wood stove efficiency, upsides and downsides.

[Phil Pascoe]

There is a fair bit of interest in stoves at the moment, as the weather gets colder and fuel prices go up yet again, so I thought I'd start another thread as my questions are slightly different and I don't want to divert someone else's thread. I'm looking to move house soon - we'll rent for a short while, then sit like vultures and wait for the bargain or I might build if a decent plot comes along - so I might be buying another stove. At present I have a Clearview which is now in the region of £1400, which is a great stove but if I'm paying that sort of money I've loads of choice. I've been looking at Dowlings, which appeal to me because I wouldn't be replacing the insides perennially which I now know would influence my choice - my Clearview was £920 ten years ago, but has cost me about £500 in parts so far. Has anyone got experience of welded stoves? I was led to believe that cast iron was the best, but the more I think about it welded ones have their appeal - surely it is a little illogical to line a stove with fire bricks, as the heat can only go through the door, the top or up the chimney - it can't go through the sides or the back, you are effectively insulating the body of the stove from the heat within it (I know why it has to be insulated - the cast iron would probably crack). Welded ones would be better for a quick blast of heat , such as needed on a chilly autumn or spring evening, and I suppose in a workshop when you're not going to be there for hours. Has anyone experience of uninsulated stoves? Has anyone experience of backboilers? Any nightmares? Any dreams? Anything to look into? Anything to avoid? If I end up building, which would be brilliant, I need to make my mind up at the beginning as other things need to be designed around it. (Swmbo doesn't know this yet!) Even in a workshop I would avoid a cheap Chinese pot belly - they are garbage.

 

[wobblycogs]

I'm really surprised you've had problems with you Clearview as ours has been completely flawless (admittedly it's only been going three years though). I imagine if you burnt coal you'd need to replace the grate after a few years but after burning only wood I can honestly say ours is as good as the day it was installed.

 

[Webby]

can only say when we were looking, looked at loads and bought a Stovax to early to say if it was a good investment as it is only 2 months old lol
but it does half chuck out some heat

Dave

 

[sparkymarky]

i piped up a back boiler on a dowling sumo yesterday, it's a ugly beast in the flesh (in my opinion) but my god does it kick out some heat, i only burned wet logs in it for 4 hours and it got a thermal store from 50-0c to 95-0c in no time at all. the sumo is very easy to control and is very well built, my only problem with the sumo stove is that the door glass isn't big enough to see the flames.

i can say that with a dowling stove you wont be replacing any parts in the near future, just some a can of stove paint to keep it looking fresh.

hope this helps seeing as i've had first hand experience with a dowling this week.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I like the idea of a thermal store, but not having stored hot water I would imagine that a fairly large secondary heat source would be neccessary when the stove wasn't lit - about 7 - 8 months of the year if I were in a well insulated house: I can't really see solar or ground source being adequate on their own. Our gas central heating is only used for maybe 4- 6 weeks of the year, the rest of the heating comes from the stove, so it tends to be kept in 24hrs a day when it's cold - which needs coal, which is hard on the bricks and gratings.

 

[Jacob]

We are going through this at the moment, and looking at the Sumo and heat store.
I'm doing a very high level of insulation and am wondering if economy 7 electricity is the summer solution? And occasional use of electric fans or oil filled radiators. Almost zero capital and maintenance costs. Well zero actually, if you make good use of freecycle/freegle.
Compared to £150 p.a. for maintaining a Worcester Bosch gas heater, plus the system installation - several £k.

Has anyone got experience of welded stoves?

Yes. 9 years of heavy use of a Dowling Firebug. Zero maintenance not counting breaking the glass which was our fault anyway. Compared to Morso Squirrel in previous residence - very nice heater but needed baffles and firebricks (£50 or more) every year.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Jacob, it was your Firebug that got me to look up Dowling. The problem with economy 7 or anything other than an actual boiler (which I'm trying to avoid) is that you are back to stored hot water again, which defeats the object of putting a backboiler on a Sumo. We need just about as much hot water in the summer as in the winter, and I can't be in a position that I have light a b........ great stove an hour or so before someone needs a shower. I haven't researched it, but is there a gas powered unit that gives the same sort of throughput? Back to boilers again I suppose.

Phil.

 

[dickm]

Bought a secondhand Morso Squirrel for our last house but one, moved it to the last house but couldn't really bring it all the way up here. It had a new back plate, and some new glass rope round the door, but nothing else in 15 years of fairly regular use. This house had an awful Vermont castings stove when we moved in, but (guess what!) we now have another Squirrel. Son-in-law had a Montrose in their house, but now has a Squirrel.
From which you may gather, we are Morso enthusiasts and would recommend them 100%.

For whole house heating, electricity in almost any form is a rip-off, and likely to get worse; unless you use the electricity for a heat-pump. It makes no sense but the Govt is probably going to offer 15-17p per kW "Feed in tariff" for heat pumps from Autumn 2013. Which sounds ludicrously generous, but................

 

[adidat]

the stoves Grimsdale suggested are pretty cool epically the sumo, my stove of choice i think.

adidat

 

[nev]

Have you seen the Dunsley baker neutraliser? may be a solution?
and if you're not short of a penny or two you should also maybe consider a soapstone wood burner. a bit pricey but much more efficient.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The neutralizer is probably good, but I'm trying to avoid stored hot water. The problem with the soapstone, and the Clearview that I've got at the moment is that they are insulated - by the time they are running hot, it's an hour after I needed the heat. Autumn and spring Cornwall is dark, damp and depressing rather than cold, so a quick burst of heat is needed - a bucket of offcuts, then the stove is left to burn out. The soapstone also shouldn't stay in overnight, which counts it out for me.
I may be trying to kill too many birds with one stone.

Phil.

 

[dickm]

Morso actually recommend that you don't try to keep the stove in overnight, and it's difficult with wood anyway. It's possible if you mix in some smokeless fuel, but, as with Cornwall, in Grampian the weather can change in minutes, so the key thing is to be able to light quickly when needed.