I HATE the wood burning stove. Any alternatives please.

[walkage]

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Not having gone through all the posted threads - but what about a portable gas heater - bought one from Praktiker - yeah I know - plonker--but very efficient and very cheap to run.

[qwerty]

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Not having gone through all the posted threads - but what about a portable gas heater - bought one from Praktiker - yeah I know - plonker--but very efficient and very cheap to run.

A fair few of us tried them in Turkey but the bottles don't last long and at Turkish LPG prices it was very expensive heating.

[charlieboy]

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Qwerty... we are now in Bg not Turkey so prices are not the same. i think you will find it cheaper here..

[qwerty]

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Qwerty... we are now in Bg not Turkey so prices are not the same. i think you will find it cheaper here..

Yep, I should have written that last post better But although LPG half price here, changing the bottles every few days was just too much hassle, that was everyone's experience at the time, I think some people did manage to squeeze a week out of a bottle.

[dj]

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when yo go out take a folding pruning saw like I do and collect fallen branches , you wont believe how much wood is out there (but dont get caught),my friend has a auto gas conversion garage and he just converted his lpg heater to natural gas , 4 years on here and only mild discolouring of paint work in my house, it sound like your chimney has a problem . The other choice is get a wood furnace in the basement or garage away from the main rooms or get knitting more wollies.

[charlieboy]

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DJ---about the saw and branches etc..if it's fallen wood or dead wood there is no law against you taking it. The law prohibits you from cutting down fresh/green wood.

[seathrift]

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M W,
Normally a flue built with 225mm brickwork and then rendered would be sufficient insulation. Mine looks like it is just 225 mm common bricks with no pot on top and works just fine. If the walls of the chimney are less than 225 mm then you may need an insulated liner. Not to mention the doubtful structural integrity of a thin walled brick flue!
As I noted in previous posts there can be a number of reasons for a 'smoking fire'. I have once seen the 'perched slab' detail, but I think this could be the cause of your problem. The rising air hits the slab and by Newtons Law, the equal and opposite reaction sends it back down the chimney or maybe just stalls it. I would try an open pot or an H pot first, much less trouble to fix and cheaper.

[seathrift]

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One further thought: The chimney for a wood burning fire must be cleaned every two or three months, depending on the heat in the flue gasses. It does not require much of a deposit on the sides of the flue to seriously slow down the flue gasses, which then cool rapidly. In the worst case liquid tar and creosote will flow down to the lowest level. A serious fire risk of course and another cause of a smoky fire.

[karenm]

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Ideal morning for a heat pump

Inside temp 17.8
Outside temp 1.4

Sun coming up so in about 2 hours should be around 21 (with heat of sun) until sun starts to go down

Quick blast with heat pump and leave wood burner till later

To the OP

I am not sure what thype of fireplace you have but I have a built in one with the heat coming out of grills, this used the cause the paint above the grills and the ceiling to discolour.

I hav just made a duct to the bedroom upstair and blocked the downstaiirs grills up on the fireplace.

This means one more ceiling and wall paint and therafter just as normal as there will not be anymore problems in the grill area.

If you dont have an upstairs you could maybe somehow ' duct' the hot air from your chimney breast and bring the hot air out lower down with some ducting and a fan, where the area is cleanable, or you could filter the hot air maybe.

It is an alternative to one of the problems possibly

[Moscow_Wolf]

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Not having gone through all the posted threads - but what about a portable gas heater - bought one from Praktiker - yeah I know - plonker--but very efficient and very cheap to run.

Have used them in the past, but a) they give off a distinct smell, b) they give off a tremendous amount of water vapour resulting in condensation and c) they need servicing every now and again as you can poison yourself, (carbon monoxide, I think).

However, it has been some 30 or more years since I last used one and perhaps things have improved. I still read of folk dying in caravans from carbon monoxide poisoning using faulty gas fires without any proper ventilation or the flue has blocked. I believe modern bottled gas fires are supposed to switch themselves off if they detect 'bad' gasses, but I'm no expert on the subject.

How many of you can remember back to the old portable Paraffin Heaters (that's ALTERNATIVE) and, Pink Paraffin and ESSO Blue? I can still remember the words to the song of their TV advertisement for ESSO Blue. What happened to them?

Tim (Hippyboy), it is SAD what has happened to many apartment homes in the towns and cities. My worker asked me recently if he could take the angle grinder home, I said yes, but why. He replied that he wanted to cut the pipes to his last remaining radiator as it was doing no good. When I had reason to visit his apartment, which was a nice two room apartment he explained that they used to have central heating from their own boilers down in the basement, but since the fall of communism, the whole house system had broken up; many things were stolen and none of the residents could agree how to pay for the fuel needed to keep the 9 storey building heated.

So, in the end, this system became redundant and it became an each to their own for heating. For the whole 65 sq metre flat, he had one small electric heater. His last EVN bill came to 37 Lev and mine was 347 Lev. So, I guess the lesson is that sometimes, ALTERNATIVE heating systems are forced upon us by circumstances beyond our control. He would happily add a wood burning stove, but he has little or no convenient place to store any wood or coal for the fire although, he does have an outlet flue in the wall for such.

My limited experience of Bulgarian coal/coke is that it stinks, but it does give off some good heat. I only use the leftovers I found here in the dog's room in the old house, but mixed with wood. (Yes, even MOD would be happy to sleep in our Dog House).

I would just wish to clarify that my wood burning stove only smokes when I do something wrong mixed with high winds from a certain direction. It is not smoking like the Flying Scotsman steam train as some of you seem to have got the wrong impression. Yes, improvements can and will be made, but I should reiterate that this small house is meant to be a future guest house and not many will be staying here over winter. On the next larger project (whenever that might be), I shall get things right and most probably use the pellet boiler that can warm both houses.

I won't go the LPG route or Oil as I can only see myself being held to ransom on future falling stocks and rising prices. However, some alternative and most probably greener fuel will replace these fossil fuels and most of you that use it, will welcome the change. Might be worth investing in that corn field NOW.