We are refurbing at Lesgrandepotato towers, we have a nice sized Lshaped open plan room downstairs – its about 10*4 with the kitchen sitting room, and a then a further 5*6 double height area. Its all slate floor with UFH and we want a stove in the double height area.

Given its all controlled with UFH and thats slow to respond should we just have a little feature 5kw stove or should we go for something a bit more beefy? edging towards a 10kw three sided stove.

Will we just bake? what do we reckon? ideally it’ll be central and three sided.. we’ve found a flue manufacturer that can supply an unsupported 5m length of pipe so we can just dump it down and make it look cool… but that’ll be a 6″ twin wall so if its a dinky stove it might look a bit over hatted?

For a starting point, you could use a calculator:
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/calculator.asp

Calculate your total room size, then go from there.

Or just learn how your UFH works and make sure it’s programmed correctly?

IMO too many folk are putting in decoration stoves.

FWIW we’ve a stove that’ll take a 18″ log, we’ve no CH and the room is 5m * 8m and 2.5 storeys high which joins into another room 5m * 10m with an AGA.

The 5kw stoves can pump out a lot of heat – we have a Charnwood C4 in a lounge which is 6×3.5 m and I usually find my self opening the doors to let out heat. We burn reconstituted logs which are warmer than the oak we previously used.

I’m going to fit a second stove in our family room which is a lot bigger than the lounge (12×6) and has some double ceiling height. I’ll probably go 5-10 kw but to be truthful another C4 would probably do the job.

So I suspect 10kw might be too much but something at 6-7 would be fine. From a building regs perspective the 5kw does not need air brick/ external air inlet (if that matters).Anything above does.

Or just learn how your UFH works and make sure it’s programmed correctly?

Fair challenge – do enlighten me, we’ve gone with a Heatmiser set up for the UFH – the concern I have is that by its nature UFH is not very re-active it can take a couple of hours to heat up or heat down.

So my concern being if the Stove trips out the thermostat then we’l still have heat pouring in from the floor and stove – therefore the size of the stove needs to be well thought through otherwise we’ll bake.

With that in mind how would you set up the UFH? How quickly does the stove heat through? 15mins / 60mins? if a large stove is slower to heat that would better match the heat profile of the UFH?

I was planning to do similar. I’ve changed my mind to installing a feature cast iron radiator, in addition to my ufh.

I think a direct heat source is nice in an open plan space. I was lounging in a lovely country kitchen recently and found myself leaning on the big cast iron rad. That was when I realised my solution – it’ll keep the dog happy too, along with the wood burner in the lounge.

Wonder if the answer is one of these by the stove Fibaro Motion Cats eye placed near the stove – then if it detects the heat is on then we can then tell the Home Centre to tell the Heatmiser to put the UFH to set back temp.

Suspect that’s what BR has in mind ? 🙂

Given its all controlled with UFH and thats slow to respond

Then you program it to be at a set temperature when you want it. UFH shouldn’t be thought of in the same way as regular heating because you don’t use it in the same way.

^^I suspect b r means something like that.

That’s kind of the challnge in itself though. We don’t have times when we will use the stove – but that said. We probably should do, as BR states it’s not just decoration and we have a wood.

Maybe my utopian view of sorting out the tech and sizing of the stove is overthinking it. Just go large and remember to turn the heating off (down)

is your house fairly well insulated and I take it you have double glazing? A lot of people put in stoves that are far too big for the room then slumber them a bit, better having a small stove and burn it hard than a big stove and having to shut it down because its too hot.

Triple glazing, insulated plaster board, newly insulated slab, and 400mm in the loft.. but it is a basic 80’s build

My brother in law didn’t listen to me when renovating his house, his 8kw stove is ridiculous even in their newly extended lounge diner that l shapes in to the kitchen. Just uncomfortable unless it’s choked right back then it’s smokey and tarry as ****.
I’ve got a 4kw in a 5x4m lounge and it chucks so much heat out. If it’s in a room that already has any kind of central heating then get ready to sit in just your pants!
Edited for poor beer infused spelling!

^^I suspect b r means something like that.

Yep, I was been a bit sarcastic, sorry 🙂

We put a water based system in our annex, just stays on with thermostats in each room regulating the heat – don’t fanny around with, just set it.

And if you’ve that, just go with prettiest stove, as it’s output shouldn’t matter.

I had typed a longer reply but lost it. So…. What b r said. If you get hot occasionally, open the window.

So the room volume is circa 250m3 – and we run on oil, we’d like to be able to supplement when the heating is fired up or not – so summer evenings, spring / autumn times we’d like to supplement, as we do now with the open fire.

We have a Firebelly Fb1 – nominal output 4.5 – max 6kw.

Looking at a panoramic jobby because it’ll look epic –

Maximum Space Heat Output: 10kw
Nominal Heating Output: 7kw

Its at the bottom of the double height space so we will I guess lose a lot of heat upwards – but will sitting say 3-4m from the stove at 7kw just burn us all to bits?

Who buys these massive stoves if not? 🙂

You’ll be fine, get it.