[gillian]

i would like to get a stove for  living room, i have existing flue for old gas fire but do i need a different one for a stove.
ta

[dixie]

I think it has to be a lined flue, best to get it checked by the experts, just to be safe.

[doganjo]

I want one too.  I have a kit house with no chimney.  I have to have a heat plate installed and an extra deep hearth - it must be at least 16 inches beyond the front of the stove.  The stoves themselves vary greatly in price depending on whether you want steel or cast iron then there is the fitting on top.  I have a balanced flue already too - a gas fire was there previously and the previous owner removed it as the pilot light kept blowing out - didn't think of getting it checked and rebalanced, but installed a tacky electric expensive to run monstrosity instead.  They can use the flue to put in a steel pipe up through the eaves.  The whole thing will cost around £3000

[Roxy]

We had a gas fire in the sitting room of our old house, but knew there was an open fire in there prior to that being installed.  The house was next to another house, and  because it was an old property, the chimney breast had holes in, and smoke would seep through to next door.  So we had to put a steel flue down and connect this to the wood stove.  It was very expensive, and we had to do likewise in the kitchen for the gas Rayburn too.

We did have the option to have something like a balloon inflated up the chimney instead, but that was even more expensive.

[Norfolk Newby]

I had to fit a flue liner when I put a wood burning stove in the living room.

I got a flexible lining from these people:-

http://www.fluesystems.com/liners/?gclid=CJPf65qHq5UCFRuD1Qod4kA9kA

It arrived after a few days along with a gizmo to hold the liner up and act as a wind deflector (to stop down drafts). I got a local odd-job man to help me fit it. This took a couple of hours so the total cost was not huge.

The building regs people seemed happy with the installation and gave me a certificate saying it was up to standard. You need this in case you get into a row with the local authority or your house insurance company. If you live in town you can get into problems burning wood because of clean air regulations. Check with the local planning department first. Here they were very relaxed about it but you can get stoves which meet the clean air act if you need this. Then you have to be sure the wood is properly seasoned and dry before you use it as fuel.

I fitted a closed stove which sits inside the fireplace with a glass panel door to add fuel and see the fire. The chimney structure (brickwork) acts as a storage heater so the room stays warm when the fire goes out. It's reasonably fuel efficient and produces about 5Kw which is enough to heat the sitting room. They do come with back boilers for hot water but I didn't think the extra installation costs were justified for my place. Also, I didn't want to have the stove on all the time so needed a separate source of hot water anyway.

The end result - for me - is a nice neat fire which doesn't need lots of fuel, gets hot and keeps the room warm even after the fire has gone out.


NN

[sausagesandcash]

I need to get a multi fuel stove to heat 29 radiators (I Know!) anyone know of one that is suitable, maybe even one that qualifies under clean air act? All advice welcome!

[HappyHippy]

Ooooo that's a LOT of radiators 
I found this one - 17-19 rads it claims
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Stratford-boiler-stoves.html
Maybe a big Aga would provide more, but I'm not really sure - might be worth googling 'high output multi fuel stoves' and see what you can find.
On the chimney subject my mum and dad fitted a multifuel stove this year and used a steel twin wall pipe thingy (sorry - I WILL find out the technical term) it joins to the back of the fire and goes straight up and through the roof without needing an existing chimney to house it. Seems to be working well and I don't think it was terribly expensive - though that could just be my dad and his ebay addiction lol!

[doganjo]

Ooooo that's a LOT of radiators 
I found this one - 17-19 rads it claims
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Stratford-boiler-stoves.html
Maybe a big Aga would provide more, but I'm not really sure - might be worth googling 'high output multi fuel stoves' and see what you can find.
On the chimney subject my mum and dad fitted a multifuel stove this year and used a steel twin wall pipe thingy (sorry - I WILL find out the technical term) it joins to the back of the fire and goes straight up and through the roof without needing an existing chimney to house it. Seems to be working well and I don't think it was terribly expensive - though that could just be my dad and his ebay addiction lol!

Karen, can you get more info on this please - what kind of house do they have?  Can you ask your Dad if I can use his system with a kit house?  I was told I need a heat proof backplate on the wall as well as a wide hearth

[Fergie]

I need to get a multi fuel stove to heat 29 radiators (I Know!) anyone know of one that is suitable, maybe even one that qualifies under clean air act? All advice welcome!

Hello again,

I've used multifuel stoves for central heating for over 25 years - my first was a second hand Franco Belge cooker / boiler, but it leaked after only a few years, so I replaced it with an almost new Bosky 90 cooker / boiler.  This ran 15 radiators easily (90,000 btu/hr), but eventually the boiler leaked so we replaced it.  It was manufactured in 1984 & lasted until 2008, which I believe is a typical life.

Since we were short of money in 2008, I replaced the Bosky with a cheaper stove, a Hunter Herald 14 woodstove.  On paper, this has an output of 14 kW (there are 3,300 btus in 1 kW), but we were cold in the winter in spite of an unlimited supply of logs, so this year we replaced it with another new Bosky 30.  This has an output of 30 kW and this time we didn't bother with the cooker option (very expensive for what it is).  Tonight, the outside temperature is -8 degrees C (middle of Scotland on Hogmanay evening) and the internal temperature is 23 degrees, burning wood.  The Bosky is a kitchen boiler. with a hotplate you can cook on.

I also have a Villager room heater (multi fuel) in my living room, and a Jotul box stove in my office. Neither are lit at the moment, although if I was in my office it would benefit from extra heat.

Be careful with roomheater woodstoves - many are intended for intermittent use only & cannot maintain full output 24 hours a day.

A Bosky stove is not cheap (2,700 ukp, plus fitting) but I hope this one will last until we're too old to pick up wood (ie, in our middle eighties!).  You can get equivalent or larger woodburning boilers from other suppliers, but very few are intended for installation inside a kitchen, and we don't have suitable boilerhouse facilities.

My chimney is a Selkirk twin walled stainless steel flue, going straight up from the stove through the roof.  The stove also has to mounted on a solid hearth, but my kitchen floor is concrete so no problems (it's very heavy!).

I use a tractor mounted hydraulic log splitter to do the splitting, and an old Landrover for haulage - you need a vast amount of wood for continuous heating.

John