Multi fuel wood burning stoves

[geraldthehamster]

There seems to be a lot of variation in price, for the same
kilowattage. Would anyone care to recommend a make, in the 5-8 kW
range? What is the Miele of multifuel stoves?

Cheers
Richard

 

[Birkenside]

Richard
Have a look at stovesonline which give alot a good description of lots of stoves, also try navitron forum there is a section on solid fuel this might help

Best regards
Birk

 

[Jonathan]

There seems to be a lot of variation in price, for the same
kilowattage. Would anyone care to recommend a make, in the 5-8 kW
range? What is the Miele of multifuel stoves?

Cheers
Richard

We have a Super Demon Boiler from the Hellfire Combustion Company.It
produces 60,000 BTU/hr on wood and 75,000 BTU/hr on solid fuels. It
has a back boiler and will heat up to 15 (I think) radiators.
Excellent machine.

Regards

Jonathan

 

[Rob]

There seems to be a lot of variation in price, for the same
kilowattage. Would anyone care to recommend a make, in the 5-8 kW
range? What is the Miele of multifuel stoves?

Cheers
Richard

I've got a Morso stove in the living room, marvellous - well built and
seemingly efficient as these things go.

Rob

 

[harry]

There seems to be a lot of variation in price, for the same
kilowattage. Would anyone care to recommend a make, in the 5-8 kW
range? What is the Miele of multifuel stoves?

Cheers
Richard

Anything from Norway/Sweden. You mostly pay for fancy ironwork, some
of which is quite fragile. "Flamewashing" doesn't work.

If you can, go for a "roomsealed" one, ie draws air from outside
directly into the stove. These avoid drawing cold air into the room.
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/external-air-stove.html

 

[Ronald Raygun]

We have a Super Demon Boiler from the Hellfire Combustion Company.It
produces 60,000 BTU/hr on wood and 75,000 BTU/hr on solid fuels. It
has a back boiler and will heat up to 15 (I think) radiators.
Excellent machine.

If someone asks for a recommendation for a small runabout car for
urban commuting and shopping, please bear in mind that it's not
going to help the enquirer much if you tell them how happy you are
with your 4x4 with a tow hook that will take a trailer in which you
can carry 15 weeks' worth of shopping.

So here we have someone asking about stoves in the 5-8kW range,
and you wax lyrical about a stove which gives 60-75 kBTU/h, which
is around 20 kW. Duh.

Someone else mentioned Morso, which I would endorse. They make a
range of multifuel stoves from just under 5 to just over 10 kW.
Many of their models are named after animals, and I used to have
a Squirrel, which is the baby of the range. Very happy with it.
They make a variant of this which is approved for the burning of
wood in smoke control areas.

Don't know about the "Miele" aspect, but they're pretty rugged.

 

[Tim Lamb]

In message

Anything from Norway/Sweden. You mostly pay for fancy ironwork, some
of which is quite fragile. "Flamewashing" doesn't work.

If you can, go for a "roomsealed" one, ie draws air from outside
directly into the stove. These avoid drawing cold air into the room.
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/external-air-stove.html

Not a recommendation but a couple of points....

Fire bars used for multifuel are more expensive as they are said to need
chrome steel.

Heat output to the room is seriously diminished by back and side
boilers.

We have a stove from Clearview (Shropshire), welded steel, underfloor
draft option and airwash.

In my experience, airwash does work. The glass accumulates a grey finish
over several weeks constant use. This can be readily scrubbed off with
washing up liquid and sponge. Dry, mainly hardwood fuel. Previous
experience with glass doors was black soot requiring pot scouring.

regards

 

[geraldthehamster]

Thanks (with one obvious exception) for the replies.

I've been sort of offered a Stovax Sheraton in need of refurbishment,
which on the face of it looks plausible if the price is right. I won't
be using a back boiler. I'm intending to use it as a backup to our
bottled gas central heating boiler (no mains gas out here). Next
winter if I can avoid using the boiler so much, maybe it'll cost me
less than the £400 quid I spent on gas in December just in keeping the
house warm.

Then there's the question of fuel - where do stove users on the list
get theirs from? I suppose it would be handy to make friends with a
few tree surgeons. I've considered turning half my garden into an ash
coppice, but from what I've read on the amount of land needed, I'd be
very far from self-sufficiency, though it might make a contribution.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Dave Liquorice]

Heat output to the room is seriously diminished by back and side
boilers.

Yeah but then you have heat which you can move to other parts of the
house and not just have one room a Death Valley temperatures and the
all the others with ice on the windows. B-)

 

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thanks (with one obvious exception) for the replies.

