Log Fires - the future?

[addjunkie]

The heat stays in the house. Think of it as a cooker and a heater at the same time. More efficient on an inside wall.
I have an aga in the kitchen. It heats the 30x20 kitchen and the bedrooms above it. Woodburner the other end of the house. As a result I hardly ever put the oil boiler on and use 1000L a year. Not bad in a 5 bedroom house with 23 radiators.
And remember oil is 1/4 the price of electricity although I suspect you have a cheaper night tariff?

No we dont get the cheaper night tariffs, our smart meter is dumb and doesn't communicate, due to our remote location. If it did Id have big batteries and charge with solar in the day and cheap tarrifs at night. Our Aga is just an over priced electric cooker, not one of the earlier electric ones run like night storage heater. Its called an Aga total control, you can even pay extra for an app to switch it on remotely, we don't. A dear thing to run, but since buying a ninja gadjet air fyer thing, its not one very often now at all, which has been noticed in leccy consumption.

Our oil boiler uses about 1200 ltrs per year, our house, though old stone, is quite well insulated, with wet UFH. Only burn about 2m3 of logs per year on the fire On top of that. And setting wise my Mrs never wears a jumper in the house!

Another consideration with the on all the time aga for us was a heat source, would in effect stop the UFH cutting in in winter giving the even warm feel, though as its open right through would have heated upstairs too.

 

[chrismac]

Thanks for the replies, currently looking at a house which has one fitted, its a more modern oil fired one, not done a lot, was just wondering if its something we will hold onto, its a nice thing to looks at, was just interested in the running costs. I guess 35l of fuel is not out the way if the tumble drier is not needed.

 

[fizzy]

Thanks for the replies, currently looking at a house which has one fitted, its a more modern oil fired one, not done a lot, was just wondering if its something we will hold onto, its a nice thing to looks at, was just interested in the running costs. I guess 35l of fuel is not out the way if the tumble drier is not needed.

Servicing is easy if it is the wick type.
Will talk you through it.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Has anyone tried larch in their stove, my local supplier only has larch at the moment. How did you find it?

 

[reb78]

35l of oil a week is pretty good. That's cheaper than my Rayburn on coal to be honest (but, of course... Rayburns are better than Agas as they do hot water and central heating as well as what the Agas do... )

 

[reb78]

Has anyone tried larch in their stove, my local supplier only has larch at the moment. How did you find it?

It will be a bit like a less resinous pine wont it? I have a few tonnes to cut up so hope it burns well!

 

[fizzy]

35l of oil a week is pretty good. That's cheaper than my Rayburn on coal to be honest (but, of course... Rayburns are better than Agas as they do hot water and central heating as well as what the Agas do... )

AGA doen't do hot water.
I had a wood/coal fired Rayburn in our last place. Loved it. Used to feed it pallet blocks. My brother works from home so he was official stoker! Ran 7 rads and lashings of hot water but such hard work on wood. Much easier with oil.
Boiler went on it in the end and it's a huge job to change those. The AGA literally will last 100 years or more - nothing at all to wear out.

 

[Gareth J]

The old wick ones are better. No moving parts will last forever literally!
Needs a service once a year. I do it myself. Dead simple. Takes less than an hour.
The old manual thermostat is the best. Mine has the electric one which is OK. In a powercut the aga still runs but drops to minimum but you can over ride to max.

I agree, and do the same. They don't burn so efficiently - you can smell unburned HC in the exhaust on a still morning. But the indestructibility and peanuts servicing helps make up for that. If you don't want to DIY service though, maybe a wick one is a bad idea.

Definitely but don't use it in summer. Ours is on for 9 months of the year. We use a combination microwave oven and a cheap tefal induction hotplate when the aga is off.
Waste heat from the aga just stays in the house so none wasted. You can dry all your clothes around it so no tumble drier needed.
Oven always on never needs cleaning. Cooking smells and smoke go up the chimney.
Uses about 35L of oil a week. That is £28 a week but remember the heat isn't lost. The flue runs very cool and by the time the heat leaves the chimney probably 20C.
Only wasteful in summer which isn't long in the UK.

