im looking at installing a log burner in the conservatory to provide a heat source (no rads running off it etc).
the burner itself, im actually spoilt for choice, probably going to go for one similiar to this
http://www.stovemaes…6&product_id=75
and the flue system, along the lines of this,
http://www.flue-line…ternal/PACK-6-3
although i’d need another 1700mm from where i’d exit the wall to where i install at 45% to go straight up.
has anyone installed one, or even better if theres an installer on here i could use, or pick your brains???
any ideas or feedback welcome
thanks in advance
Ady
Ady,
My son runs a stove shop. It is based in Southminster in Essex but he can supply pretty much any stove and installation equipment via courier. He supplies to customers all over the country. His website is:
http://www.simplystovesuk.co.uk/
He has dealerships for many good quality makers. He does install but I think Doncaster is probably a bit far
.
Hi I installed a wood burning stove exactly 12 months ago this week. I checked out lots of stoves and eventually bought, after a few recommendations an 8 Kw Clearview Stove. It is one of the best buys I have ever bought. As I can get hold of broken pallets for free, I only use these for fuel. you may have noticed that most Stove manufacture res say you can only burn dry HARDWOOD on the stoves, Clearview Stoves say you can burn soft wood as well as hardwood on their stoves. It took me 7 days to fit my stove, myself, because I had to cut out an alcove from the chimney bt as there was hardly any space behind the open fire that I took out of the bt. Doing it myself cost me all in including hearth tiles, adhesive, the special board to line the alcove out with and the telescopic chimney to connect the stove to the clay flue liner, £1700. It would have cost me twice as much to have it done by a “professional”. As I live in a bungalow the heat from the stove in the sitting/ dinning room heats the rest of the bungalow up so that I have not had need to use the oil fired central heating for 12 months. I only use the oil condensing boiler for hot water now. I filled my 600 gallon oil tank up and on checking it every quarter during the year I estimate that this 600 gallons of oil will last me about 5 years just for heating hot water.
You can buy Clearview Stoves from the Manufacturer and also from a shop in Harrogate. If you ring up the Manufacturer you will get to speak to a young lady who knows these stoves back wards and is very helpful in answering any of your questions.
Just for a minute there I thought I had logged onto the B&Q website.
Sorry, but surely this is not the place for this kind of discussion.
if you have a look, its in the life, universe and (almost) everything else section, get off your pompous pedestal
All together now …
“Oh yes it is …”!
Read the top most line of the page.
This part of the forum was set up just for this purpose, so long as we avoid sex, religion politics and slagging off the mods and admins, pretty much anything else is fine
Fair enough. Apologies to the OP.
Just be aware, that in having a HETAS registered installer do the work you are covered for any problems should they occur and it may affect your home insurance should there be any incident that is attributable to the installation.
http://www.hetas.co.uk/consumer/certificate-of-compliance
Just something else to bare in mind…
Also, for a typical installation, you would expect to pay around £1700 - £2000 inclusive of fitting. Cheaper stoves start at around £299 and these are usually Chinese imports but a better quality say, Stovax which will have a 5 year warranty, around £600 - £800.
My nephew has some obscure named stove in his bungalow, it is a 12Kw one, and it was fitted by a qualified engineer and I have noticed every time I visit him, the glass front is always blackened with soot and also there is a slight smell of wood being burned in his rooms. A good make like the Clearview has a system that keeps the glass clean by forcing hot air across the glass, it does occasionally require a wipe with a cloth and burnt cold wood ash from the fire. I believe that the seals on my nephews stove isn’t as good as the Clearview as mine has never smelled of burning wood, even after I have recharged the fire. As they say" you get what you pay for".
thanks yet again
Yep agreed Polly. That is generally known as an “Airwash system” and is available on most good quality stoves. You do get what you pay for
.
Installing radiators in a conservatory means the structure changes to a permanent extension, and you will need planning permission/building consent. Not sure about stoves; they are independent of the main house heating, but do they have a means of turning off besides, not feeding it, or throwing water over it? Temperature control is, at best, crude.
not sure about radiators making a consv. a permanent extension, ours IS part of our house. no wall between kitchen and conservatory, always had a radiator in it.
iirc the mere fact that conservatories DO NOT HAVE A SLATE/TILED roof means you do not need planning permission.
very good point about insurance, ive just rang halifax home insurance, who have told me it DOES NOT AFFEDT YOUR house insurance, so long as its professionally installed
Hi, I have installed 3 now diy and bought the liner etc from fluesupplies.com, good prices, advice info on website etc. We are using an Aarrow ecoburn at the moment which is excellent, previously had a Stovax Brunel which was better (but no boiler option!).
I would spend a bit more on the stove than you propose and go for a uk manufactured brand with a better airwash. The chinese ones are ok, but you will have better redress if it say cracks in 4 yrs time. Having said that some of the chinese ones i have seen look the part.
I would say diy install, if any building regs issues will only be a prob if you come to sell the house, these can be dealt with during the conveyancing process if necessary.
My advice would be don’t get one that is too big, if less than 5kw you will not run into probs with venting. Make sure you use 6 inch pipe to comply with building regs if you want to burn wood. A smaller stove running harder is better than a large one ticking over. Get a flue thermometer to get the hang of running it efficiently.
Fuel supply is critical, hard or soft wood is fine, but it MUST be dry / well seasoned and then burnt at the right temp. If too low then resins and tar etc will condense in the flue and could block it and or catch fire.
Make sure you have access to a good reliable source of timber before you go ahead, it should be guaranteed less than 20% water content by the supplier. Unless you have enough storage to dry it for a year or more.
Drop me a pm if you want to discuss further.
thanks terranut
after deliberation, im going to spend nearer £500 on the burner itself, if this means me having to wait a month or so for the insatll, TSBI. im still waiting for a price from the HETAS guy who came on tuesday
.( are they that busy? dont they want my money) i am going for a 5KW DEFRA model, to comply,
how does a flue thermometer work exactly, as in, running efficiently?
ive an endless supply of logs from work, i cut trees down for a living
and have some already seasoned under my big bbq in the garden, aswell as cut offs from fencing that we do almost daily
There a lots of people cropping up who are starting businesses cutting trees down and then selling the wood as they are cutting the trees down. In a large paddock next to my property a beech tree had to be cut down and the tree was sold off at £30.00 per bag and was obviously not seasoned timber. People were buying it and burning in some sort of fashion, lord knows how. I bought two loads and stored them in a ventilated garden shed to let the lumps of wood dry out. I weighed a piece of wood the day I got it and it weighed in at 3lbs 12oz. After 6months it had lost 1lbs 1oz of its weight. After 12 months it had lost another 6ozs. I started to burn it after 13 months and it burned away very quickly without a great deal of heat compared to seasoned soft wood. I have done checks with hardwood and softwood and have come to the conclusion that hardwood burns bright and hot but takes longer for the stove to get up to temperature than softwood does. Softwood seams to burn hotter and gets the stove up to temperature faster than hardwood but it doesn’t last quite as long. The time difference isn’t a great lot but is difficult to judge properly due to the size and shape of the sample wood. Overall I believe that softwood obtained from a good supply of pallets is better than buying hardwood straight from the tree as 98% of soft wood from pallets is seasoned wood, but not necessarily dry wood as they usually have been stored outside in the rain.
The problem with this is being able to collect the wood pallets and cutting and storing the wood in summertime ready for wintertime use.The time will come when there will be a shortage of wood for stoves and the price of wood will start to rise