[downtoearth]

Can anyone give me first hand info regarding a woodburning cooker.  I am also in a quandry about what to do about my heating.  At the moment I have old storage heaters and an open fire.  I cant stand the storage heaters, inflexable and costly.  The open fire is ok but again costly and has to be fed constantly.  So I only use it in evenings. I want to find a system that will not be too expensive to run, no gas here and so am confused! Would love to have an Aga in the kitchen for cooking but again expensive to run.  Have heard about latest electric storage heaters from germany that run on normal rates, not economy 7 but cant find anyone to give me their experience of them.  I dont have any pipe work in the house so puting in a conventional oil system means lifting floorboards etc.
I suspect it will all cost a fortune which I havent got!!  Cant bear another cold winter!

[stufe35]

We replaced our open fire with a multifuel stove,  uses less fuel and produces more heat. Get one well above the size you need, our first was too small at 5kw our new one is 11 kw. And heats can heat a huge area. 

I would imagine this is your cheapest least disruptive quick fix.  Stick with a conventional cooker.  We have an electric aga, it is lovely, but very expensive to run. (And to buy in th first place)   

[spandit]

You will need a ready supply of logs. If you have to buy them you might well find it's not a cheap option

We sometimes cook on our woodburner but too hot in summer

Be careful about what size you get - too large and you won't be able to burn it efficiently

[Fleecewife]

If we had our own wood supply we would love to have a wood burning cooker.  We found a beautiful one which was from the Czech Republic I think, but by the time we investigated further that type was no longer being imported.  It would be too hot to use in the summer - if we ever get another one - summer that is.   Even an Aga makes it uncomfortably hot in summer.
 
We ended up with a Clearview woodburning stove - the smallest, as anything larger couldn't be burnt efficiently in our small room, as spandit said.   We love it  .  Once the living room is hot we open the doors and it heats the rest of the house.  We also have oil fired central heating but we could manage without (it went in first).  The only time the Clearview doesn't keep us toasty warm is when the East wind blows and comes in every nook and cranny - not the stove's fault.
Our stove is very quick and easy to light and can be kept in overnight with a large hardwood log.  We thought at first that it could be used with coal as well as wood, but it's not recommended.
It takes several tons of wood a year - burning 24 hours in the depths of winter, evenings only in Autumn and spring.  If you have a good longterm supply then this would be ideal, but if you have to buy it it's quite expensive.
 
You can cook on it in a power cut, as an emergency, but otherwise we use a conventional electric cooker.
 
Heat just is expensive, unless you have several acres of mature coppice or similar to crop.

[downtoearth]

Goodness me, dont know what to do about the heating.  Dont have a supply of wood. Will have to buy it in.  Would a woodburner with back boiler and radiator work?  One plumber said it wasnt a good idea.

[NormandyMary]

Two of my friends over here are heating their houses with woodburners that have a back boiler for their central heating. Both are very happy with it, both of them use Hunter woodburners, and we do too. Its excellent AND in the winter, it will cook a stew or casserole in about 2 hours. It heats upstairs too, thanks to heat rising, and I have another small logburner in the kitchen for the middle of winter.

[FiB]

we have 2 woodburners, one runs CH (cheap 'prity' bulgarian monster stove amazing) and one is super efficent clearview in living room (again, very pleased - but we do have access to wood - we get through about 8 tonnes a year. And although we buy it in a uncut logs, and spend weeks of our life processing it - it still costs a fortune!   We are thinking of moving to those storage heaters or 'underfloor' heating mats as we have a pretty plum stream to tap into for hydro electric eventually. A Friend has a woodburning stanley cooker - works lovely but she is constantly feeding it and she buys in multifuel for it too.

[RUSTYME]

Can't really advise you , but just offer some thoughts .
I had a rayburn cooker that would burn wood or coal or a mix .
It did make things rather warm in the kitchen in summer , i just lived with the door open .
Mine didn't have a back boiler  but you can get them and i think they will do upto about 5 radiators  plus hot water .
I always go for solid fuel ie woodburner , rayburn etc as i live off of the system , no money , and if times get hard you can burn twigs , driftwood , cardboard even wooden furniture ( yes i have done that in the past ) .
But with gas , oil you need loadsa £ upfront and it runs out at the wrong time .
A good mix would be a gas cooker and rayburn
and a woodburner .
The gas burner you could just use when it is too hot for the rayburn . A big bottle of gas could last 6-12 months , depending on how much use it got .
I have woodland plus access to more wood if i need it , but i would always think about cost and availability . I can always get wood but can't just get gas or oil or leccy .

