Are burners approved by defra still evil? We live it the city, in an old house, I’m around renovating, 6 figures spent so far and whilst it is much better it’s still bloody cold and costs a fortune to heat via gas. And now I get really hurty feet when it’s cold which socks and slippers can’t keep away. I was thinking naughty thoughts about a log burner for when it’s really bloody cold, like below zero. Already have the oil rads, wear layers and have a blanket for wfh, therm is set to 19 for a few hours morning and night
have plenty of wood mostly structural timber offcuts that will probably last a couple of years at least.
one neighbour has a burner, the other has no central heating at all and the original open fires!
Having just spent time last winter adding new and increasing insulation to our home I can whole heartedly recommend this. We increased our loft to over 300mm, added some to an external wall, eliminated all drafts and then put 200mm under the entire house. New heavier curtains etc.
Total material spend about 1k, the difference in the house temperature has been remarkable. Typical morning temperatures are now around 4c higher than before, and the heating has been on for much less time. This is in an 80s semi with what I considered reasonable levels of insulation prior to the upgrades.
So definitely consider increasing insulation. I had a wood burner in my old house, total install was circa 2.7k, which would buy a lot of insulation
Insulation
I’ve done that, well as much as I can without destroying other half of the house, to above current regs. Ceiling is stuffed with it, half the floor is done, other half will be done when I can afford new carpets. External insulation is left, and that costs a shit ton of £££.
so are defra wood burners better or not? If not why are they even a thing
If not why are they even a thing
Because they havent been regulated out of existence yet. Yes they are great at heating rooms/houses. But at the cost of our children and baby robins. Take your pick 🙂
Edit: I am surprised that filters havent yet been developed to fit to chimneys, but I am guessing the cost is prohibitive. Plus from what I remember even the big power stations never managed to get their filters system working very well
How many BTU’s per Robin (Just asking in case it’s a future option?)
Edit: I am surprised that filters havent yet been developed to fit to chimneys, but I am guessing the cost is prohibitive. Plus from what I remember even the big power stations never managed to get their filters system working very well
Wet scrubbers exist for commercial wood-fired ovens. I'm not sure if this can be scaled down to lower output domestic stoves though. There are also electrostatic particulate filters for the top of chimneys too for lower output (domestic) stoves. So the tech exists, subject to cost, availability, reliablity, effectiveness etc...
They do exist - £2,200, plus install, which requires a power supply, and up to 90w in operation.
https://exodraft.co.uk/product/particlefilter/esp-particle-filter/
No idea if they're any good though.
Anyone here used one?
See, stuff like that scrubber could do with some subsidy to make it affordable, and then plenty of people would fit them. Just like insulation, stop messing about with all these grants which are impossible to get, and cowboys just increase their fees. maybe just remove VAT on all things that would make your home greener.
Is there not some new wood burner standard that’s better than the defra one - eco design?
See, stuff like that scrubber could do with some subsidy to make it affordable, and then plenty of people would fit them. Just like insulation, stop messing about with all these grants which are impossible to get, and cowboys just increase their fees. maybe just remove VAT on all things that would make your home greener.
This x100
It's not ****ing rocket science
Eco design means the air feed cannot be throttle back enough to stop thorogh combustion. So the burner always runs hot and rips through your fuel.
Designed really for people who want to let the burner smoulder overnight
Eco design means the air feed cannot be throttle back enough to stop thorogh combustion
So the burner always runs hot and rips through your fuel
You can't have one without the other. Your either burning as clean as is possible complete combustion and burning the fuel fairly quickly or your throttled back too much.
How did this get to so many replies without a Fahrenheit 451 pun?
Combustion heating is pretty evil tbh, but it’s our only option as there is no gas where we are. On cold, still nights the whole area is blanketed in smoke and I can pretty accurately predict when my daughters asthma will kick off.
Apart from the cost and the environmental impacts of burning old growth unsustainable timber, that was what pushed me to put on a heap of solar and a home battery and run reverse cycle air conditioner flat out all day. There has been a noticeable improvement in her health as a result, but we are not as warm without 50kw of heat pouring out of a fire!
Ecodesign - surely designed to prevent you from throttling the stove back and smouldering it all night. The reason for the design is to make sure combustion is efficient and thus reduce particulate emissions? if it’s ripping through your fuel that’s why. If it’s not ripping through it then it’s not burning efficiently?
And what hasnt been mentioned so far… insulation
I'm not sure what more i can do, if i want to add insulation i'll have to lift the roof (400mm in there already). It's all triple glazed. The walls are all insulation filled (from new, not cavity filled).
Oh, i have a heat reclamation system in the attic too.
Is there a legal height a wood burner flue has to be above ground? A house near me has a smoky flue on an outbuilding which can’t be more than 11 feet above the ground.
Eco design means the air feed cannot be throttle back enough to stop thorogh combustion. So the burner always runs hot and rips through your fuel.
On mine this is a screw that prevents one of the flow vents fully closing. It was not hard to bypass, I mean probably isn't hard.
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji';">It was not hard to bypass, I mean probably isn’t hard.</span>
To what ends though ?
I mean with the right tools nothing is impossible but why do you want to smoulder your wood?
just sort out your central heating properly whether it’s air pump or gas
The bit I don't understand is locally gas isn't an option. The local transformer explodes every 18months because it's already overloaded (I am sure someone will question the term but to me a big bang with a forty foot high jet of flame and smoke counts as an explosion). The local choices are wood burning stoves largely fed by wood from trees which have locally fallen and need clearing as part of agricultural tenancy agreements, LPG or oil. There are plenty of people who would like to try ground source or air source and even more who would like electric vehicles. The problem is until the supply is upgraded we're stuck with what we're got. Unfortunately nothing is changing because Western Power blame suicidal squirrels every time the transformer goes pop.
Fair point Storm arwen is long forgotten.
😃
Perhaps you should take that up with Western Power, although locally they don't seem to be too great on their specialist subject, so I don't hold out too much hope on supplementary questions