Wood burners, big or small?

[sid]

Thanks for the link.

[BIG MAC]

[quote user="Théière"][quote user="BIG MAC"]

When you say insulate the cellars have you thought that out fully? We are converting our cave into our winter snug and putting a woodburner in it. If you think about it...pipes which are far enough underground....don't freeze. Ground source heating is well known. We intend to insulate to promote stability of temperature in the cave but are more concerned with insualting upper floors [/quote]

Whilst pipes under sufficient ground don't freeze, they certainly don't stay at a temperature that would support human life. Obviously depending on the stone the cave is constructed from will have some effect but being surrounded on all sides by damp earth will mean uninsulated all the precious heat will be lost in no time. Ground source heating works because a large area of heat pipes feeds a small area of living space and that has to be very well insulated.

[/quote]

My point being that a Cave actually can have stable temperatures and due to its location once insulated can offer very decent living accomodation. Ground source in my case would equate to a wall area of some 24m2 all more than 1.2 metres below ground and on two sides below adjacent buildings, I also have about 36m2 floor area..my balon and bathroom are down there...to date we haven't had a burst or the toilet in the loo freeze....and we don't heat the area at all...

Suspended floors ...carpets blowing up etc. absolutely as the solum / undercroft would be very well ventilated to prevent damp.....once however you have isolated / tanked the damp out ...you don't need to much ventilation and a heated cave  should make the rooms above much more comfortable. I am looking to get value from the heat we create and allowing it to rise through an ontherwise well insulated building seems to make sense to me.....

[Kitty]

I have two woodburning stoves in France and two in the UK.  I love the heat that they produce.  We don't empty the ash very often as wood burns better on a bed of ash.

The larger ones are so much easier as they don't need feeding as often.  In the UK, we weren't allowed to install large wood burners - the registered installer was only allowed to sell and install ones that only take 8 inch logs, which means feeding the fires every 30 mins or so.

In France, we have stoves that take half metre logs, which are fabulous.

A chimney sweep comes every year to take care of any tar problem.

The BEST feature is that I spent extra (in France) to buy one that sends the hot air into the room rather than up the chimney.  This is a GOOD IDEA.  Our (Godin) stove without a fan at the back does not give out as much heat as the (Supra) stove with the fan.  The fan is not electric and makes no noise. Once hot, the air is fanned into the room through vents that are incorporated into the stove.  Somebody on the Forum might explain how it works - is it convection?  I wish all of my stoves did this and if I was buying again, I would definitely buy one with this feature.

Another tip:  get a stove that isn't low on the ground.  It's far easier to fill one that has a wood store underneath.  This lifts it off the ground and so there is less bending.  Link below:

http://www.supra.fr/nos-solutions/poeles/boston-2-110661.html

[AnOther]

Obviously it will depend on the room sizes and layout but the only point I would make about using a burner of that size in that way is that once in full flow you might find it almost impossible to remain in the same room with it and I think you'll be needing more than an 'odd blast' to do what you want. Assuming you buy a decent one with a bit of substance and weight to it even throttled back the retained heat from a 'blast' will take a fair while to dissipate.

We have CH and the house is essentially single storey and well insulated but we do a similar thing by leaving the doors open to the rooms we use in Winter, principally the study, and main bedroom. We have an 11kw Godin in the far corner of a living room of about 5m x 7m and if we keep it stoked to actually produce sufficient output to percolate around the other rooms we certainly need to sit well away from it to avoid being roasted.

The fan idea is a good one. We have experimented with using our fairly large floor standing Summer cooling fan to push some warm air down to the rest of the house and although it works the noise is a bit intrusive.

[img]http://www.susitnaenergy.com/img/prod/153_141111692005712.jpg[/img]

[nikibe]

I am looking to buy a wood burner with a back boiler for a small house I am renovating. Any suggestions as to makers?