I had thought wood burners were being outlawed, but in the Autun Brico on Saturday they had some for sale alongside the pellet stoves.
Are these still lawful? I’d really like to go down this route for our heating, though I’m open to ideas, perhaps a granule boiler in the basement, but supplemented with wood. The room we’re in this weekend has a granule stove, but TBH I’m not especially impressed, and as soon as the power goes, so does the heating.
You can still buy and fit them, they have been banned from installing in new builds
Thanks Mark
I do have one in an unused part of the house but it will need replacing as and when I get around to refurbishing. Are we allowed to replace broken ones?
Of course, the new “rules” only apply to new builds -pellet burners and heat pumps
Ta, Mark
We have a woodburner on the ground floor and today bought a pellet stove in the sales for the middle floor (three storey house). Our wood-burner’s good but despite being open plan, it only effectively heats the ground floor and the back bedroom on the second floor(via a conduit). But our middle floor is a single room about 40’ long and seems to miss out, so today at the end of the sales we bought a pellet stove for that floor and the room directly above it (simple vent in the ceiling above the stove).
Pros and cons - not much difference in fuel costs, but although most poeles à granules needs electricity, (see below) it scores not only by being programmable and automatically regulated, but unless you’re in an urban area, the installation costs might be several thousand € less than a woodburner.
https://conseils-thermiques.org/contenu/poele-granule-sans-electricite.php
I like the physicality of the woodburner, moving and splitting logs, but I also realise there might come a time when I can’t carry a bag of seven or eight 50cm logs up the steps to the stove, and in that situation, I’d replace the woodburner with a second granule stove where one just pours a few kilos of granules in the top for the whole day.
I think that if you have a granule stove that needs electricity to function, then it is a good idea to invest in a portable generator to maintain the power in the event of losing the mains supply. (Will keep your fridge and freezer going as well.)
I thought It would have been quite a bit cheaper over 24 hour burning in the winter, I had thought about going to one but have such an easy access to wood I have not bothered.
Another option.
Our woodburner isn’t just nice to look at it also runs the central heating and provides all the hot water we need so is linked to various electric pumps.
If there is a power cut the pumps stop and the fire keeps going so has a valve that operates when the fire gets too hot that cools the water jacket.
To get around the problem of power cuts we have a power diverter that is linked to the heating pumps and an always charged car battery connected to the converter.
When we have a power cut we flick a switch and the pumps continue to work, and we can have a couple of lights on too.
Battery will run pump for 10 hours by which time power has usually been restored.
I should add that the installation gadgetry cost around 500 euros but would rather just flick a switch than mess around with a geny.
@JohnBoy That’s an innovative solution I had not considered. What size is the car battery that you use ?
It will depend on how much power the equipment requires, I was surprised recently by how much they can use.
Out and about at present, will have a look and sent photos later.
I’d also be very interested to see any pics, as I’ve been toying with how to get hot water from my woodburner, without the obvious safety issues.
Sorry if this sounds a strange question but I presume your woodburner has an integral water jacket?
The one I currently have doesn’t have an integral jacket, but I don’t see that as a barrier as I’d plan to use copper pipe at the back of the woodburner. It’s an insert so would have the pipework within the cavity.
Black box = inverter. 12v dc in 240v ac out.
Thanks alot for sharing - sounds like a great system - as a matter of interest, did you buy the stove in France, as toying with the idea of buying another one, and thinking one with the jacket already integrated would be somewhat simpler?
