Heat in the home

Use this board for general non-cycling-related chat, or to introduce yourself to the forum.

My central heating is set for what range?

I don't have central heating
8
13%
below 18
22
37%
18-20
23
38%
21-22
2
3%
23-25
2
3%
25-plus
3
5%
 
Total votes: 60

User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56351
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Mick F »

Cosy! :D
Mixture of Birch and Euaclyptus ......... and cardboard and paper.
IMG_0910.jpg
Mick F. Cornwall
User avatar
simonineaston
Posts: 7993
Joined: 9 May 2007, 1:06pm
Location: ...at a cricket ground

Re: Heat in the home

Post by simonineaston »

Blimey it is funny to think those feet have been all over the world, by bike and boat !!
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
pwa
Posts: 17357
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Heat in the home

Post by pwa »

One small technical point that occurred to me a while back is that preparing a house for AS Heat Pump heating may make that house unable to support a wood burner at the same time. The reason I say this is that when I read about Heat Pumps I see advice about making the home highly insulated and draught-free first. Which must mean blocking ventilating air bricks that are a legal and safety necessity if using a wood burner in a room.
User avatar
Paulatic
Posts: 7796
Joined: 2 Feb 2014, 1:03pm
Location: 24 Hours from Lands End

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Paulatic »

pwa wrote: 30 Nov 2021, 8:19am One small technical point that occurred to me a while back is that preparing a house for AS Heat Pump heating may make that house unable to support a wood burner at the same time. The reason I say this is that when I read about Heat Pumps I see advice about making the home highly insulated and draught-free first. Which must mean blocking ventilating air bricks that are a legal and safety necessity if using a wood burner in a room.
I’m sitting looking at my ASHP running and also across at my wood stove which was on last night. The stove doesn’t need "air bricks" in plural. It needs one vent which I have in the floor behind the stove. You can even feed that vent directly to the stove. I’ve experimented with that on an old stove years ago.
Whilst the entire vent brick was exposed when building control signed off my house in 1998 in practice I have 7/8th of it now covered over and no experience of lack of draught for burning. I fitted a 5” flue obviously larger flues will require more draught.

Edit: to change 4” to 5” I’d been looking at drainage pipe earlier :D
Last edited by Paulatic on 2 Dec 2021, 8:46am, edited 1 time in total.
Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me. This is my life

https://stcleve.wordpress.com/category/lejog/
E2E info
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56351
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Mick F »

simonineaston wrote: 29 Nov 2021, 9:40pm Blimey it is funny to think those feet have been all over the world, by bike and boat !!
:D :D

They're the same feet I've had all my life.
Size 9, and I was size 9 since being 16. The marching boots I was issued when I joined the RN at 16, still fit like a glove ............. if boots can fit like gloves. :wink:
Mick F. Cornwall
francovendee
Posts: 3145
Joined: 5 May 2009, 6:32am

Re: Heat in the home

Post by francovendee »

Mick F wrote: 29 Nov 2021, 4:28pm Cosy! :D
Mixture of Birch and Euaclyptus ......... and cardboard and paper.

IMG_0910.jpg
I know you have your own source of logs so cost is just the labour of felling and splitting your logs.
Have you any idea ( cubic metres) you get through a year?
We only use wood to heat our house and I get through 8-10 cubic metres.
I get a lot for free but did buy 10 cu metres this year.
That was a bit painful at 70€ a metre. I doubt I'll need more for a couple of years though.
We know the farmer and he told us he'd cut 150 cubic metres this year. If you buy it from a shop then the cost is over 100€ a cube.
A friend has oil fired central heating and he spends 2-3000€ each year on oil.
Maybe it's not a lot of money if I think about it.
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56351
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Mick F »

I have absolutely no idea how much wood we get through. Never considered it.
Maybe there's a tad less than a cubic mtr on the hearth now, and I guess that would last three or four afternoon/evenings.

We moved here in April 1997 and began pulling the internals apart, including the heating system. I installed a multifuel stove in the livingroom and bought a chainsaw then got a friend to show me how to use it and fell trees.
After a year or so, I was concerned that we would run out of trees to cut, but here we are in late 2021 and there is no end in sight. Far from it. The things keep growing and dying. On my second chainsaw now.

