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Wood burners

coolerking

By coolerking
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Guest Guest75

Guest Guest75

Posted
Posted

Agree with Kerphumph.

 

It's great to keep them going 24/7 as the house feels really cold when they go out.

Also they take a bit of time to heat up ,not an instant thing.

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snifter Newbie

snifter

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We have had them in many houses here in the UK. I love woodburners. They do take a bit of getting used to though. As Tyke said they take a while to warm up and get going. Also the room it is in will get very hot and the heat does sometimes take a while to filter out round the house. Helps if there is an upstairs for the heat to rise to but failing that, leave door open and it'll waft.

 

Once you get the hang of them, banking them up before you go to bed they will burn for hours into the night. And generally, if done right, there will still be embers burning in the morning and if you get into the habit, you get up and get the fire ready. Remove the cold ash and leave the embers behind and then add some more kindling/wood and open it up and let it get going. We used to use stove nuts or some such to help bank it up at night.

 

Also, here in the UK, its generally said to not be a good thing to keep them constantly on a shut down setting. It is better to let them roar I have been told by no end of chimney sweeps and people who use them. Of course, easier said than done when your sitting room is an oven and you are sitting in a tee shirt and melting.

 

If you can find one with a hot plate on the top you can also pop stuff on the top to cook. I used to have one I boiled a kettle on and made the odd stew on in the winter. And it also heated the hot water when it was going. The water was really hot and we just used the immersion in summer when the woodburner wasn't used.

 

Allow for having it all cleaned once a year, sometime over the summer when its really not being used at all.

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coolerking Newbie

coolerking

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Thanks for all the replies.

 

We have had them in many houses here in the UK. I love woodburners. They do take a bit of getting used to though. As Tyke said they take a while to warm up and get going. Also the room it is in will get very hot and the heat does sometimes take a while to filter out round the house. Helps if there is an upstairs for the heat to rise to but failing that, leave door open and it'll waft.

 

Once you get the hang of them, banking them up before you go to bed they will burn for hours into the night. And generally, if done right, there will still be embers burning in the morning and if you get into the habit, you get up and get the fire ready. Remove the cold ash and leave the embers behind and then add some more kindling/wood and open it up and let it get going. We used to use stove nuts or some such to help bank it up at night.

 

Also, here in the UK, its generally said to not be a good thing to keep them constantly on a shut down setting. It is better to let them roar I have been told by no end of chimney sweeps and people who use them. Of course, easier said than done when your sitting room is an oven and you are sitting in a tee shirt and melting.

 

If you can find one with a hot plate on the top you can also pop stuff on the top to cook. I used to have one I boiled a kettle on and made the odd stew on in the winter. And it also heated the hot water when it was going. The water was really hot and we just used the immersion in summer when the woodburner wasn't used.

 

Allow for having it all cleaned once a year, sometime over the summer when its really not being used at all.

 

Yeah, heating the water. I wonder if I can buy a cylinder here and have a gravity fed system. Not thought of that! Wow, cheap hot water and easy to do, just getting the fittings maybe difficult.

 

Cheers,

Cooler

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snifter Newbie

snifter

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Yeah, in the winter we had hot water 24/7. Enough for a us to shower in the morning, wash up and head out. Then if the fire was banked up for the day, it'd be piping hot water when we came home. If not, the fire would have to be going an hour or so before the water got hot again, but that was fine. And then if you use a large amount of water like running a bath, you need to allow an hour for the water to heat back up fully again. I only used the electric to heat the water for 6-7 months a year. Rest of the time, the woodburner was enough for our needs. Used it from October to March and for 4 of the coldest months at least, we never used the electric to heat the water.

 

Also, don't know about there, but here the usual thing is to have the chimney lined (at least in older houses). Might be worth checking out.

 

I know someone used to heat a few radiators from their woodburner also. Mind you, they had a HUGE burner in their sitting room. Size of a small horse.

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Guest kangomik

Guest kangomik

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There are a few around mate, and some places have underfloor heating, including a huge office block in the city.

Unfortunately to have a system fitted over here it means new boilers etc, a huge price tag due to supply costs.

I am told there is a Company in SA that imports the gear from the UK. There is another Company in VIC that does it to.

 

Radiators are just not common place in the here yet. Maybe one day, i hope:D

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snifter Newbie

snifter

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Our current house here in the UK, its the first one I've lived in in years with central heating. One place had night storage heaters and a woodburner, the other just a Rayburn and woodburner. I had to use a couple of oil filled radiators off the electric in that old house.

 

So central heating is a luxury for us. I shall miss it but am hoping to bring a couple of portable heaters with us. I still have one of our oil filled portable ones also I am considering shipping. Its only a few years old and hardly used.

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Guest teamV

Guest teamV

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There are a few around mate, and some places have underfloor heating, including a huge office block in the city.

Unfortunately to have a system fitted over here it means new boilers etc, a huge price tag due to supply costs.

