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Getting a bit of winter warmth going


Scarymary
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Can anyone advise us on how to install/where to buy/who to contact about installing a heating system based on our wood burning stoves? I remember some friends in Normandy installed such a system that consisted of a series of pipes that went up the chimneys and into the loft and blew hot air back down - but they've since divorced, he's disappeared and she can't remember!!!

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Hi,

This is quite a common way of adding central heating to your home. All the parts are available in the bricolages at the back end of the year, if you are considering DIY.  We had this installed 5 years ago.  The number of outlets for warm air depends on the width of your chimney and the layout of your house.  Because we have thick stone walls it was only feasible to have outlets for the warm air through the bedroom ceilings. Remember that your stove must be of a high enough heat output to cope with the task.  We find that the system is good but not as controllable as normal central heating systems.   We are now considering a back up system for when we are ill or too old to cope with chopping all that wood. I hope this helps.

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I am interfested in this system too.  Do you have more details, names of the parts or system, a diagram maybe?  We installed a water heating system in our wood burning stove which also has a radiator on it, so I think we could manage this.
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Note that the cost of timber for wood burning stoves is going up! We paid 25 Euros a stere 3.5 years ago, now the going rate in this part of Dept 79 seems to be 38 Euros a stere (Cut to 50cm and delivered.)......................John in 79
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Have just paid 50 euros a stere delivered but only cut to metre lengths, no probs as we have a saw bench.  This was advertised as summer price and others in the area have paid 60euros.  Buy before the prices go even higher.
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[quote]Note that the cost of timber for wood burning stoves is going up! We paid 25 Euros a stere 3.5 years ago, now the going rate in this part of Dept 79 seems to be 38 Euros a stere (Cut to 50cm and deliv...[/quote]

For budget purposes only, how big/what quantity is a stere?  And is this for a soft or hardwood?

Cheers

Del

 

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The cost of wood in north 24 this month for a faggot [about 30 slices from the outside of an oak tree, some quite thick and most about two meters long] was 27 euros without delivery, 33 euros delivered.  When we cut it and stacked it each faggot was about 1 1/4 cubic meters.  Hubby purloined some of it to mend the bottoms of the barn doors!  It is tough on the chainsaw though.

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sounds a good idea to pipe the heat through the house ,but, is it safe to put fumes from a chimney into bedrooms ??  doesn't some wood produce hazardous fumes, or even worse carbon monoxide ?

also, does anyone know about register plates to shut off the chimney, and should you have a flue that goes right up to the roof ??

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Kevin, thanks, but excuse me for being thick, how does this work ? and where can i get one ? where does the hot air come from if not from the chimney which would be full of woodsmoke ?  any help would be much appreciated as last winter all the upstairs was freezing cold.
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Most wood burning stoves would have a steel liner running up the chimney from the top of the stove. I am told that it is best if the liner goes right to the top of the chimney. Hot air from the outside surface of the stove, it does get very hot, also rises up the chimney as far as the blocking element around the liner. In our case this is a wad of fibre glass though some folk have a fitted plate. From here flexible metal tubes can be run to upstairs rooms or just a hole and grill back into the room where the stove is located. We actually blocked off the duct to the upstairs bedroom as there was too much hot air and in fact it has discoloured the wallpaper and singed the end of the bed!

Provided there is no smoke leakage from the stove, I replace the door seal every other year, you should not get any smoke upstairs.

 The liner needs sweeping at least once a year. My concern is that bees have made a nest in our chimney  between the liner and the chimney wall somewhere near the top and this is an annual event. With the liner in place you cannot sweep the chimney proper and I have fear that the liner might get so hot as to set fire to the nest. I am told that this is not likely as the nest is not close to the stove, I hope that this is right!..............John in 79

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Jem,

We had a Clearview stove in the UK, but did not use the facility I'm describing. Therefore it was a flat top stove. The stove was also available with a cowling, which sat over the flat top and provided outlets for feeding hot air into ducting.

In the end we left the stove in the UK when we sold our house, because it would have been totally inappropriate in our french house.

The stove was awesome, outputting more than 12kw of heat. We'd have to throw open every door in the house to allow the heat to disapate.

 

 

 

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Hi again,

After typing in a lot of information, the page disappeared.  Is there a time limit to adding a reply?

As promised, here is more information on the distribution of hot air from a wood insert.

Go to www.flamme-bleue.com  and go to page 2 les inserts,la distribution d'air chaud.

There are diagrams and explanations.   If you can get a catalogue from deville or Richard le Droff

the same information is in them. 

As I said before, all the parts are available in the bricomarches.

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OHelen, thanks to you and everyone else that has responded to my questions, I hope that armed with your comments,i will be able to sort this for the winter, and maybe get some brownie points from 'she that must be obeyed'  thanks again....
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  • 1 month later...

Blown air heating is popular in France when you have an empty grenier to run the tubes but it does smell of smoke and makes sooty marks on the ceiling and the fan sounds like a helicopter. Our French neighbours much prefer our hot water system.

 

Regards

 

Peter

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