How's your back boiler stove?

paddylonglegs

Decided to post in DIY hoping to find an unbiased, honest opinion from people who have lived with with a back boiler on their solid fuel stove.

I'd like to know if it has been a worthwhile investment and if its all its cracked up to be? Do you use a lot more solid fuel than you initially expected? Dies the stove make your room absolutely roasting and overheated?

We are looking into at the moment and understand the huge cost that is involved. I would just like to know if its worthwhile getting it. We have approx 10 rads to warm and it get absolutely freezing in winter in this old house.

Any info is greatly appreciated

TheBody

paddylonglegs wrote: »

Decided to post in DIY hoping to find an unbiased, honest opinion from people who have lived with with a back boiler on their solid fuel stove.

I'd like to know if it has been a worthwhile investment and if its all its cracked up to be? Do you use a lot more solid fuel than you initially expected? Dies the stove make your room absolutely roasting and overheated?

We are looking into at the moment and understand the huge cost that is involved. I would just like to know if its worthwhile getting it. We have approx 10 rads to warm and it get absolutely freezing in winter in this old house.

Any info is greatly appreciated

Hi there. My parents bought a brand new stanley cooker with a back boiler last summer. Their house is old with no insulation in the walls. They are running 9 radiators off it. In the winter months a raging fire is constantly on. The radiators get warm but not roasting. Not near enough to heat the rooms. The room with the range itself is boiling though.

PERSONALLY, I'd advise doing something with your insulation and consider oil.

laoch na mona

we have one and it works great we run 5 rads off it. We used to have a stanley 8 and the stove uses much less fuel to heat the rads

bbam

When building we put in a Hercules 30B stove. It has 100,000 btu output and heats 15 rads comfortably, many are doubles.
Big fire to start with and then just keep it topped up for the evening.
The room it's in is quite big, 15*30 but does get warm. We just open the door to the hall and more heat circulates upstairs.

Wouldn't be without it.

gutteruu

We got one last year after listening to everyone telling us to. Its fantastic. You just need to make sure you get the right spec'd one. Anyone who says they are not happy most probably spec'd the wrong size or wrong fuel I found. People tend to throw the best looking stove in and fill it with whatever fuel they have lying about then judge all stoves on that. A lot depends on your house and insulation aswell.

As far as I remember a 1.2 metre normal double rad is 2kW. The stove I got gives 4kW to the room. It heats my huge sitting room nice and 'warm' as it was slightly underspec'd for the room. Its not big enough to roast the room, but it is fine as I have the rads turned off in that room.

Then you choose between Steel or cast Iron. I got the Boru as its steel and heats quicker (as we get home late so need speed). Cast Iron will hold heat better but takes longer to heat.

Then there are the types of fuel. Depending on your fuel will depend on how hot rads are. Coal will melt it, turf will warm it. Turf is absolutely useless in my stove trying to heat 16kW of rads. Wood is fine, but needs to burn with a lot of air so means filling it constant and wood and moisture has huge differences. I usually burn coal, but we were told some stoves with back boilers won't last too long with coal without mixing it down with something else.

Might not be too relevent, but my house is 10 years old, insulated ok, 2500 sq/ft and a 20kW stove (4 to room, 16 to rads) has house nice and warm ALL day every day even though we put it on only at night. It heats all rads downstairs and heat naturally goes upstairs. I can zone it to heat upstairs if I choose. Costs about 35 euros a week in heat, burning coal and briquettes. I have a tank of oil and never used it all last year, even on the coldest days.

paddylonglegs

gutteruu wrote: »

Might not be too relevent, but my house is 10 years old, insulated ok, 2500 sq/ft and a 20kW stove (4 to room, 16 to rads) has house nice and warm ALL day every day even though we put it on only at night. It heats all rads downstairs and heat naturally goes upstairs. I can zone it to heat upstairs if I choose. Costs about 35 euros a week in heat, burning coal and briquettes. I have a tank of oil and never used it all last year, even on the coldest days.

