Any coal based product will give most heat and output to rads and water. People often supplement with other fuels like turf or firewood, if they have cheaper sources of these.

Thanks, I dont mind the dirt but it seems the previous owners might have been using them instead of bins by the looks of what was in the ash in both:(

I was wondering should I go ovoids totally or buy mixture to reduce cost a little?

I seen the bargains thread about orders from North so going to go that way and get in a lot for winter. Logs etc will be another days work

BarryD

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Thanks, I dont mind the dirt but it seems the previous owners might have been using them instead of bins by the looks of what was in the ash in both:(

Some people will throw anything in but it's not great. Burning anything plastic can just put all sorts of obnoxious gasses into the air you breath and too much paper just clogs up the grate with ash. Best saved for the bins and recycling. We burn a mixture of 'Country Blend', anthracite and firewood, if that's any help.

DamoKen

Hi, looking at getting a stove to heat just the one room.Got the KW calculation from a place we looked at them over the weekend. Salesman said minimum of 5KW to heat the room which is fairly large with vaulted ceilings and one wall made up of windows (old crap double glazing) from floor to ceiling, about 16ft high at the apex.

Anyway he also said rule of thumb is to go 2KW over the min to comfortably heat the room without having to overwork the stove. With that in mind he recommended a Kensal 40. Should mention the shop was north of the border, it's an English brand not sold in the Republic. Made in England, all the metal is cast there instead of being imported from China. Trouble is I cannot find a single review on Kensal in Ireland or anywhere else so only know what the salesman has told me. To be fair he recommend it over other pricier models they had. Price he quoted comes in under 1K in Euro including delivery.

Anyone any experience with the brand? Link to the stove is http://www.kensalstoves.com/stove/kensal-40-wood-burning-and-multi-fuel-stove/

Cheers

rpmcs

They are part of stovax/gazco range of stoves. Like many company's that stovax have bought and keep name.
They make good stoves and fairly good backup service parts etc
Most irish retailers that supply stovax/gazco would have or be able to supply these.
Would be very similar to the more popular stockton 8 stove from stovax also

BarryD

DamoKen wrote: »

Hi, looking at getting a stove to heat just the one room.Got the KW calculation from a place we looked at them over the weekend. Salesman said minimum of 5KW to heat the room which is fairly large with vaulted ceilings and one wall made up of windows (old crap double glazing) from floor to ceiling, about 16ft high at the apex.

Anyway he also said rule of thumb is to go 2KW over the min to comfortably heat the room without having to overwork the stove.

Looks like a standard enough design but don't know anyone who has one. We use one of these http://www.waterfordstanley.com/stanley-stoves/stanley-stoves/room-heating/solid-fuel/oisin-stove in a living room that is about 4 metres x 7 metres, with four double glazed windows, 8ft ceilings and it's more than adequate. Remember a bigger firebox will require more fuel and non boiler stoves do give off a lot more heat than ones with boilers. But if you have 16ft ceiling, you might well need more. I saw a Waterford Erin non boiler stove in one of those old large schoolrooms once, huge room with high ceiling and it was heating the room to an almost stifling level but maybe it was mild outside that day, I can't recall.

DamoKen

Cheers for the replies guys. Didn't know they were owned by Stovax, finding it quite difficult to find any info on them. Lack of information is putting me off a bit to be honest. We did look at the Oisin as well, guy in the shop said it's a good stove but it would struggle a bit for a room that size. He did suggest the Aoife as a comparable Stanley option although in terms of heat output he said the Kensal would be far superior partly due to bring 100% made in England including the casting.

youngblood

Should all chimneys be lined when installing a non boiler stove? Shop/installer said they would inspect chimney first and if it the chimney had cracks etc they would install a liner, if not they wouldn't


Any advice?

rpmcs

Totally correct. .If chimney is sound ..no need for liner.

youngblood

Thanks, thought he might have been a gangster/chancer! Anything else I should be checking out (presuming I've got the right stove 6.6kw to room)?

BarryD

DamoKen wrote: »

.....He did suggest the Aoife as a comparable Stanley option although in terms of heat output he said the Kensal would be far superior partly due to bring 100% made in England including the casting.

The latter sounds like a bit of sales patter!

DamoKen

BarryD wrote: »

The latter sounds like a bit of sales patter!

Aye, bit of a price difference between the two so the thought did occur that he may be saying that to justify it. At the same time I would expect to pay a good bit more for a stove cast in the EU as opposed to China and to see a noticeable difference in long term build quality so grain or two of salt.

Just wish I could find a few reviews to back it up!

Shefwedfan

Is there a cleaner that you use for the front glass? something you can buy in shops/ebay?

Odyssey 2005

A wet piece of newspaper dipped in the ashes from the fire and give it a rub of that. Polish off with a clean piece of newspaper. Works for me..

mikehn

Looking for advice, we had a chimney fire and need to rebuild the chimney.
We had an open fire with a back boiler, two flues in the stack serving our living and sitting rooms. the work is due to commence in about 10 days but I am worried about the flue set up. We are taking out the back boiler and installing a Stanley Oisin with boiler. I have been told that the best approach is to put in an 8" flue with a 6" liner and fill around liner with vercimulite. The liner will hang from a cowl on top. Why not go with a 6"flue ???? I am worried about the liner in term of cleaning the chimney. Any suggestions, pro's and con's would be really be appreciated. Thanks