Bio Ethanol Stoves

Having overspent on renovations I’d put my hankering for a wood burner on the back burner!

That was until a client mentioned changing their plans from a woodburner to a bio stove to save some money. Having never heard of them before I did some research and as a cheaper alternative they look like a good option.

The room contains 2 rads so a 3kW stove as a secondary heat source/focal point should be ample.

Does anyone have any first hand experience of them that could offer a comment on ease of use and whether there is any obvious odor from the fuel source?

TIA

https://www.longdom.org/open-access-pdfs/the-pros-and-cons-of-ethanol-as-a-renewable-fuel-source.pdf

https://www.smartfireuk.com/are-bioethanol-fires-expensive-to-run/

A friends daughter got terrible facial burns from Bio Ethanol. The flame can be invisible. Personally I wouldn’t want to keep  liquid accelerant  in my house unless it had spend a decade or so in an oak barrel first.

Costs 67-£1 per kWh to run. Cheaper with a fancy electric fire which has the advantage of not adding moisture to the room like burning ethanol will.

“With about 6kWh of heat in every litre of bioethanol, the cost per kWh is 67p if the price per litre is £4 and £1 per kWh if the price is £6 a litre. ”

Bioethanol Fireplaces Benefits & Disadvantages: Are The Fires Safe?

Same thoughts as above – expensive to run. Would be better off with an electric equivalent. The ones with the water vapour to create a realistic flame effect are quite impressive these days.

Of course you could burn a huge amount of ethanol before getting anywhere near the cost of buying and installing a woodburner.

We’ve got a bio-eth stove. Yes, you need to be careful with them, they’re just a big Trangia – never refill when hot. As it just goes on when my wife is “feeling a bit chilly” or just fancies the flames, it doesn’t cost us lot to run – after all, we’ve got proper central heating too! However, it’s very effective and heats the whole of the ground floor if you leave it on for a while. The burner is basically just plonked in a cast iron multi-fuel stove.

Crap video (please ignore soundtrack, it was just the telly on) of it running here:

they’re just a big Trangia

That’s what I thought this thread was going to be about!