[happygolucky]

I would love a tiny house with the option of cooking on multi fuel if necessary but with a gas cooker as stand buy and a multi fuel burner or open fires for heating the house...I am happy enough without central heating providing the house is small and insulated enough and there is multifuel or natural heat. I actualy prefer a cold bedroom and also prefer a single sorce of heat rather than the entire house the same temperature,  but thats me.
I think around here there is always stuff to burn, big or little bits...as long as you have time, the main issue is feeding the things, go out for a while and so do they!!!

[downtoearth]

As in most things you have to pay one way or another, effort or cash!! Have been thinking about this on and off for 2 years and still not decided! Not normally so indecisive. Wish I had more idea been quoted 10k for installation of oil, need the works, tank, boiler radiators, pipes, does that sound right?

[RUSTYME]

Can't help there , i am off grid , don't do money .

[Moleskins]

To pick up a few points from this thread.
Rayburn wil run 5 radiators plus hot water. How big are the radiators? A bit like saying yes this car will pull a caravan. How big is the caravan?
If a Rayburn is not run at the right temperature, ie hot enough, condensation forms on the boiler and it rots, to the point where it leaks all over the floor. Very expensive to replace the boiler, if you can find an engineer mad enough to attempt it. Did one, said I'd never do it again, did it again, but never did a third.
A wood burner absolutely must be installed correctly or you'll find you have water boiling in the pipes. Assuming it has a back boiler. All pipes must be sized correctly to cope with carrying the heat away from the appliance. Same applies to any boiler / cooker boiler.
All wood must be seasoned.
Copper prices are through the roof at the minute so your pipework will be expensive.
12 years ago I'd price a heating system at £250 per radiator plus the cost of the boiler.
And lastly - whatever you have in - get an installer that knows how to put it in properly or you might just as we'll burn the money, at least you'd get one efficient lot of heat.

[Womble]

Ouch!

We're in a similar situation, in that all we have for heating is an old Esse coal fired range. Whilst this does heat the house fairly well (if inefficiently), we found it totally impractical for cooking since by the time we got in from work and got it up to cooking temperature, it was time for bed!

We now do most of our cooking on a standard gas hob / oven, which was modified to run on bottled gas. This uses far less gas than you might think - about 2 x 47kg propane per year, at a cost of about £130 if you shop around.

Definitely worth a thought, and would decouple your cooking from the house heating, since you don't necessarily want to do both simultaneously at all times and in all seasons!

[RUSTYME]

What i said was " i think they will do upto about 5 radiators , plus hot water ".
I wasn't giving a quote moley , just tryng to help . It would also vary dependant on what type of wood was being burnt , oak , ash , pine etc etc , also what type of coal , how much draw the chimney had , how windy it was .
 With the car and caravan you didn't mention whether the car was petrol or deisel , 4x4 or 2 wheel drive , or if the caravan was single or  twin axle ? , or if the main use would be on motorway , a or b roads .
 Also how many people would be in the car , and how much do they weigh ?
Sometimes you just don't need that much information , lol , you research that yourself .
 

[mab]

I would second the idea of using propane for cooking. I would get a woodburner instead of an open fire (much more efficient), but if you have to buy wood it's still not that cheap. If you get a woodburner it's certainly worth having a back boiler to heat water (and maybe radiators, depending on how big it is) IMHO, although, if you're all-electric then you will probably need a new hot water tank to use with the woodburner.

I can't see how new German storage heaters could be any cheaper to run than old (english?) ones, and if they're not on E7 then they can only be more expensive to run.


Have you insulated the house as far as possible? If not then insulation measures should be the best investment - 4" of foam on walls & ceiling (& floor if posss) along with good windows and draft-proofing make a huge difference to the heat retaining ability of a house - and insulation can be done DIY, unlike boilers and stoves.


There are no cheap heating sources nowadays unless you have access to a renewable source (and they can be pricey to setup). If it were me, I would look at how much insulation I could do for 10K before I spent it on a heating system.