I've been sort of offered a Stovax Sheraton in need of refurbishment,
which on the face of it looks plausible if the price is right. I won't
be using a back boiler. I'm intending to use it as a backup to our
bottled gas central heating boiler (no mains gas out here). Next
winter if I can avoid using the boiler so much, maybe it'll cost me
less than the £400 quid I spent on gas in December just in keeping the
house warm.

join the club mate. Bottled gas is however bloody expensive.

Buy oil ant much cheaper these days y'know.

Then there's the question of fuel - where do stove users on the list
get theirs from? I suppose it would be handy to make friends with a
few tree surgeons. I've considered turning half my garden into an ash
coppice, but from what I've read on the amount of land needed, I'd be
very far from self-sufficiency, though it might make a contribution.

Aye, there's the rub. With what estates do provide wood now running out
on a regular basis, and the smell of woodsmoke a lot more prevalent than
it once was, wood is no longer a cheap fuel.

The average output of land used for biofuel is about 100mW per square
meter. Given you probably need about a KW for a house on average, that's
something like a hectare.

 

[Tim Watts]

Ronald Raygun ([email protected]) wibbled on Tuesday 04 January
2011 10:06:

If someone asks for a recommendation for a small runabout car for
urban commuting and shopping, please bear in mind that it's not
going to help the enquirer much if you tell them how happy you are
with your 4x4 with a tow hook that will take a trailer in which you
can carry 15 weeks' worth of shopping.

So here we have someone asking about stoves in the 5-8kW range,
and you wax lyrical about a stove which gives 60-75 kBTU/h, which
is around 20 kW. Duh.

On that note, I'm happy with my Aga Little Wenlock Classic.

Technically it burns most fuels, except for house coal (too tarry) and
petrocokes (too hot).

But in reality, it is best with anthracite, or better, high quality
manufactured fuels (eggs) as you can't get much wood in it so it needs
refuelling extremely often compared to burning phurnacite where it will burn
flat out for a couple of hours or upto about 10 hours on slumber.

Thus, to the OP, I would recommend the biggest stove that will fit with a
decent sized grate and ashpan so you can get a sensible amount of wood in if
required.

Cheers

Tim

 

[John]

There seems to be a lot of variation in price, for the same
kilowattage. Would anyone care to recommend a make, in the 5-8 kW
range? What is the Miele of multifuel stoves?

Cheers
Richard

A lot will depend on your installation. Do you need a freestanding or
inset stove? What age is your house and what style will match it?
I've had 2 stoves in different houses.
The first was a Clearview. That was great. I used it as my main heat
source and worked it hard. I replaced the usual consumables (door
seal, firebrick liners and a baffle plate) after about 6 years
although some weren't really necessary.
My current stove is a Stovax Riva 55. It''s an inset stove of about
8kW. It needs 2 baffle plates a year and isn't a patch on the
Clearview. I suspect it's built more for style than function.
You say you want 5-8kW. Where do you get this figure? If you look at
the standard calculation used by the majority of suppliers, it simply
uses the room volume to work it out. This ignores insulation levels,
draughts, etc. It also assumes a max achievable temp difference of
only 20C. In other words, that's the best you will get after the
stove's been running for ever. We've been dropping to -10C easily
recently. I installed a stove that was double the calculated room
value. Admittedly it was into a 250 year old house but I never
regretted going up in size. You can always turn it down or do what I
did and open the doors to the rest of the house.

John

 

[Ronald Raygun]

Then there's the question of fuel - where do stove users on the list
get theirs from?

Local distributors.

I suppose it would be handy to make friends with a few tree surgeons.

Perhaps, but the beauty of multifuel stoves is that they don't just burn
wood. Wood gives a nice pretty effect but has a low specific heat which
means you need to feed the stove quite often. If you want heat with less
fuss, the stuff to burn is one of the manufactured solid fuels, like
Homefire or Phurnacite, then the stove will keep going 24/7 while needing
attention only 2-3 times a day.

 

[geraldthehamster]

join the club mate. Bottled gas is however bloody expensive.

Buy oil ant much cheaper these days y'know.


Aye, there's the rub. With what estates do provide wood now running out
on a regular basis, and the smell of woodsmoke a lot more prevalent than
it once was, wood is no longer a cheap fuel.

The average output of land used for biofuel is about 100mW per square
meter. Given you probably need about a KW for a house on average, that's
something like a hectare.




- Show quoted text -

I read somewhere recently, in one forum or other, that you;d need
about 10 acres to be completely self-sufficient for a 3-4 bedroom
house. Fortunately I' not aiming to be self-sufficient. With the space
available I reckon I could grow 100 trees and still have some garden
left, but on (for the sake of argument) 5 year rotation for ash, that
would mean I was only coppicing 20 trees a year - say 100 poles if I
was lucky.