I am told there is a Company in SA that imports the gear from the UK. There is another Company in VIC that does it to.

 

Radiators are just not common place in the here yet. Maybe one day, i hope:D

 

My wife runs a small company in the uk that supply and fit stove's and repair and reline chimneys.You never know there could be an opening there for us.I would bet there's a lot of rules and regs over there ,when it comes to fitting new stoves.

 

Phoenix Chimneys Ltd | Cumbria Chimney Repairs and Lining - Phoenix Chimneys Ltd

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Guest kangomik

Guest kangomik

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There will be rules and regs comming out of every vent hole mate:biglaugh:

 

Snifter, you may need to bring more than one of those ickle oiler warmers. The houses here are a little bigger, not very well insulated, run single glasing which has gaps all the way around the edges, and most are only single brick.

 

In the depths of winter we fire the gas heater up on full at 1 pm, just gets the house warm for 6 ish, then leave it on tick over through the night so it warms the kids bedrooms. It doesn't warm ours, so we have to get rugged up.............. OHHHH and don't forget the leccy blankets that we have and the kids.

 

Many will find this funny, those that live here won't.............. they have gas ducted heating:biglaugh:

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coolerking Newbie

coolerking

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There will be rules and regs comming out of every vent hole mate:biglaugh:

 

Snifter, you may need to bring more than one of those ickle oiler warmers. The houses here are a little bigger, not very well insulated, run single glasing which has gaps all the way around the edges, and most are only single brick.

 

In the depths of winter we fire the gas heater up on full at 1 pm, just gets the house warm for 6 ish, then leave it on tick over through the night so it warms the kids bedrooms. It doesn't warm ours, so we have to get rugged up.............. OHHHH and don't forget the leccy blankets that we have and the kids.

 

Many will find this funny, those that live here won't.............. they have gas ducted heating:biglaugh:

 

Mains gas, dow here in Sellicks, we can but dream!

 

They do sell some pretty thick rugs here, now I know why :biglaugh:

 

Cooler

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andy and lindsey Newbie

andy and lindsey

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My opinion - we put a log burner in our last house - think fitting and buying the heater were around $3000 ish. Our friends were envious when they came round - it was so warm and welcoming in the grim depths of the Aussie winter. We used to light it in the afternoom and then let it tick over - stoke it up before bedtime and then throw on a log in the morning for heat early on. It really did warm the whole house. We had a fan on ours and at times we also used the fan on the reverse cycle to drag the heat throughout the house. We got out first log burner (supplied and fitted) from Knights Heating and Cooling at Old Noarlunga (Victor Harbour Rd).

We have sold that house now and are building again but we have already purchased a logburner for the new house. For those on the look out for a bargain we bought the new log burner from The Messenger Newspaper Bid, Buy and Save - we bid $1300 dollars for a brand new log burner from Right Price Heating and Cooling and won! Andy thought it was too good to be true but is now a convert and we intend to look again this year for other bargains. We will ask Knights to fit this one.

In our previous house we had R/C heating and cooling and some people scoffed when we bought the heater as we already had a heat source but in all honesty its a different type of heat -the log burner was so much more pleasant! In our new house we are getting evaporative as we never used the R/C for heating. Bills too we knew where we stood as we had bought the wood up front. We never got stung with a huge bill - which can happen when you rely heavily on R/C.

 

I scoffed when Andy suggested we put a logburner in our last house but Im defiantely a convert now!

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Guest Guest75

Guest Guest75

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We had a plumber in at work before Christmas and he said he had a colleague (British) who had central heating in his house somewhere in the hills.

 

Cooler

 

Don't tell me that.!!!

 

I want to gouge his eyes out and then kill him!!

 

You'll be telling me he had double glazing next!:arghh:

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Guest Guest5035

Guest Guest5035

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We have a woodie aswell as ducted heating, the DH for the morning and the woodie from around 2pm. our wood costs me around $30 for a hatchback with seats down full, 3/4 loads per year, from a yard around $275 a tonne.

 

Stevo

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Guest Guest75

Guest Guest75

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We have a woodie aswell as ducted heating, the DH for the morning and the woodie from around 2pm. our wood costs me around $30 for a hatchback with seats down full, 3/4 loads per year, from a yard around $275 a tonne.

 

Stevo

 

I would not use that term for your wood burning stove.

 

To say you have your "Woodie" hot means a totally different thing here and I think in the States :biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

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Guest Team 'W'

Guest Team 'W'

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I heard theres an expat in the south who fits double glazing...can't remember his name though. Just set up his own company.

That could well be me Nick! Our factory showroom should be fully operational in 2 - 3 months - just in time for the real cold weather!

 

 

Stuart

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Guest jove

Guest jove

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Are the houses in South Australia so poorly insulated that they do not keep heat in the winter? How cold do the houses generally get?

 

The Australians cant all be living in ice boxes in winter can they?

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