Room sealed stoves for airtight houses.

improv_12

Hi,

I am (still) to find a small room sealed dry insert stove with external air intake. The house is very airtight with a MVHR.

The room is 36.7 cubic metre. Output would be 5Kw max but even that might be too large.

More and more houses are being built that are airtight with high levels of insulation and MVHR. Therfore if you want a stove it needs to be low output and room sealed.

Maybe a couple of years from now stove manufacturers may have caught up but at the moment there seems little choice. The two specific passive house stoves I have seen are quite expensive (well over £1000).

Rika Vitra - passive 4kw.
The Milan 4 Passive - Wood Burning Stove.


There are a few other 'external air' stoves but when I investigate further it appears they are not totaly room sealed.

Morso s81.
Contura i4.
Dik Geurts instyle 400.
Stovax Riva Studio 1

Anyone else on here in the same boat and have any advice?

Putty Man

Hi, I was in a very similar situation and ended up going for a Charnwood Cove 1, with external air supply kit.

Assuming it is well fitted, the stove itself is very airtight. Much more so than the Inis Meann stove we also have in the house, which lets a draught into the room on a windy day.

Not sure if it would be to passive house standard, but I've never noticed any draughts, even when you can hear the wind blowing through it up the chimney.

The air control on it (Quatro Flow I think they call it) is absolutely fantastic, giving very finite control of the fire.

--- A scratch that, I just re read your post and noticed your after an inset stove.

Dtp1979

The Stanley Reginald has an external air supply but that's kinda big

improv_12

Thanks for the reply Putty Man. Yep, its an insert I am after. The Charnwood 1 might be worth a look if someone was after a freestanding stove so cheers for the tip.

improv_12

Hi Dtp1979,

Cheers for the post. Yep the reginald is a bit too big and I need and insert stove.

improv_12

Update: I am now looking at small freestanding Stoves that take all their air from outside.

Anyone know these:

Westfire series One
Morso S11 40

Putty Man wrote: »

Hi, I was in a very similar situation and ended up going for a Charnwood Cove 1, with external air supply kit.

Puttyman, does the Cove 1 draw any air from the room or is it totally from outside? Its areally nice looking stove (similar to the other two I listed above).

Cheers

Putty Man

Hi improv_12, as far as I can tell all the air that goes into the quattroflow system comes from outside, assuming you have the external air kit fitted. Might be an idea to send a quick email off to Charnwood support to confirm this tho.

You can see an explanation of Quattro flow here:
http://www.charnwood.com/QUATTROFLOW-air-management-system.aspx#

The kit comes with small length of pipe which fits into the stove on one side, and into the air pipe from outside at the other. It contains a little flap which only allows air from outside to inside, not the other way around. PM me if you 'd like any photos of the Cove 1.

I am not hugely experienced in stoves, but there is a marked difference between the airtightness of my Cove 1 and my Inis Meann. With the former being much more airtight and having much better air control when burning.

Wearb

I posted this reply in the wrong thread earlier.

I have no connection with this company other than a family member has a 25kw one and is happy with it.
The one below seems to have an external air option. They have others with external air options also. Check out the site and give them a call to see if it suits your situation.

http://yolastoves.wordpress.com/yola-tapered-back/

893bet

improv_12 wrote: »

Update: I am now looking at small freestanding Stoves that take all their air from outside.

Anyone know these:

Westfire series One
Morso S11 40



Puttyman, does the Cove 1 draw any air from the room or is it totally from outside? Its areally nice looking stove (similar to the other two I listed above).

Cheers

s11 is a beautiful stove. Have seen it lighting in my local stove shop and will be having 1 or possibly 2 in my new build.

Scartbeg

We are still scratching our head over this one.
There seems to be much less choice when looking at 5kW size stoves.

The most informative site I have seen is Stovesonline
This is a good rundown of which stoves are actually room-sealed, as opposed to just external air-intake.

We are currently leaning towards the Morso Viking, bit pricey at about €1600 as it is cast iron build, but more the look that we want. We don't want one of the "modern" looking stoves, of which there are plenty.

Previously looked at Stovax Riva Plus, and Franco Belge Montfort but they don't get a good report on the above site.

If I could be persuaded that absolute room-sealed construction is not necessary, just external air, then it would certainly give us lots more choice.

improv_12

Hi Puttyman, thanks for getting back. Sounds like it might be an option

.....I will see if Charnwood get back to my email too .....

Thanks Wearb. I emailed Yola a while ago and unfortunately their stoves also draw air from the room even with the external air kit.

improv_12

Hi Scartbeg,

Morso do have a good reputation and look like really nice stoves. Are you looking for a room sealed stove because your house is airtight?

The stovesonline website is really useful. The list of external stoves makes searching easier but there are probably a few stoves that could be addded.

Scartbeg

improv_12 wrote: »

Hi Scartbeg,

Morso do have a good reputation and look like really nice stoves. Are you looking for a room sealed stove because your house is airtight?

Yes, airtight with MHRV.
Apart from anything else, you need external air in case the MHRV failed, then insufficient air supply = carbon monoxide poisoning.

Whatever way we go, will have a CO monitor in the room, never know when your flue or air supply could be blocked. The one way flap mentioned above could be one such source of blockage if it failed.

improv_12

...I am with you on that.... I think in the UK carbon monoxide monitors are now required for new installations. I am not sure there is a requirement in Ireland yet though. I really wouldn't want to cut corners there.

improv_12

....OK I think I might have chosen a stove (Westfire Series One although the Charnwood Cove 1 is a backup option). The only thing is I would probably need to buy it in the North and get a local installer.......

Can anyone recommend a good installer in the Wexford area? One that has installed stoves in airtight houses?



By the way is there an official body that installers register with that I could maybe contact?

Robbie.G

The answer to your question is no there isn't a governing body.
There is a list of trained installers here
http://www.orielflues.com/training/attachment/oriel-training-academy-application-form-27012014/
You could start there and ring around for info

improv_12

thanks for that RobbieG