The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: Steph Hen on August 26, 2020, 10:30:54 am
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Not sure if best in equipment, food, or coffee lounge sections; please move if this is the wrong place.
I have an oil powered ESSE stove for heating, hot water and cooking, about 25years old. The whole system doesn’t work very well. It runs 5 radiators (in a 4 bed house) and most never get above ‘off cold’. The oven temperature varies depending on hot plate use, wind direction and if someone has shower. If they run a bath it’ll add a good half hour onto the roast and there is no such thing as ‘searing’ or ‘smoking hot pan’. And woe betide anyone who messes with the dial! It stays in the same place or the whole thing soots up or shuts off. The guy who services it says this model was never very good, recons this one is about 30% efficient in fuel use. #Did I mention it uses 1000L oil every six weeks? It has to go.
However, I do also love it (anyone else know LemonHeads “I miss my stove” song?), the kitchen is cosy, great for drying laundry, small animals, boys, mushrooms, jerky, etc., and slow roasts. And it worked through power cuts; we’ve had three this summer.
**Can anyone recommend an efficient, cooking only, oil powered range? I do a lot of cooking, need a good sized oven and warming oven is also in daily use.**
Was looking at gas canisters but would be good to run off oil as already have tank for boiler.
We have to get a new oil boiler and new heating/water system (everything’s falling apart and leaking; I have to carry buckets of water into tanks in the attic to keep the water getting to the upstairs). Supposedly in April/May, might be June... End of next month... done by the end of August ...just waiting for the other quote in :roflanim:
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Live in one room? :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
Sorry, had to laugh about your kitchen being so cosy and everywhere else like the frozen north :coat:
Are you near any large towns where you could visit showrooms and get their advice on differnt systems and fuels, then compare them all?
I have friends with oil ranges who always have an electric cooker as well, but that doesn't solve your heating problems. When I lived in Aberdeenshire some years ago, both my houses(lived in at consecutive times not both owned together, I'm not a millionaire :innocent:) had oil heating but electric cooking, no gas possible out in the sticks :eyelashes:, but boy was it expensive! One was alittle less expensive to run - underfloor, but I put that in when I built the house
I think a lot depends on your budget, but why stick to oil just because you have a tank - maybe there are dual fuel systems?
I suppose you don't want to go down the wood burning road, but how about solar and electric panels - they are apparently very efficient these days
Here's Phil Spencer's blog on being off grid - https://www.moveiq.co.uk/blog/home-move-planning/moving-to-countryside-off-grid-heating/ (https://www.moveiq.co.uk/blog/home-move-planning/moving-to-countryside-off-grid-heating/)
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:roflanim:
Living in one room is what we do unless I put the wood stove on through the house.
I have an electric caravan type hob and electric oven which has made things easier in 2020. But not in power cuts. In the summer Id light a bbq but last night was a storm and didn’t seem so attractive a prospect so we decamped with kids and half cooked roast to In Laws house to use their oven.
We get oil cheaply as there’s a contract for all the farm buildings. I did look into air and ground source heat pumps but it was too expensive and the model that the company were looking to supply stops completely at -12’C made us decide against. It has got this cold here and who knows what the future holds.
We could get a grant towards electric radiators in each room but don’t want this due to cost and quite a lot of power cuts so don’t want all eggs in one basket.
I’ve not looked into solar panels. So that might need some thought to improve resilience. Just wondered if there’s an efficient simple, cooker only oil stove out there?
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I recognise the 'cold in every room' scenario. Our cooker and central heating which were independent of each other went into terminal decline at the same time too - To be honest I would contact an independent supplier of range cookers and pick their brains. We eventually had a Sandyford oil fired cooker (and heating) system fitted in our cottage in Northants but prior to that our own research only identified why each model we looked at was not going to work for us without major expense and alteration to the kitchen . One visit to an independent stove supplier identified a range cooker we had never heard of that suited us very well. The place we visited sold and fitted all sorts - Agas, Everhots, Rayburns, Sandyford, Alphas and lots of other stoves we would never have considered so we really felt we were getting a proper idea of the pros and cons of each potential solution. HTH
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Great suggestion! Thanks!
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Why can you not have a gas cooker (calor gas bottles)? Though not much help with heating the house...
We have an oil boiler for central heating and hot water, and can go for two years without filling up (2500ltrs), as we mostly use our multifuel stove for heating our main living/kitchen area, the rest of the house is colder, but it is a modern one built in 2007, so never really cold...
Can you not put in an oil boiler and get a good gas range cooker (ours is a STOVES) in place of the temperamental onne?
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Oh dear Steph, it all sounds very familiar.
Our oil fired Esse cooking range has given endless trouble as every time there's a hint of strong wind it blows out and despite numerous experiments with different cowls, alterations to flue, heat settings etc nothing cured it. We simply stopped using it. Esse are useless and refuse to give any advice so we ended up just using the electric hob/oven as a more certain solution. I find it very frustrating as when it did work it was very good at keeping the kitchen snug and the dogs loved it.
I'm sure you'll have looked at it but a straightforward oil fired condensing boiler is still a reliable option for your heating needs though not as eco-friendly as other solutions.
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Thanks for the sympathy!
I’m erring towards bottled gas cooker and oil boiler/hot water.
Still haven’t looked any further into kerosene cooking only stove but will phone some show room soon.
House is cold now, really noticing the lack of heating now the weathers turned this last week. Need to get fire on and keep it going.
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Gas canisters last for ages on the cooker side of things and you can get conversion kits for most units.
I wouldn't use canisters for heating - when I had them you could watch them ice up as you dried the laundry ;)
Have you looked into heating grants - there is often a few available - sometimes they are even made available for people not in receipt of any kind of government benefits.
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Only grant I could get was towards electric radiators in each room but not keen due to running costs and power cuts and we’d still need hot water system.
Could also get a grant towards air source heat pump but still too costly and would have stopped working at -12’C
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Only grant I could get was towards electric radiators in each room but not keen due to running costs and power cuts and we’d still need hot water system.
Could also get a grant towards air source heat pump but still too costly and would have stopped working at -12’C
The latest electric heaters are very much more efficient than they used to be. It might be worth getting a quote and running figures. A grant would give you a good start. Perhaps coupled with a stand by generator, and your hot water could be on electric too
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Electric is becoming quite an efficient way of heating the home again for sure. Combined with solar panels makes them even more so.