That's some great info thanks. With regards to cost, it's very similar to what we spend on oil. The house 130 years old with 2 ft thick walls so we don't have it insulated, yet. I'm wondering would it be better off to spend the money on completely dry lining the house (approx 6k) or get back boiler in (approx 4k as we have to line chimney with new flu plus upgrade plumbing). It hopefully mean then that we wouldn't need the hearing on too much. The guy selling us the stove, a family friend, reckons it could be overkill if the house is insulated and have a back boiler too.

Need to continue with the research. Appreciate all the comments so far

gutteruu

paddylonglegs wrote: »

That's some great info thanks. With regards to cost, it's very similar to what we spend on oil. The house 130 years old with 2 ft thick walls so we don't have it insulated, yet. I'm wondering would it be better off to spend the money on completely dry lining the house (approx 6k) or get back boiler in (approx 4k as we have to line chimney with new flu plus upgrade plumbing). It hopefully mean then that we wouldn't need the hearing on too much. The guy selling us the stove, a family friend, reckons it could be overkill if the house is insulated and have a back boiler too.

Need to continue with the research. Appreciate all the comments so far

Its not easy to compare oil with stove. Its all about the 'thermal mass' with the stove. If I light the stove at 6pm till 12pm. The next day the walls around the stove will be warm to the touch as will most of the walls in the house. Its a gentle constant heat. I found with oil, I was spending the same but it was roasting, freezing, roasting freezing. Whereas now the house is constantly warm all the time. To get the same heat with oil would cost me at least double.

With your house you have huge thermal mass. A stove would probably work great, but cost wise, slabbing it out would nearly work better.

The only thing is, I paid 0.49c per litre for oil 5 years ago. I paid 1.07c last year. They are throwing a tenner a year tax on solid fuel, but its still nowhere near increases in oil. I couldn't imagine being able to afford oil in 10 years.

bbam

Remember that just drylining in the regular sence in your house may cause problems.
Your stone walls were made to breathe themselves, a time honoured construction method. Drylining on the inside can seal up the walls too much and condensation/damp/mould can become an issue..

Personally if I were insulating such a house I'd be looking at external insulation.. also older houses often have "cosy" sized rooms, loosing 4 inches all round can make them "more cosy".. If your house doesnt have exposed stone on the outside its an option..

paddylonglegs

bbam wrote: »

Remember that just drylining in the regular sence in your house may cause problems.
Your stone walls were made to breathe themselves, a time honoured construction method. Drylining on the inside can seal up the walls too much and condensation/damp/mould can become an issue..

Personally if I were insulating such a house I'd be looking at external insulation.. also older houses often have "cosy" sized rooms, loosing 4 inches all round can make them "more cosy".. If your house doesnt have exposed stone on the outside its an option..

Thanks bbam, yes I have engaged with someone for the insulation and there is a product available to allow the wall to breathe when dry lined and stop condensation. The ideal would be to externally insulate ofcourse but this is not possible with the budget I have.

Would like to hear if there are any other methods of taking the heat from a stove to other parts of the house. Some kind of convection system?

The Pontiac

We have an open fire with a back boiler.

Is it possible to fit a stove and use the back boiler as is?

I'd assume a stove would heat the rads more as the all that heat is going straight out the chimney?

AckwelFoley

The Pontiac wrote: »

We have an open fire with a back boiler.

Is it possible to fit a stove and use the back boiler as is?

I'd assume a stove would heat the rads more as the all that heat is going straight out the chimney?

In a word.. no. You can fit this to the fire from. It turns your fire into a stovr of sorts. It doesn't help with heat loss but it does help get higher I output from your fire due to better air control

http://touch.adverts.ie/heating/aillwee-fire-front/4092576

The Pontiac

AckwelFoley wrote: »

In a word.. no. You can fit this to the fire from. It turns your fire into a stovr of sorts. It doesn't help with heat loss but it does help get higher I output from your fire due to better air control

http://touch.adverts.ie/heating/aillwee-fire-front/4092576

Thanks for that. Looks interesting!

RubyGirl

The Pontiac wrote: »

We have an open fire with a back boiler.

Is it possible to fit a stove and use the back boiler as is?

I'd assume a stove would heat the rads more as the all that heat is going straight out the chimney?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=86455112
so helpful info here aswell.