[susanrich93]

I am trying to do some research, I just wondered if anyone had a solid fuel Rayburn /Aga ?
Do people with solid fuel rayburns also have another cooker aswell?
What happens in summer? Do you really fire up the rayburn?

[Lesley Silvester]

I have had one but not for a few years.

[SallyintNorth]

We bought a solid fuel Rayburn three years ago.  Best thing ever; no farmhouse should be without one.

[Buttermilk]

I lived with a Stanley for 30 years.  It was wonderful until it got warped and blown up by anthracite.

[susanrich93]

We bought a solid fuel Rayburn three years ago.  Best thing ever; no farmhouse should be without one.

We are hopefully buying a old farmhouse which has been empty for 10 years. It has electricity but not sure we trust it. There is also 6 acres of woodland behind the house. Thinking of trying to be as off grid as possible.  Solar panels for the roof. Bio mass boiler and solid fuel rayburn , however my thoughts are do people also have anot her cooker. Electric perhaps? ?

[william_wt]

We have a solid fuel Rayburn which is great, if you have plenty of wood (which you do!) and an hour or so to wait for the oven to make temperature. The hotplate is ready within minutes.
We generally don't use it in the summer, and have a normal electric oven for then. We do use it occasionally in the summer as we live in an old stone farmhouse that is quite cool even in the summer.
William

[susanrich93]

We have a solid fuel Rayburn which is great, if you have plenty of wood (which you do!) and an hour or so to wait for the oven to make temperature. The hotplate is ready within minutes.
We generally don't use it in the summer, and have a normal electric oven for then. We do use it occasionally in the summer as we live in an old stone farmhouse that is quite cool even in the summer.
William

Thanks William,  so really I need to decide if I really want two ovens in what will be a brand new kitchen. Also I think it is a fabulous idea do we can also run as many radiators as possible. The farmhouse is BIG and over three floors! Still not ours yet  but hopefully will have it in July.
I can imagine the rayburn being on 24/7 in the colder months so not a problem.
William can coal be added aswell?

[william_wt]

Yes, they can burn coal too, bit there may be a difference in the grate at the bottom for burning wood or coal. I've only ever used wood in ours.
If you're drawing the heat away to a lot of radiators then the kitchen won't get anywhere near as hot as it does without the back boiler. Ours doesn't have one so all the heat stays in the kitchen.
William

[SophieYorkshire]

If you're drawing the heat away to a lot of radiators then the kitchen won't get anywhere near as hot as it does without the back boiler. Ours doesn't have one so all the heat stays in the kitchen.
William

I'll echo that - our back boiler takes a lot of the heat away, and in reality should have been plumbed in to just a couple of rooms as it isn't enough to warm the whole house.

We also have a gas hob and electric cooker - wouldn't fancy fuelling the rayburn up in summer! 

[devonlady]

I have always had a solid fuel stove and would love one now! In Ireland I had a Wellstood with a hot water tank on the end. After we came over I had a Rayburn. Your baking, especially bread will taste so much better.
For the summer I had a Baby Belling which I found adequate for cooking for a family of five.
My sister has a very efficient wood and coal burning Rayburn which runs radiators in her 3 storey house with the help of solar panels. I believe her solar panels are actually making money for her now! (but I may be wrong, I often am)
If you have someone handy then maybe an outdoor oven for the summer. There was a thread on here some time ago about making one. I remember it because of the haunting song that accompanied the instructions, "Dark Island" so perhaps someone else might remember.

[Scotsdumpy]

Weve had rayburns and an esse wood burner in both of our smallholdings. In both cases we kept them burning over summer for hot water but we have an electric cooker as back up. My preference would be the rayburn - get the highest rating you can - don't get a bespoke wood burner as you may need to burn coal at some point - it's good to have that option. Don't think that because you have a forest on you land that you can just chop one down and burn it - in almost all cases the wood will have to season before you can burn it. There is a lot of work involved in preparing wood for burning. There are lots of forums and websites that you can reasearch for your final decision. Final bit of advice is that any solid fuel cooker will create lots of dust.....

[Penninehillbilly]

Final bit of advice is that any solid fuel cooker will create lots of dust.....

And it gets everywhere 
But i wouldn't be without our Rayburn,  only a small Royal, we run on wood, fire it up in the evenings, No electric heater for water, so we need it for that, it heats the water and runs one radiator on the landing, but the heat from the kitchen permeates the house when it's run 24/7 in the winter. Even summer evenings can get quite cool, so it takes the chill off for the night.
We have an electric kettle, which we fill with the hotplate kettlewhich keeps its heat into the next day, boils faster, and we have an electic oven and hob, but very rarely use them. But best to have something there.
(We also have a double camping gas ring, for if the electric is off and we dont want to fire the rayburn up, which may be a useful alternative if you don't want 2 cookers)
But we eat main meal in evenings, don't know what you'd do about Sunday lunch 

[Penninehillbilly]

Just realised, we use the microwave, sometimes cook in microwave and finish in stove for crispness.

[SallyintNorth]

Rayburn do some models which burn wood only, and two which do coal as well.  For optimum wood-only burning, the settings are different; it burns wood more efficiently with the wood grate plates in, and so on.  Because we burn coal as well, we have it set up in coal mode most of the time.  It does a grand job, but the wood really does need to be properly seasoned and dry.

There's also a special setting for burning anthracite.

Ours runs one huge radiator, a big towel rail and four medium radiators, as well as heating the water.  We have no other heating besides the Rayburn itself in the living room; when it's very cold we leave the hot plate lids up, and the room is lovely and warm.  I'm sure it could manage another radiator or two, but you might then struggle to do a roasting oven, hot water and all radiators at the same time.

You won't know until it's in and running whether there are some weather conditions that make your Rayburn struggle. So you may find there are some times when you can't get the oven really hot.  If you can be flexible about how and what you cook, then you might manage with just the Rayburn, but I suspect most of us have another oven, hob and maybe grill too.  And even we, in upland North Cumbria, do let the Rayburn out when it's really warm in summer.  That doesn't happen every year, though.   

[susanrich93]

Rayburn do some models which burn wood only, and two which do coal as well.  For optimum wood-only burning, the settings are different; it burns wood more efficiently with the wood grate plates in, and so on.  Because we burn coal as well, we have it set up in coal mode most of the time.  It does a grand job, but the wood really does need to be properly seasoned and dry.

There's also a special setting for burning anthracite.

Ours runs one huge radiator, a big towel rail and four medium radiators, as well as heating the water.  We have no other heating besides the Rayburn itself in the living room; when it's very cold we leave the hot plate lids up, and the room is lovely and warm.  I'm sure it could manage another radiator or two, but you might then struggle to do a roasting oven, hot water and all radiators at the same time.

You won't know until it's in and running whether there are some weather conditions that make your Rayburn struggle. So you may find there are some times when you can't get the oven really hot.  If you can be flexible about how and what you cook, then you might manage with just the Rayburn, but I suspect most of us have another oven, hob and maybe grill too.  And even we, in upland North Cumbria, do let the Rayburn out when it's really warm in summer.  That doesn't happen every year, though.   

Wow thanks for all that, watched a few videos and there seems to be setting were you push the heat to either radiators or oven. We are in Lancaster so wet and cold. Yes realise about seasoning the logs. I saw one model which said it would heat 12 radiators,  I am guessing that will cost a small fortune, solar panels are also planned.