MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I started a thread about this yesterday and it vanished without a single reply (who said the forum was dying?)
Anyway, asking again for the work crowd. (and because of a typo in the title that I cant edit)
Looking to fit a fire into the lounge. It will be a secondary heat source/ focal point more than anything.
There is gas and electric supply to the chimney. We don't like electric fires (look too false). Could go gas, but need it fitted and probably a flue fitting.
Came across bio ethanol stoves yesterday while googling and it seems to fit the bill. Real flame, No flue, easy installation, clean, odour free etc.
Anyone got one, know about them, are they any good? Would I better off going for gas?
Natural gas is cheap, convenient, safe and you've got it piped into the house.
Ethanol is controlled by HMRC, is difficult to obtain, needs special storage, comes as a liquid and is probably more expensive. Installers will suck their teeth when you mention it. For the little you will use, gas is the way.
We just installed one for much the same reasons, though we don't have any gas provision in the living room, so we had the options of electric or installing a woodburner - which we'd have preferred but would have been too expensive.
Cost about £200 (it's just a folded sheet steel box) and installed in about 20 mins, so quite convenient. We buy the bioethanol in bulk on eBay.
The fire is nice, but doesn't last very long - burns through the ethanol quite quickly, but for the rare occasion that we use it, it's fine.
For the little you will use, gas is the way.
But I`m not sure I want to pay for flue fitting, gas servicing/safety certs every year or whatever for a fire we might light half a dozen times a year.
Yep got a cheap wood stove lookie likey to look nice in the fire place and for secondary heat.
200 quid instead for 2000 it does a good the job of looking the part when not lit ... not so much of the job when lit, nice flicking flame but in no way raging and no log "crackles and pops" and not sure it gives out much heat at all.... Seems to have to be on for a long time to get anything out of it .... But maybe that's stoves in general ??... It produces enough to get one of those convection fans things going.
The flip side is, it's really easy to light and no cleaning up to be done..... but had it for about 4 months now and have used it maybe 4 times.
So that is either indicative of it being a bit rubbish really or I did the right thing and didn't weighed out 10x the price for something we only ever look at and never use ?
Good luck
Where did find one for £200 @Ro5ey ??
Cheapest I can find £500. which is why I'm not sure about it. I can buy a gas one for that that will actually give some heat and have a bigger/better flame.
ethanol has got a very low calorifc value compared to gas, wood, and coal so will go very quick and produce little heat, but then as an aesthetic requirement it's probably not an issue.
Ethanol is controlled, but the supply ill have been fully denatured using 3% Isopropal alcohol, 3% Methyl ethyl ketone and some denatonium benzoate (bitrex -the stuff that makes it really bitter). The wholesale price for bioethanol is somewhere around 61ppl (pence per litre) at the moment, however having just seen some retail price of this stuff, i'm selling to the wrong market - ****ing hell that's a mark-up...
That said not sure where the suppliers sit with regards to using it as a fuel as you should in theory be paying heating oil tax (as a substitute) on top. Just curious.
CostCo .... think it must have been on sale, as they are £380 now ... sorry can even paste a link into this super duper new forum.
model is the malvern.
I'd rather have gas to be honest. We have gas fires in our house. They don't get used often, but are great when they do. They really do pump out the heat and make it nice and snug for not really that much cost for the evening really.
A friend of ours took out their fireplace and put a stand-against-wall fireplace with the ethanol burner inside it. I've seen it on once, and it wasn't really very good. Looks like a flame and thats about it imho.
( Also, do they not dump a fair amount of moisture into the room when running, and so need decent ventilation to prevent moisture build up ? )
A friend of ours took out their fireplace and put a stand-against-wall fireplace with the ethanol burner inside it. I’ve seen it on once, and it wasn’t really very good. Looks like a flame and thats about it imho.
( Also, do they not dump a fair amount of moisture into the room when running, and so need decent ventilation to prevent moisture build up ? )
It's not much more than a big candle, even if you burnt a litre of ethanol you're only going to be producing about a litre of water (1mol ethanol produces 3mol water, and the molar densities roughly cancel that out), might put some condensation on the windows but not going to be a big damp problem.
They're intended to look like a flame, not really heat a room like a stove would.
I have one, a bit like this but in stainless steel.
htI haven't used fuel in it for quite some time as there is little to no heat & there is also a bit of a smell, still it looks quite nice with 3 candles & pebbles in it 😉
If anyone wants to buy some fuel & can collect from north london then drop me an email, I have about 30 1l bottles in the garage that I don't want a lot for.