Stove advice

Katie9

Hello! I live in Donegal in a small older bungalow, currently under renovation. Hope to put in a stove and run rads/hot water from same, altho' I've received mixed advice re. whether it's worth running rads off the stove, as I'm at work all day and usually not home before 6pm. There will be 17-20 rads, depending on how many single/double rads I end up with! Getting very mixed advice re. what stove brand to choose. I'd like a contemporary looking model, with clear view of the fire. One plumber strongly recommended Stanley Reginald. Current plumber not a fan. As I had an awful summer dealing with a 'cowboy' builder whom I eventually let go, I hope I'm luckier with the plumbing work! Reviews of stoves vary, no clear winner obvious! Would appreciate any, and all, advice ðŸ˜႒

gutteruu

I bought the Boru Carraig Mor 20kW about a year ago (made in Thurles). Best thing we ever bought. Works out cheaper to heat our house than gas or oil. This stove is probably too small for you tough as we have zoned heating.

We also get home about 6 ish. The big thing is we went for a steel stove instead of a cast Iron. Steel stoves heat up quicker (which suited us getting home late) but don't hold heat as long (Ours is still hot to touch the next day tough). We have a full tank of proper hot water from the night before up until about 11am the next day when it goes lukewarm.

What ever make of stove you go for ring around. I got the supplier list off the manufacturers and rang around. Saved about 400 quid from a few phone calls.

AckwelFoley

..the rehinald isnt big enough, either is the Boru mentioned above. For that many rads you need a 30kw stove amd there aren't many of them so choice is limited. You need minimum 20k to rads.. 30k stove knocks oit about 22k to boiler and 8k to the room.

That said if its a small bungalow im surprised you have that many rads so perhaps they're small ones

Katie9

Thank you both. Some of the rads are smaller in size. Re. dual zoning, is it a lot of work, and costly, for the plumber to install same? I suggested the zoning and he advised he wouldn't recommend it for my house, as rads not needed can simply be turned on and off. Also, re. boiler stove, a previous plumber had advised that the pipe work go up through the attic and down into the nearby hot press. This plumber, who seems to know his stuff, has advised that that can be done, but it's not the preferred method, better to track the pipes through the hall floor and enter at that height. Does that sound like good advice?

AckwelFoley

Katie9 wrote: »

Thank you both. Some of the rads are smaller in size. Re. dual zoning, is it a lot of work, and costly, for the plumber to install same? I suggested the zoning and he advised he wouldn't recommend it for my house, as rads not needed can simply be turned on and off. Also, re. boiler stove, a previous plumber had advised that the pipe work go up through the attic and down into the nearby hot press. This plumber, who seems to know his stuff, has advised that that can be done, but it's not the preferred method, better to track the pipes through the hall floor and enter at that height. Does that sound like good advice?

Yes. This plumber is right. Its better to track the floor.

gutteruu

Katie9 wrote: »

Thank you both. Some of the rads are smaller in size. Re. dual zoning, is it a lot of work, and costly, for the plumber to install same? I suggested the zoning and he advised he wouldn't recommend it for my house, as rads not needed can simply be turned on and off. Also, re. boiler stove, a previous plumber had advised that the pipe work go up through the attic and down into the nearby hot press. This plumber, who seems to know his stuff, has advised that that can be done, but it's not the preferred method, better to track the pipes through the hall floor and enter at that height. Does that sound like good advice?

The reason I said zoned is we use the 20kW stove for our 2,500 sq ft house and it works fine. It just heats downstairs rads and the heat from downstairs just goes upstairs naturally though big hall (you won't have that option). Stoves heats downstairs rads hot after about an hour, then i flick switch to heat upstairs rads for a few hours if needed. I didn't want to waste heat on empty bedrooms. Paying extra for zoned heating now can save you from heating empty bedrooms all year round.

It does sound like you may have a lot of very small rads. I may be corrected on this, but from memory, to work out what is needed, a 1.2 metre 'double' rad is 2kW. (newer rads are less).

I'm not a plumber, so don't take my word as gospel, but I remember having a lot of trouble trying to find all this out when we were looking.

Katie9

Many thanks. Including new rads, there'll be 6 large, 8 small rads, with some doubles in both sizes. Would Stanley Reginald fit the bill? A local stove supplier recently advertised Morso stoves. How does this brand compare?

