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Additional heating


KathyC
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Our house has oil fired central heating (as yet untested) and no gas connection. We are quite aware of (and use) mobile gas heaters and paraffin heaters but are looking for a built in source of heat in the living room to supplement the central heating, or to use in autumn and spring. We don't want to install a woodburner as although I could manage the work involved now, it doesn't seem to be a sensible choice when approaching retirement. If we were in the UK we would put in a gas fire, but then we would have gas central heating anyway.

I have been looking at poeles a fioul on the Deville site and wonder if anyone here has any experience of these or similar. I would be interested in knowing the pros and cons of these and any idea of costs to buy, install and run. This may be a very ignorant question, but do they run off the same oil that fires the central heating boiler? I have never seen them mentioned on this or any other site and wonder if this is because there is some problem with them.

 Thanks in advance.

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We have one (Deville) in the Nord pas de Calais: apparently, they used to be quite common.

Simple principle: the stove has a tank which you fill with red diesel. It gravity feeds, through a control valve into the burner. You light the bottom of the burner housing when it is damped with diesel and eventually, if you are lucky (more anon!) the flame goes from yellow to blue.

Throws out huge amounts of heat, although, most goes up the chimney!

Very expensive to run: it can easily eat 10 litres per day, of if you like, circa .54Euro at present. So it could cost you E5,40 a day.

Cost to install: needs a dedicated steel pipe chimney and if not already there, a stainless flue liner. Cost of the heater varies according to heat output, but range for circa E550 -850, I think. Plus installation, plus chimney/flue.

It is great, as a temporary measure, to warm up the house after it's been empty. It goes into the workshop when the oil-fired central heating goes in this year! Useful for slow cooking: we have cooked many a casserole on the hot plate for a day. Prepare the casserole, chuck it all into a cast iron pot, check it here and there for liquid but basically leave it for a day.

Downsides are these heaters require constant cleaning of the burner: which is a filthy job!

If the burner is dirty, then it won't light. If the wind blows down the chimney, then the flue balance kicks open and a nasty burning diesel smell permeates the house! The walls surrounding the heater become dirty.

Great during renovations and for workshops. Buy  either a modern Godin woodburner or one of the new wood pellet burners. Cheaper and cleaner: and far nicer, aesthetically, too.[;)]

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Thanks for the reply, I thought I wasn't going to get one! From your description, I can understand why nobody has one of these heaters. They sound awful. I was prepared to ignore the look if they were practical and effective but it doesn't sound as if there's anything to be said for them.

Unfortunately I don't think that a woodburner is a good investment at our age and my husband has a respiratory condition. Looks like we'll have to manage with mobile gas heaters or paraffin heaters for the time being while we ponder having gas connected.

Many thanks.

 

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If anyone has a respiratory problem, then personally, I would be against any form of non-flued hydrocarbon heater.

I suffer with mild seasonal asthma.

The problem with all heaters burning any form of hydrocarbon fuel (e.g. Paraffin, Diesel, Burning Oil etc.), is that they create circa 1.1. litres of water for every litre of fuel burnt!

If it isn't going up a flue, then it's going into the immediate atmosphere.

Have PM'd you re the Wood pellet Burners.[I]

 

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