Cheers
Richard

 

[geraldthehamster]

A lot will depend on your installation. Do you need a freestanding or
inset stove? What age is your house and what style will match it?
I've had 2 stoves in different houses.
The first was a Clearview. That was great. I used it as my main heat
source and worked it hard. I replaced the usual consumables (door
seal, firebrick liners and a baffle plate) after about 6 years
although some weren't really necessary.
My current stove is a Stovax Riva 55. It''s an inset stove of about
8kW. It needs 2 baffle plates a year and isn't a patch on the
Clearview. I suspect it's built more for style than function.
You say you want 5-8kW. Where do you get this figure? If you look at
the standard calculation used by the majority of suppliers, it simply
uses the room volume to work it out. This ignores insulation levels,
draughts, etc. It also assumes a max achievable temp difference of
only 20C. In other words, that's the best you will get after the
stove's been running for ever. We've been dropping to -10C easily
recently. I installed a stove that was double the calculated room
value. Admittedly it was into a 250 year old house but I never
regretted going up in size. You can always turn it down or do what I
did and open the doors to the rest of the house.

John

I calculated the value needed for the room at about 2 1/2 kW, but the
room is open to the hall and has the stairs in it as well, so I want
the heat to heat more than just the room that the stove will be in.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Jim K]

Local distributors.

who will be friendlyly charging you £50 odd per dumpy bag ;>)

Perhaps, but the beauty of multifuel stoves is that they don't just burn
wood. Wood gives a nice pretty effect but has a low specific heat which
means you need to feed the stove quite often.

If you want heat with less
fuss, the stuff to burn is one of the manufactured solid fuels, like
Homefire or Phurnacite, then the stove will keep going 24/7 while needing
attention only 2-3 times a day.

as you trot in and out with buckets of red hot ashes.... and hoover
the coal dust out of the carpets, and wash your hands every time you
touch it - horiible filthy dusty stuff!

IME we have to feed/tend it *more* when we burn coal based stuff.
This winter we're using coal up before an outhouse gets knocked down -
our usage of fiirelighters must have tripled through 1) extra starting
heat required 2) false starts and 3)unexpected extinguishments
requiring later relighting.

With wood :- 1/2 a firelighter *per day*

1 X Franco Belge (sp) 8kw
1 X EFEL (Foundries Lyonnaise) 10kw

MUCH prefer the latter - better built, better control

Airwash works on both when burning wood, best on latter
(don;t believe you can airwash glass doors when burning coal as needs
bottom fed air thru grate)

Jim K

 

[andrew]

There seems to be a lot of variation in price, for the same
kilowattage. Would anyone care to recommend a make, in the 5-8 kW
range? What is the Miele of multifuel stoves?

Cheers
Richard

Another vote for Morso - they are massively better than anything else
we've tried in terms of ease of lighting, ruggedness and reliability.
Clearviews look really good too, but are much more expensive.


A

 

[Jim K]

I read somewhere recently, in one forum or other, that you;d need
about 10 acres to be completely self-sufficient for a 3-4 bedroom
house. Fortunately I' not aiming to be self-sufficient. With the space
available I reckon I could grow 100 trees and still have some garden
left, but on (for the sake of argument) 5 year rotation for ash, that
would mean I was only coppicing 20 trees a year - say 100 poles if I
was lucky.

Cheers
Richard

mmm so how much wood "in the pile" would that give you - in m3 or
dumpy bags worth?

Jim K

 

[geraldthehamster]

mmm so how much wood "in the pile" would that give you - in m3 or
dumpy bags worth?

Jim K- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Not a fat lot I don't think.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Ronald Raygun]

as you trot in and out with buckets of red hot ashes....

Your ashes should never be red hot except after riddling. You should
empty the ashpan *before* riddling, when it will have had 8-12 hours to
cool down from the last riddling.

My routine was to remove the full ashpan and put it down underneath or in
front of the stove, onto the (relatively) cool hearth plinth for 20 mins
or so while making breakfast. Then they were cool enough to be tipped into
a plastic bin. Then replace ashpan, riddle, top up fuel. Without this
cooling-down step, the ashes would have had to be tipped into a metal
bucket first, which generates quite a bit of dust.

and hoover the coal dust out of the carpets,

True, alas. Better not to have carpet near the stove.

and wash your hands every time you
touch it - horiible filthy dusty stuff!

Try gloves.

IME we have to feed/tend it *more* when we burn coal based stuff.

That would have been the case if you used e.g. Coalite which is very light,
or even actual coal. You need the dense stuff like Ancit or Phurnacite.