AckwelFoley

Katie9 wrote: »

Many thanks. Including new rads, there'll be 6 large, 8 small rads, with some doubles in both sizes. Would Stanley Reginald fit the bill? A local stove supplier recently advertised Morso stoves. How does this brand compare?

Rough rule of thumb. 1 x 4ft panel (standard 520) requires 1kw so double panel of that size =2kw

MMeasure the rads and do the simple math to see what kw you need. Reginald boiler has output of 14kw I believe

Im going to guess you've too many rads to heat all with the Reginald

gutteruu

You can exclude the rads in the room with the stove as you will probably have them turned off

shnoz

hello all,
desperately need advice on a double sided stove. house is an old cottage with extension. extension has underfloor heating that has never worked v well. upstairs has radiators which we don't use v often. oil cost2.5k plus annually. so, to combat heat loss into the cold section of the house we are thinkingng of a double sided stove. it would be in small room that is always cold and we would hopefully start using, and the other side is into the hall. hoping that by doing this we would stop losing heat and reduce our heating cost

what i would like to know is what doulbe sided stove would you recommend? our local guy recommends hanley. we really don't have a clue so would appreciate any help. also the guys came out to take a look and didn't say anythign about a flue which worries me - the chimney prob dates back to before 1930s? thanks in advance

shnoz

ps stand alone, no boiler required

AckwelFoley

The underfloor heating likely works fine m 99% of the time people are unhappy with the underfloor heating it's not the system its the heatloss. Under floor needs to be on all the time, but for it to be effective you need very good insulation in the structure of the house You probably don't im assuming. The stove isn't going to solve heat loss but obviously it will give a more heat.. you absolutely need to look at lining the chimney of the house because of the age. Its unlikely to have modern retrofit construction and therefore not suitable for a stove. 1930s chimneys are brick built and not suitable for stoves. You will need to line the chimney with twin wall stainless steel.

ted1

A small old bungalow with 17-20 rads, can't imagine what a big one is like

shnoz

thanks ackwel. forgot to mention there is an old stanley range where we want to put the stove. i know they used it before we bought the house over 10 years ago, but it is cracked and virtually unusable now. if that range was used do you still think we need the chimney lined?
re insulation, the new part of the house is well insulated, but not the old part of the house which was more difficult to do due to solid walls and an existing structure.
thanks for advice

shnoz

is stainless steel lining of chimney a big/expensive job?

AckwelFoley

shnoz wrote: »

is stainless steel lining of chimney a big/expensive job?

The flue will cost roughly 300 quid, depending on how much you need ie.. 6 or 9 meters. Vermiculite fill around it is 30 quid a bag. The labour isnt a days work.

Dtp1979

AckwelFoley wrote: »

Yes. This plumber is right. Its better to track the floor.

Under no circumstances put both pipes under the floor. Only the return in the floor. The flow MUST rise up to the attic, and down to the cylinder. The cylinder MUST be higher than the stove also. Another very important point is the distance between the stove and hot press. How far is it?

AckwelFoley

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Under no circumstances put both pipes under the floor. Only the return in the floor. The flow MUST rise up to the attic, and down to the cylinder. The cylinder MUST be higher than the stove also. Another very important point is the distance between the stove and hot press. How far is it?

This is correct. I assumed we were referring to tracking floor for return.

Katie9

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Under no circumstances put both pipes under the floor. Only the return in the floor. The flow MUST rise up to the attic, and down to the cylinder. The cylinder MUST be higher than the stove also. Another very important point is the distance between the stove and hot press. How far is it?[/quote

Thank you! I clarified with plumber and pipes will go up into the attic, into immersion and track through the hall to the stove via the adjacent bedroom. Hot press close to stove, no more than about 5 metres. Still have to decide on stove model, a daunting decision.

Invincible

Katie9 wrote: »

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Under no circumstances put both pipes under the floor. Only the return in the floor. The flow MUST rise up to the attic, and down to the cylinder. The cylinder MUST be higher than the stove also. Another very important point is the distance between the stove and hot press. How far is it?[/quote

Don't get a Stanley Reginald, friend of mine has one and its puffing smoke. I was in a large stove outlet in Galway lately and he said there was a design fault with them causing them to leak smoke into the room. He said he won't sell them anymore, he had to repaint a room for a customer because of smoke damage. Have you checked the Stratford eco boiler stoves?

Thank you! I clarified with plumber and pipes will go up into the attic, into immersion and track through the hall to the stove via the adjacent bedroom. Hot press close to stove, no more than about 5 metres. Still have to decide on stove model, a daunting decision.