Wood burning stoves, Multi-Fuel Stoves and fuels

[Debs]

I’m in a process of weighing up my options.

Presently have an open coal fire.
It works okay, looks fantastic when lit, and provides a lot of warmth, however, coal has become environmentally unfashionable these days, plus it’s expensive to buy, and the ash is a real dirty PITA job to clean out. A coal fire only gets lit very occasionally these days, perhaps a dozen time a year, and usually when there is snow on the ground so i’m not going out anywhere in a hurry…

For some time i’ve been thinking about installing a wood burning stove, would need a flue liner and professional installation so probably need a couple of grand to get properly sorted?
Plenty of places around local that sell and deliver a big bagful of stove logs.

But another tempter… last week i took a trip to B&Q to buy something completely unrelated to fireplaces, however as i walked past a line of Dimplex ‘electric’ stoves i was mesmerised by the realistic effect these artificial fire places have. Using an appliance called ‘Opti-myst’ which looks like it’s really on fire with real smoke curling and swirling above. These have a heat free setting which would be very useful, my central heating can cope in the coldest weather.
They run on electric mains and filtered water, and even come with a remote control
They don’t create any ash or mess.
The only thing that puts me off buying one is risk of a power cut, and the peace of mind for having an alternative heating source such as a real fire.
Although i could sit a Dimplext Opti-myst fire in front of my open fireplace, and simply remove it in the unlikely event of a long power-cut : /

[glasnaim]

Sounds like a plan and trade your Naim kit for a music centre

[Alley_Cat]

Are there things you won’t consider burning in a multi-fuel stove or garden incinerator?

Personally:

Poorly dried/seasoned wood unless in emergency.

Christmas trees.

Chemically treated timber offcuts or waste.

Painted timber - have a load of old skirting and door frames outside but given the age of the house I’d not be surprised if some of the paint has lead. Skip needed.

While generally happy with plain cardboard packaging or the paper sections of non-printed envelopes I may be making assumptions burning these - I remove or bin any of that horribly effective Amazon packaging tape with nylon stringly bits.

I’m unsure of:

Softwood vs hardwood debate - tend to avoid softwood primarily as it spits more, though would get used for kindling.

Newspapers - are the print dyes harmful?

Till receipts - did I dream that they could be a source of dioxins?

Glossy envelopes/flyers/magazines - they must have something synthetic in them?

I do tend to burn address labels/items with personal info on them torn from letters/envelopes I don’t need to keep. Small amounts only though would prefer not to - even if I shred paperwork I still tend to incinerate it, and my garden incinerator has rusted and is falling apart!

Synthetic coal briquettes - many varieties, with a large array of binders some of which might not be flue friendly - I think I found composition data on Defra for several popular brands you’d see at supermarkets last year - if you use these a lot which do you like. They are great like peat at keeping the fire in overnight/during the day but briquettes produce a lot of ash and I find it harder to add more and get the new ones going from the embers (unlike peat).

Coal - limited experience but very dirty fuel to use - another peat briquette advanatge - so splinters of dirty hands though the odd crumbly flake falls off.

Pistachio nut shells - they generally combust very well, but would avoid salted ones - read somewhere they contain oils which when vaporised and ignited can mitigate creosote build-up - don’t burn many but would imagine oily shells might add to flue liner soot/creosote build-up.

Some of my concerns relating to printed materials would also apply to composting similar items - again am I wrong?

It would be interesting to hear your view - concerns naturally relate to effects on the flue and environmental emissions of non-natural compounds - I appreciate wood/fossil fuel smoke is far from clean, and may well create unpleasant hydrocarbons, but it is at least a natural effect of combustion of organic materials, and I’d rather that than smoke from synthetics.

[Camphuw]

Are there things you won’t consider burning in a multi-fuel stove or garden incinerator?

The key, I think, is getting the temperature as high as possible before trying to burn “dodgy” stuff. And there is enough oxygen around to ensure a clean burn.

In an ideal world we should not pollute, air, land or water, but human activity has inevitable side-effects. How small can my ecological footprint be? As small as I can make it …

In a town I would be careful what I burnt outside; in a rural environment less so. I would rather emissions go to air than go to landfill. That’s why I prefer a properly run incinerator to landfill sites. Human / technical error of course may result in toxic fumes being emitted.

[John]

We’ve had this installed in the summerhouse for a couple of weeks now and absolutely love it, I just need to get the music sorted

[Gazza]

Very nice, is the fan useful, have often wondered about them?

[John]

Thanks. The fan makes a big difference circulating the air so there are no hot or cold spots.

[BruceW]

Great things. Virtually silent and if you put them at the back of the stove they help to draw cool air around it to be heated. There is no sense of it blowing a draft into the room but they definitely increase the effectiveness.