It'll be me becoming too old and frail to cut the things, than them running out first.
Mick F. Cornwall
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56351
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Mick F »

PS:
I'll be taking the barrow into the wood this morning, and bringing a barrowload back to split.
It's already dry as it's a fallen dead birch.
Mick F. Cornwall
francovendee
Posts: 3145
Joined: 5 May 2009, 6:32am

Re: Heat in the home

Post by francovendee »

Mick F wrote: 30 Nov 2021, 9:04am I have absolutely no idea how much wood we get through. Never considered it.
Maybe there's a tad less than a cubic mtr on the hearth now, and I guess that would last three or four afternoon/evenings.

We moved here in April 1997 and began pulling the internals apart, including the heating system. I installed a multifuel stove in the livingroom and bought a chainsaw then got a friend to show me how to use it and fell trees.
After a year or so, I was concerned that we would run out of trees to cut, but here we are in late 2021 and there is no end in sight. Far from it. The things keep growing and dying. On my second chainsaw now.

It'll be me becoming too old and frail to cut the things, than them running out first.
At a guess I'd say there way less than 1/2 cube there, unless they spread further than the edge of your 'feet' photo.
I hope this doesn't turn into a foot fettish thread. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56351
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Mick F »

They logs go further across and there's a box with a few in.
You could be right about the volume though.
Whatever it is, it'll be doubled in and hour or three from now. :D
Mick F. Cornwall
Norman H
Posts: 1330
Joined: 31 Jul 2011, 4:39pm

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Norman H »

Paulatic wrote: 30 Nov 2021, 8:42am
Whilst the entire vent brick was exposed when building control signed off my house in 1998 in practice I have 7/8th of it now covered over and no experience of lack of draught for burning. I fitted a 4” flue obviously larger flues will require more draught.
Do you have a carbon monoxide detector?

Your wood burner may well be drawing some air from elsewhere in the house. I would recommend a CO detector as a sensible precaution.
Jdsk
Posts: 24479
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Jdsk »

Norman H wrote: 30 Nov 2021, 9:35amDo you have a carbon monoxide detector?

Your wood burner may well be drawing some air from elsewhere in the house. I would recommend a CO detector as a sensible precaution.
Wise words.

Jonathan
User avatar
[XAP]Bob
Posts: 19793
Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Re: Heat in the home

Post by [XAP]Bob »

MHRV is a good thing, heat pumps are a good thing, adding insulation is a good thing.

Like with other problems in the world there isn't just one solution, the solution will be composed of many strands.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
User avatar
Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56351
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Heat in the home

Post by Mick F »

Sitting down with a cuppa.
The pile is near as dammit 90cm wide and 60cm high.
This'll last us easily a week, unless we enter another few days of cold weather when we'll burn more of course.
IMG_0911.jpg
Mick F. Cornwall
PDQ Mobile
Posts: 4657
Joined: 2 Aug 2015, 4:40pm

Re: Heat in the home

Post by PDQ Mobile »

Mick F wrote: 30 Nov 2021, 9:04am I have absolutely no idea how much wood we get through. Never considered it.
Maybe there's a tad less than a cubic mtr on the hearth now, and I guess that would last three or four afternoon/evenings.

We moved here in April 1997 and began pulling the internals apart, including the heating system. I installed a multifuel stove in the livingroom and bought a chainsaw then got a friend to show me how to use it and fell trees.
After a year or so, I was concerned that we would run out of trees to cut, but here we are in late 2021 and there is no end in sight. Far from it. The things keep growing and dying. On my second chainsaw now.

It'll be me becoming too old and frail to cut the things, than them running out first.
I think Franco's figures are about right.

That is around 8-10 cubic metres of seasoned wood a year to heat (and hot water in most cases) a detached house of "normal" size.

That means a cubic meter of wood will heat a house and water for around a month. Very roughly.
More in depths of a continental winter of course, but much less in summer.

A cubic metre is stacked tight. Any other measure or weighing is too open to variables to be of any use.
A cubic metre of dry wood is a lot of heat energy and quite a bit of wood.

If you are using, quote; "a tad less than half a cubic metre" for just 3 or 4 days on a coal bedded fire in a house with another coal burning appliance, then I suggest you could be using it more efficiently.
Post Reply