Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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Treacodactyl
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Small wood burnerDoes anyone run a small wood burner? I looked at a few the other week and was surprised how small some are but wonder how they perform. Do they give out enough or too much heat for an average 12mē room? Are they more trouble than a larger stove, e.g. do they require more refilling and emptying?
I'm seriously considering running a couple of wood burners in our new house rather than central heating but I'm not sure of the practicalities - does anyone have a similar set-up?
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Mistress Rose
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I would suggest that you look at the size of wood they use. If you are cutting your own, not a major problem as you can cut to what length you want, although 6" logs take twice as much cutting as 12" logs. If you are buying in wood, please try to get a stove that will take at least 10" logs, or you might have trouble finding a supplier.
The other thing to consider is what do you want to heat. Some companies calculate the wood burner needed on the size of the room it is in. Fine if you only want to heat that room, but it might end up being a very small stove. If you want to use the heat for other parts of the house too, get a larger one and let the heat out of the door.
I don't know all the calculations, but we are firewood suppliers, and we have had a wood burner in our lounge, which we use as partial heating for other rooms for about 30 years now.
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sean
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How small are you talking? We've got a Cleaview Pioneer 400 which does most of the heating for the whole house.
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Nick
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We've a tiny one, about a cubic foot. It's useless. I suspect it can't burn enough to generate enough heat to shove the cold air up the chimney to allow it to get started.
The only way I get that room heated is the steam iron, and the heat she produces doing her chores.
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RichardW
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We have a 5kw Aga little wenlock.
You can get a decent sized log in it once its going well. Burning just wood it does not need emptying that often. Using to much paper to get it going does up the emptying needs.
This is my next door neighbors company linky if you are after quite small, dif features or UK made (in wales).
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Treacodactyl
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What sort of area does the Wentlock heat and are you happy with the output?
We currently have a large multifuel stove in the lounge and oil central heating. The plan is to rip out the rads, put something like an Esse range in the kitchen (cooking and hot water), replace the lounge with a smaller wood burner and then add a small wood burner to the other end of the house.
Log size isn't important really as I'll be cutting my own but some wood burners did seem tiny.
I'll probably go with a popular stove and one a local installer is familiar with, but before I do just wanted to get a few opinions.
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pollyanna
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The real problem with small stoves is not the length of the logs - that's easy to regulate - but the diameter of the logs. It is a real pain if you can't get good sized logs in. No chance of keeping it in all night if it can only burn small diameter logs.
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vegplot
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You should work out what your heat requirements are first (ideally you should perform some thermal loss calcs. based on wall area, material, windows etc.).
Smaller stoves have, in general, better thermal efficiency than larger stoves for a given output but the burn requires more attention as the fuel volume is smaller requiring more frequent reloads. A stove that is too small is worse, IMHO, than one that is too large.
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wellington womble
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We've a tiny one, about a cubic foot. It's useless. I suspect it can't burn enough to generate enough heat to shove the cold air up the chimney to allow it to get started. |
We've a similar tiny one, which heats the lounge adequately, and most of my (bog standard, bought) logs fit just fine. You can't keep it in at night, and it only keeps the one room warm, although it does keep the chill off house unless it's really cold. It would be perfect for an occasional fire to sit by of an evening, if your main source was in the kitchen. Having not ironed since I have been here, I don't know how it compares! It does seem to benefit from more regular sweeping, though.
The one in the kitchen on the small side, and worked fine to keep the house reasonably heated last winter, except for the absurd draft because the kitchen door is warped and won't shut. We have a small, terraced stone walled house, which is not hard to heat.
The huge wood burner in our last house was hard to control and also impossible to keep in all night, because it couldn't be damped down to burn low enough. I am not at all convinced it was correctly installed, through.
The clearview in the previous house was utterly brilliant - medium sized, plenty of heat to keep the whole house warm (was situated centrally) and easy enough to keep in at night. It was properly installed, though. I think that makes a big difference.
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