[happygolucky]

Victorian Farmer, you are also an expert......I think we would buy as best a fire as we could afford as other wise it will be a false economy, the house we intend to buy is tiny so we should not have the house heated all the time but will have the stove and fire going....as its a cottage the flue is also short so win win, the people who lived in the house for years are across the road and he is a builder so knows what we need to do....I so want our fire to be priority as nothings better for heat!

[thenovice]

You def need a liner, as woodburners burn differently to an open fire, and get it installed by a professional, as it will need a certificate, or house insurance is invalid if you have a fire

[happygolucky]

I appear to have taken over this thread  but if the reply was for me we will have a liner as the chimney is not high at all and as we are cash buyers we will not have any insurance anyway. We have open fires and have to have them swept and documented for our insurance currently!!

[Victorian Farmer]

i think its great to be cosey at night i have to go in the shed to see my fires .We have central heating turnd dawn low rubbish . you said open fire look at this one  200 pound with new bricks. or 350 this 1 deliverd new.The first one jotul pull the lid up when going to bed no problem no parts .The other sweden no problem just cut new bricks to size .

[happygolucky]

I hope to come back to this as that's great....we currently have a huge open fire and it throws out too much heat, no  heating in this huge house and I am boiling...we get loads of free wood and still have tons of the stuff.......nothing better than free heat!  THANKS!

[chrismahon]

I my limited experience of open fires v wood burners they both have advantages and disadvantages. An open fire is cheap but is inefficient and needs a good air supply into the house which means a big draught. Woodburners are expensive to buy, especially if you get one that burns overnight. I know from experience they carry a serious risk of Carbon Monoxide poisoning, so the flue and all sealing has to be perfect. They must also burn properly seasoned timber, otherwise they soot up very quickly. This means having a proper drying and storage facility for the wood.

[happygolucky]

We have 2 open fires and a huge house that can be cold unless the heating is cranked up at great cost, for some reason, both our fires throw out tons of heat, I lit our big fire within mins yesterday and after 10 mins the room was very warm and later the room hot. We had friends around and we turned the heat off a few weeks ago and we were all roasting yet open the door and its like going into a chest freezer...even the man who did the survey was surprised how good our fires were,  he has tried everything to get his fire drawing well, he recons its trial and error. We moved from a house that was on higher footings with floor boards and although the fire was warm, it used to draw big draughts up through the floor boards around your ankles....the house we have now is on the ground virtually, its built in 1750 when that's what they did. Not sure what we will find in our next house but we will start off with an open fire as the chimney is still there and the current owners blocked it off to use the room as a bedroom. Then we will see how we get on and put in a log burner if necessary, the good thing about open fires you can burn larger logs and other stuff.......

[Victorian Farmer]

The big difarance is the size of the chimney new house mabe 1 foot square bricks or blocks no skill in rendering the old house 2 or 2 and half square big stones shaped to fit and sealed .A liner will never be that good .The size of the fire place .In the 50s they made plain stoves iv looked at plans and they was superb but boring naw fire bricks that go in 12 months .I use vulcanite used in fernicis never go again just cut to size .The glass should not crack again I cut fernice glass not thin foran makes at 30 pounds the metal we use is again no good .some old UK metal will last for ever .The onley reason I built the stoves was that for 400 pounds you carnt get bricks size all night burn etc .So I built one with glass bricks 2 foot box so you can have a small fire or large fire and it won't burn the house dawn . Iv also over burnt them to 8000 d and no problem the tops are 8 mill thick to cook on .

[Lesley Silvester]

It's worth looking on ebay for s/h woodburners.

[simone]

We recently replaced a Rayburn with a hunter herald stove, the chimney was already clay lined so we spent around £600 on the stove and £600 on fitting which included a double skin pipe from the stove to the flue and some fire proof board above the stove and taking away the Rayburn.  We went for the hunter herald because we have a small room with a big space to fill and it was the only large stove with a low rating.

Had a few local fitters round to discuss.

[happygolucky]

Well as we are not moving anytime soon, we are keeping with the open fires, even my husband is impressed at how much heat they both kick out, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Garmoran]

More than 40 years ago my father replaced an old stove with a Rayburn Regent with a back-boiler. In winter we used to have to run off the hot water in the tank because it would boil.

Five or six years ago I got fed up with pouring away energy while paying to heat the bedrooms with electric heaters so I changed the hot water tank for a modern indirect one and connected the Rayburn to central heating radiators in the two bedrooms. It had a dramatic effect on the electricity bill the following winter, I can't remember exactly how much, but the monthly direct debit was reduced by £20 or so, I think.

Not sure how much longer my chainsaw is going to last, though, and not looking forward to having to replace it 

[Victorian Farmer]

garmoran I'm a big fan on rayburns iv took 3 out this last 4 months out of favor naw .The last 1 was a blue 1 200 pounds a steal . A rayburn will do 3 rads and a tank .So a cheap way to get a stove .

[Garmoran]

Yes VF, we've certainly got our money's worth out of ours, although I've been looking out for another to replace the one we've got, as once when my mother was still alive she stoked it up way too hot and the top is no longer level.

Unfortunately, whenever they come up on eBay they're always in South Wales or the West Country...

[Victorian Farmer]

i do no where 1 is its all took to bits and redey to go il ask if its still there .