Bruce

[John]

Putting the fan at the back of the stove is absolutely the right thing to do but like a fool I bought a fan that is too big for the tiny stove. It still helps though.

[Alley_Cat]

Fuel types.

Having tended to buy kiln dired from Home Bargains a lot as it’s tricky to get a delivery, I recently learned of a source I’d not considered - Wickes.

Possibly not the cheapest, but these big sacks must hold at least 3 of the Home Bargain ones, if not more, and I think the HB ones actually have less in them these days, these seem less dusty too - if your store keeps them dry they seem to burn very well and I prefer the big sacks to the plastic bags:

I tried another make of ‘olive stone mix’ smokeless fuel a year or so ago and it stank. These briquettes seem pretty good and have little odour, on offer as are a few other solid fuels at Wickes for next few days, fair bit of ash but they last hours on end:

As I use up others fuels I have around the place I’m trying to get the ‘black diamond anthracite’ burning again. Great when it works, but very finnicky to light and keep in without adding some kild dried to keep it going every so often - perhaps still a learning curve as I don’t want to overheat the stove so am a bit wary with it, perhaps not adding enough.

[Gazza]

It would be so much cheaper to buy in bulk by the cubic metre…need a log store. But for the long term worthwhile.

[Alley_Cat]

Yes, it would, just delivery is awkward where I am - I got a few cubic metres a few years back but I had to hire a van!

I’d add I was sceptical of that home fire kiln dried as I’ve had rubbish from garages when I’ve been away on hols, but it was generally stored out and soaking - looks as though some Wickes branches are better than others at keeping it dry.

[glasnaim]

Think I mentioned “Luxury Logs” to you before for bulk delivery, I live down a narrow lane, the pallet of logs comes off back of truck and remainder of the journey on mobile pallet lifter, all you need is hard standing to where the pallet is dumped. I get delivered from England to Scotland, they have a good distribution network and a good selection of wood types, I usually go for Ash or Oak.
As Gaza says you need a log store, I think they sell them.

[Alley_Cat]

Yes, thanks for reminding me about ‘Luxury Logs’ - my issue with deliveries is absence of a driveway or rear lane access and the location near a school is far from ideal for a pallet or logs to be tipped onto the road/pavement for several reasons but probably not impossible - I have a storage unit, maybe I could get the delivery to there, but timing the delivery might be tricky.

I’ve been planning on maybe making my own log store when (if!) I have some free time over the summer.

[glasnaim]

I have similar difficulties, I have to barrow the logs through the cottage out to log store at the back as the rear driveway too steep. The logs are delivered on a shrink wrapped pallet, the drivers just manoeuvre the pallet to the front path. Next I bribe or threaten the kids to help move the logs, that’s the hardest part. It doesn’t take long with a few wheel barrows on the go.
I had thought to build my own log store but there are so many cost effective solutions online and very quick to erect.

[seakayaker]

…when I lived in New England I ran a coal/wood burning stove. We would only use coal for two to three months during the coldest part of the year. There is an art to banking the coal and being on top of removing the ash to keep it properly vented and continually running.

btw, it is easier when your older since your getting up during the night to pee anyway, so you give the coal a little shake while your up!

[Alley_Cat]

My sleep patterns are quite interrupted in recent years so I can fully uinderstand that comment!

Having got some ‘house coal’ from local garages or supermarkets which was awful I nearly gave up, then found a supplier 40 miles away with Welsh anthracite/Welsh steam coal and bought several 25kg bags of various sized ‘nuts’.

Initial attempts last year gave a lot of clinker so I gave up.

Tried again this year, it’s probably dried out, and when I get it right the anthracite works really well, but still catches me out and goes out as it did thios afternoon.

On top of that I have two multi-fuel burners from the same manufactureer with different heat outputs and they each seem to behave in a slightly different way - what works on one and stays in doesn’t on the other!

[seakayaker]

The stove we used was a fireplace insert that would burn both coal and wood. I could not find an exact picture but looked something like this model.

Bank the coal give it a shake every four hours and remove the ash from the bottom draw. You could get a nice hot slow burn going that could last for days if you stayed on top of it.

[BruceW]

Well coal, wet logs and other ‘smokey’ fuels for domestic log burners are going to be banned in the UK next year.

In other news we installed a wood pellet boiler this week. Goodbye fuel oil!

[Beachcomber]

Burning wet logs is a bad idea for many reasons - so that doesn’t seem unreasonable. We have a Rayburn and two wood burners, and I cut our own wood. I keep it for about a year in a log store - but have no idea whether this would be considered ‘wet’ - it seems pretty dry to me.
Will the police be coming round to check my wood?