New Wood Burning Stove & Central Heating?

Hi,


We've an Invicta Sedan 15 Wood-burner in our newly acquired old house together with an Heatrae Sadia Electric Flow Boiler that provides central heating through water-filled radiators & hot water separately with an immersion tank.


We haven't used this central heating system yet & get good heat to our living room from the Invicta-seems to use quite a few logs, doesn't stay in overnight & I suspect there are more efficient log-burners available today.


My question is would it be possible to use a log-burner to provide hot water & heat the radiators? I am rather concerned about the potential winter costs of using the electric heating. We are in the Gironde & would appreciate any good contacts for advice. I intend to call Heatrae Sadia, but suspect I need a wood-burning stove specialist.


Thanks,


Roger

Dear Brian, thanks for that information. We have stacks of old doors, window-frames, old planks in the barn but I suppose they are perhaps better for a bonfire rather than the wood-burner.

Have found a local supplier of good, dry wood, recommended by the manager of the local bricolage-he uses him so he should be OK. Our builder who's sorting the roof at the moment suggests seeing how we get on this winter with our electric central heating & the wood-burner before making changes. This seems like wise counsel.

Roger, we have a Rayburn that heats water and runs our central heating. We have a pump that is thermostatically controlled, that we can adjust as well. As far as the logs go, on the one hand Haydn is right about the air seal. If it is not tight enough then it burns far too fast. Then vine logs, I take it you mean vine and not pine, well they have no bulk and simply burn far too fast to leave overnight anyway. We use those to build the stove up in the morning when slow burning wood has gone right down to red hot embers. Oak is always best even if you only buy enough to put some in at night.

If you want somebody reliable to advise and do any work necessary look at Enershop's site and contact them.

Thanks Haydn,

The stove came with a crack in the door glass-one of those many jobs I have to do! It's certainly not air tight around the glass cords. I'll get that sorted. (Also have a carbon monoxide alarm to be on the safe side)

It has a door on right side to make adding logs easier. We are using the old vine logs left in the barn so maybe different wood could make a difference. There is an open/shut vent at the top to control the heat.

Just ordered a Valiant fan to improve heat circulation.

After being used to a modern house in the UK with double-glazing, loft insulation, cavity wall insulation & an A class gas boiler our 250 year old cottage is an upward learning curve.

Roger

Can't answer the hot water & central heating query, but if your burner does not last the night and seems to burn too much check you have a good tight air seal around the doors etc. I had the same issue but by replacing the "cord" around the doors etc., all has changed. Obviously the more air that enters the more the wood burns.

Now there's not problem topping up before we retire and it's still "alive" in the morning