Your flue temperatures are misleading you.

They are tempered by absolutely masses of air from your kitchen that the flue draws in via the vents.

I've just measured mine - straight out of top plate the flue is at 165C. 1foot higher up, it's at 80-90C.

It didn't loose 70-80 C in that 1' of flue, what happened is a load of air from the kitchen, warm air we've paid to heat, has escaped up the flue. Makes for a fresh environment that lets you dry clothes without steaming the place up but you pay for it!

 

[Smallfry]

Friends have an ancient wick burner Rayburn in the kitchen. On all the time in winter, house is always toasty. Heats the water too, and she cooks on it. The cooking requires a different technique than a standard stove, but I think its brilliant.
Dries the washing too.
Hotplates good for warming bearings prior to fitting, and oven good for ring gears !

 

[Mick Annick]

Thanks for the replies, currently looking at a house which has one fitted, its a more modern oil fired one, not done a lot, was just wondering if its something we will hold onto, its a nice thing to looks at, was just interested in the running costs. I guess 35l of fuel is not out the way if the tumble drier is not needed.

I’d have another oil fired Aga given the chance, ours was only turned off for the annual service as we had no other way of cooking, kitchen was a bit warm in summer.

 

[Justme]

If I was selling wood at today's prices when I had my tree business I would be laughing.

Used to be £80 for a small load now closer to £150-200.

I guess you have not seen the cost of buying in a lorry load then.

Your looking at about £90 / tonne for soft & £120+ for hard delivered.
Plus VAT.

So your at about £50-65 an m3 before you factor in processing, bagging, storing, moving & delivering it.

 

[mtt.tr]

I guess you have not seen the cost of buying in a lorry load then.

Your looking at about £90 / tonne for soft & £120+ for hard delivered.
Plus VAT.

So your at about £50-65 an m3 before you factor in processing, bagging, storing, moving & delivering it.

Tree cutter, we always had plenty often gave it away.

Paid to fell it, and clear up.
Sell the chip and logs

 

[Justme]

£80 here. Gone up recently from £60. When I had the navara I got them to forklift a bag on the back, and handballed them out into the woodstore but that won’t work with the freelander . We have a 6kw morso in the kitchen extension (on what was the back wall of the house). Ive just picked up a little tower fan from b+m for £6

Ive put it on the breakfast bar and it blows the warmer air out through the kitchen door and upstairs

£80 for TWO builders bags?

Standard builders bags are not 1m3 & do not hold 1000kg.

Thats below what it costs to produce.

 

[Justme]

Tree cutter, we always had plenty often gave it away.

Paid to fell it, and clear up.
Sell the chip and logs

Great if you can get it.

Also keeps the staff busy on quiet days too.

Down side is it then devalues the firewood that firewood business are selling as you have 50% less input costs.

 

[mtt.tr]

Great if you can get it.

Also keeps the staff busy on quiet days too.

Down side is it then devalues the firewood that firewood business are selling as you have 50% less input costs.

Up skill then, cutting firewood isn't a particularly difficult job

In fact most groundies are capable

If you can't compete against people who put in a far smaller amount of product into the market you need to re-evaluate your business.

 

[addjunkie]

Thanks for the replies, currently looking at a house which has one fitted, its a more modern oil fired one, not done a lot, was just wondering if its something we will hold onto, its a nice thing to looks at, was just interested in the running costs. I guess 35l of fuel is not out the way if the tumble drier is not needed.

You wont have a choice, your Mrs will either love it, or hate it!

 

[chrismac]

This is very true!!

 

[roofman]

mentioned in an earlier post that i was burning ash atm...ignore this old fart it is actually beech

 

[addjunkie]

mentioned in an earlier post that i was burning ash atm...ignore this old fart it is actually beech

Ash is the king of fire wood, you can burn it directly from the tree!

 

[MattF]

Ignore this old fart

Sh*t. Does that mean we're not supposed to in general?