Wood / Solid fuel burning stoves

What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?

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SunnyJim
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Post by SunnyJim »

Blimey! Thats rough Mr F. We've got a little Aarrow 6kw, eco-burn jobby. It's fantastic. Sorry to report that, but there we go. We haven't got a boiler in the back of it though.

I understand that it is much harder to build an efficient stove that puts out alot of its heat to the boiler. That lowers the temperature of the place where the fire is, which means lots of secondary gases don't get burned.

We have a rayburn for heating the house. We have a 3 bed well insulated house, and we probably used about 6 tonnes of wood over the winter. We were warm, it did all our cooking and heated the water. It is a little one, but in combination with a big DHW tank, works wonders. If you are replacing the Aarrow, you could do alot worse than buy an old solid fuel rayburn and run it on wood.
Jim

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kenneal - lagger
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Post by kenneal - lagger »

Sorry to hear of your problems Mr F.

We've got a Wamsler cooker which does the central heating and hot water with an inset woodburner in the living room for extra heat when it's really cold. Both work well.

If you want to go down the DIY route for a super efficient stove try

http://bioenergylists.org/stovesdoc/apr ... LO-RES.pdf
or
http://bioenergylists.org/stovesdoc/Pci ... stoves.pdf
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Helen
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Post by Helen »

Heyyyy RenewableCandy... LOVELY STOVE! I too am in the process of getting a Clearview Pioneer 400 for my 2 bed flat. I've been quoted a total of just over £2800 with flu, liner & instllation... bit of a stinger! I was expecting about £2000. Do you think the quote I've had is reasonable? Do you think I might be able to substantially reduce costs by having a local heating engineer install it instead of the Clearview stockist? I guess even if I could, I then wouldn't have quite the same after sales service...? Any info/advice greatly received...
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hardworkinghippy
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Post by hardworkinghippy »

We've a lovely six year old Godin wood cooker which we paid £1000 second-hand.

I was on a Permaculture design course a few weeks ago and while I was away somebody scrubbed the top with soapy water!! :roll:

Image

:x

I'll be OK - but what a daft thing to do...
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kenneal - lagger
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Post by kenneal - lagger »

Have you tried cleaning it with wire wool to get the rust off and then rubbing cooking oil into it. Works for woks, but it will smoke the first time used.
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hardworkinghippy
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Post by hardworkinghippy »

Thanks Kenneal,

That's exactly what I've done - except I used beeswax and I'll oil it today when I light it later to make sure the oil gets into the part I haven't been able to reach. I will keep all the doors and windows open bien sur!

Image

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Bedrock Barney
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Post by Bedrock Barney »

That looks like a cooker that's been put to good use!

Fired ours up today for the first time since May.

Image

I think I will be prepping for my signature dish later - flapjacks avec sultanas. :D
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1kvt396k
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Post by 1kvt396k »

Well it's been quite a while, but our woodburner's now installed. We went for the Clearview 500 - we also went for knocking down three walls and building an extension! Hence the long wait between asking all the questions and posting again. We think it was all worth it though. Here's a pic, sorry don't know how to post it on this site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vov858j/3547147356
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Post by kenneal - lagger »

1kvt396k wrote:Here's a pic, sorry don't know how to post it on this site.
If you upload a picture to a site like http://tinypic.com/ it gives you a URL for the image at "IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards" which you can copy and paste onto this site.
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biffvernon
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Post by biffvernon »

or leave it where it is on Flickr, surrounding the URL with img tags thus:
Image
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hardworkinghippy
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Post by hardworkinghippy »

In flickr, go to the photo you want then click on all sizes then choose the size you want the url (address) for posting in a forum is in the second box down. (The first box is for posting in a blog or website)

Then in the posting box at the top right click on Img and put the code between the Imgs

Image


If you mouse over any photo on the internet and right click then click on "copy the address of the image" you'll get this :

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3662/354 ... 1d7262.jpg?v=0

Take off the bit in red so that the address ends in jpg or whatever format the photo is in like this :
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3662/354 ... 1d7262.jpg

Then put the photo between the Imgs.
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hardworkinghippy
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Post by hardworkinghippy »

Oops sorry biffvernon - I don't type very fast ! :oops:

Lovely stove 1kvt396k - I bet you're pleased with it. :D
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woodburner
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Post by woodburner »

biffvernon wrote:or leave it where it is on Flickr, surrounding the URL with img tags thus:
Image

Ha! that's like mine. Installed without enough hearth in front of the stove, like mine, it won't meet building regs. I don't care though, I didn't put a liner in either :shock:
1kvt396k
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Post by 1kvt396k »

Thanks for all the help with regards to posting pics. I think I understand!!

Really enjoying our Clearview and we've had it lit pretty much every night since it was fitted, not that it's really cold enough but it's just so beautiful. Much more entertaining than watching the tv.....Can't wait for winter and some really cold weather. I just need to make a nice rag rug to put under our feet and we're good to go as our American cousins would say.
1kvt396k
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Post by 1kvt396k »

Forgot to say that the woodburner should have been sitting further back on the hearth with a top flue but there was some palaver about pipes and angles and it was easier to sit it further forward than planned.
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