IHN,

Ideally you want the stove nice and hot, lazy flames above the wood, vents not far off closed. The wood itself just glowing red. When it gets to this stage you can put on the biggest log you can get through the door without any worry you are going to smother it.

Flue thermometer is very useful.

If you can only maintain temperature by leaving the vents open and having a faster/roaring fire, it’s probably poorly seasoned wood.

My stove tends to stay clean inside with the firebricks staying beige and the glass rarely needs cleaning, bad wood blackens it up quickly. Finally I always end the evening by opening up the vents so it burns clean until it runs out of fuel.

Smaller is better, I don’t really see how you can run a large stove cleanly below it’s designed output, it’s either got enough fuel at the correct temp, or it’s lacking fuel and running cool.

Personally I prefer a larger stove gives you the flexibility. So depends on where you live, altitude, climate etc. In my experience unless you’ve got your own wood land running it on pure wood will work out more expensive that buying a multi fuel
Had good experience with Charnwood and Arada stoves

Have a look at Clock stoves. Specifically designed from the ground up as a multi fuel and meets the very latest emission standards due to come in next year.

We’ve burnt both wood and coal (well smokeless fuel of course) and it does both brilliantly.

For us as well the design strikes a nice balance between contemporary and traditional. Delighted with ours – 5kw and heats the front room to a nice toasty level and provides a nice background heat to the rest of the downstairs.

https://www.clockwoodburners.co.uk/

We’ve got an ACR Rowandale multifuel in one room and it’s frustratingly crap, it’s a pig to light without smoke blowing back into the room, controls have little to no effect until you reach a point where the fire just wants to go out, the height of the firebox because of the multifuel setup mean you can barely fit another log in until the previous log is dust. Oh and the glass gets absolutely filthy after 5 minutes of use

In another room we have a DG Ivar 5 and it’s absolutely brilliant, lights super easily, really controllable with just the one lever, the firebox is a really good size so you can load it up for hours and the glass stays clear for weeks, I’d highly recommend, believe the hype.

Both stoves have identical flue setups.

Whats the fascination with keeping a stove slumbering at a low rate over night….

Is it a challenge on How to make a solid fuel stove be most polluting for the least amount of heat given ?

In my case it’s because a fire is my only form of heating.
My stove has a back boiler which does the hot water and radiators, big cast iron ones, which take forever to warm up but then take ages to cool down.
My stove is only small so can’t fit a big enough log to keep going over night but if I fill it before I go to bed and turn it right down it’ll stay alight until maybe 4am, then the radiators will stay warm until maybe 6 or 7am. Makes quite a difference.
Without a boiler with a timer it’s the sensible thing to do. Having said that, my house is well enough insulated that I’ve not had the fire going since March (I do have an immersion for the hot water too, but obviously the electric for that will mostly be from fossil fuels)
.
My parents have a much bigger stove, pop a big log on just before bed, turn it down, the house is warmish when you wake up, usually hot embers still in, stick another log on and open it again and instant fire, no buggering about lighting it at 7am in your dressing gown. They do have oil CH but obviously wood is much better than fossil fuels from an environmental point of view so makes sense to use it where possible.

I do have an immersion for the hot water too, but obviously the electric for that will mostly be from fossil fuels

This is no longer the case. Government figures for 2020 break down electricity generated by fuel type as:
43.2% wind, solar, hydro and other renewables
40.8% gas, coal, oil and other fuels
16.1% nuclear
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1016822/UK_Energy_in_Brief_2021.pdf (page 28)

They do have oil CH but obviously wood is much better than fossil fuels from an environmental point of view so makes sense to use it where possible.

I don’t think this is obvious either. Burning wood releases more CO2 per unit of energy generated that burning fossil fuels, and after burning the wood there are fewer trees left to absorb the CO2.

Hands up I have a stove* but I fail to see how life choices means running a stove in its most poluting form and >pm2.5s is ever good. Your just giving the politicians/the guardian more ammunition to ban them.

Surely the butler could keep it stoked all night.

*Glad someone else fact checked the assumptions -i knew they were horse manure I just couldn’t be arsed to find the sources.

*Rural location on oil , burning self sourced left overs from clear felling on managed/farmed land openly for financial reasons…..but burned well to maximise the heat output for a given particulate discharge.

and after burning the wood there are fewer trees left to absorb the CO2.

While there’s loads of dinosaurs all over the place 🙂

the photo of the converted wood / multifuel says in a picture far better than I did, what some “multifuels” are like, ie a bit of an afterthought and not that effective at doing both wood and coal… although they probably work passably with manufactured smokeless nuggets

I also hated my multi-fuel because the controls were such a faff (bottom vent, top vent and door vent) and nothing I ever did seemed to have much of an effect on the performance of the stove until it suddenly went nuclear hot, smothered and smokey or just died a death.

Our log stove has just the one vent and it is a simple adjustment to open / close more depending on how warm / cool we want the room.

Thanks for the wood conversion tip-off @spooky_b329, didn’t know you could get kits specifically to do that.

The multifuel that was in our house when we bought it doesn’t burn wood particularly well, and I’ve always assumed it’s a bit shit (probably cheap, like a lot of other stuff in the house when we bought it) or it’s the unlined flue. It seems counter-intuitive burning wood on a grate, which still seems to have a lot of air gaps whichever position the wood/coal lever is in.

@thenorthwind Yep it’s great, they are specific to the stove though so I guess not all manufacturers offer a kit. It’s pretty simple though, heavy plates that go under the fire bricks on three sides to keep the fuel away from the stove casing, and a different ‘fence’ at the front.

@spooky_b329 cheers, yeah looks like there is one available for mine. It just seems to be a (not very high) plate for the front, a plate for the back that still seems to have indentations to accept the great bars, and no base plate. https://www.hunterstoves.co.uk/conversion-kit-jcb0504

Wondering whether I’d be as well just taking the grate out and putting some firebrick on the bottom. It’s easy enough to take apart.

Yep I think you can get some lightweight fire bricks that you can cut to size, probably best to make large ones to replace the existing rather than try to stack the old on top of the new.

Mine didn’t come with a base piece, but the stove already had ridges so if you remove all the ash the timber would still be off the bottom slightly.

I found an old trowel that is great for removing ash… Although I only need to do it once a fortnight when the stove is used daily.

Once again thanks folks.. i have discovered brands.

Well I’m glad I read this thread.
I’d got as far as stripping the grate bars out when the chimney sweep came. He seems pretty knowledgeable so I asked him about multifuel>wood conversions and he said he’d just use it as it is (with the grate removed) and it’d be fine burning straight on the bottom (which seems to be firebrick with small grooves in it). Fired it up for the first time this year and it but so much better it’s unreal. Up to optimum temperature within 10 minutes and sits there happily with just the top vent open. I never shut either vent before and had to use the door to control it.

Is it time for the annual ‘my wood’s drier than your wood’ thread?

we’ve got an old Coalbrookdale Severn Stove made in the original AGA foundry, its ~40 year old and rated at 15kw. Mainly been run on smokeless fuel but its going to be replaced in the next few years for a pellet burner.

Westfire Uniq 35 here, multifuel but operates very well as a wood burner. 4.5kw rated so very def a sub 5kw stove that can be run at constant ramming speed without overpowering my small lounge. Given my research time again I would def go for a small pure wood burner like an Aspect 4, purely for the bigger fire box in a same size stove. altho the uniq 35 is brill and appropriate for my room size it would just be nice to have that bigger fire box space in a small stove that presumably still wouldn’t overpower the room