Central Heating cookers

[powerdesal]

There may be some history on the forum regarding my questions but so far I haven't found it - my apologies if this has already been covered :-

We are considering installing a central heating cooker rather than a CH boiler only.

Wood burning is a requirement and we are thinking of a re-conditioned Rayburn Supreme from UK. As far as I can tell it would adequately drive our radiator requirements plus DHW.

I have been through all the normal arguments about log handling as the years go by but...........

The installation would need a substantial remodelling of the kitchen but that is not a problem, my main concern is that a Rayburn needs a vented system which, I believe, ''may'' be a no-no in France. Can anyone quote chapter and verse on the regulations.

Does anyone have a Rayburn installation in France ?

I am aware that there is / was a Rayburn dealership in France but, prices being what they are I suspect that an ex-UK price would be very much more attractive. Delivery is probably reasonable as No 1 son is manager of a transport company who operate throughout UK and Europe.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences that are relevant ?

We have good memories of our Rayburn & Stanley experience when we lived in Wales and know all about the 'downside' of summer cooking - we used a second electric cooker.

[Chezstevens]

Powerdesal,

18 years ago we bought a Rayburn Supreme with the same rationale of C/H plus cooking. C/H was not effective, although kitchen, hall & sitting room were warm :)

We have replaced the Rayburn with an Esse Ironheart (to effectively heat space plus cook) & looking at a pellet boiler to augment & heat rest of house (250m2).

However, this idea has been postponed cos we are looking at another house.

The Esse Ironheart has been excellent at heating large space plus cooking (Mrs C was brought up on Aga's).

Hope our thoughts help.

[Oracle]

Maybe I can save you both some bother.

The main difficulty with this sort of arrangement is that you need some heat storage , an accumulator to make the system work at all.

That is to say that, certainly some of these back boiler stoves will produce a bit of heat, but they by and large go to heat up the room they are in and don't really distribute very well. Now if ther are plumbed into an accumulator then the heat can be controlled so that it doesn't get too hot in the kitchen and as much as is needed can be circulated around the radiators/underfloor or such. The trick is that most stoves need an indirect non-pressurised system and the radiators are usually a pressurised system so it necessary to have someone who knows what they are doing to make the two types of systems work together.

If you take the plunge and install this type of combi accumulation arrangement then it will work wonderfully well with what ever stove you have.

O

[BIG MAC]

Sadly a thermal store could cost a couple of grand for a decnt sized one but with a single pipe system correctly sized and insulated....could be good particularly if you put a solar coil in too. In theory you could have air source or ground source even electric able to charge the store. as it's indirect you could configure open vent to the combustion appliance and sealed system for heating ...

[powerdesal]

[quote user="Oracle"]

Maybe I can save you both some bother.

The main difficulty with this sort of arrangement is that you need some heat storage , an accumulator to make the system work at all.

That is to say that, certainly some of these back boiler stoves will produce a bit of heat, but they by and large go to heat up the room they are in and don't really distribute very well. Now if ther are plumbed into an accumulator then the heat can be controlled so that it doesn't get too hot in the kitchen and as much as is needed can be circulated around the radiators/underfloor or such. The trick is that most stoves need an indirect non-pressurised system and the radiators are usually a pressurised system so it necessary to have someone who knows what they are doing to make the two types of systems work together.

If you take the plunge and install this type of combi accumulation arrangement then it will work wonderfully well with what ever stove you have.

O

[/quote]

To some extent I would disagree with certain comments of yours,

I don't think the type of central heating cooker such as a Rayburn or Stanley can be arbitrarily dismissed as ''back boiler stoves'', that description would of course fit the smaller type of sitting room log burner that is fitted with with a boiler as an extra.

Heat stores ( accumulators ) are a worthwhile thought, in fact my previous design incorporated one that was ''charged'' by a pellet boiler and also had provision for a solar input.

The stanley cooker driven CH system that we had in Wales was a pump driven rad system ( as most must be ) because gravity circulation was not feasible in an old stone built property. It worked extremely well, in fact it was too good as the boiler capacity was too great resulting in too much CH heat when in cooking mode. If the temperature was ok for cooking the water boiled in the DHW cylinder and, of course if the CH temp was OK the temp was too low for cooking in the oven.

That system was designed and installed by a ''professional'', now I design my own systems.

My main reason for the opening post was a question regarding the French 'normes' in regard to open vented systems. I have a feeling that, as French DHW systems are non-vented, the use of a UK style vented system is interdit, I need confirmation of one way or the other.