A
Quick Guide to Choosing the Right Stove.
The first
thing is to decide the style of stove.
There are a wide range of styles to contemplate before selecting a
specific model. They include
contemporary, traditional, modern, cassettes, inset , built in , wall mounted, suspended).
It is
important to remember that if you are looking to house your stove within an
existing fireplace, most freestanding wood-burning and multi fuel stoves
require a gap of at east 6 inches all around it. (i.e. a 6-inch space must be maintained
between the stove and the fireplace).
Where
the size of the fireplace is such that a 6-inch gap cannot be maintained, one
solution which we often recommend is to consider selecting an inset or cassette
stove. These can be fitted flush into
tighter spaces and don’t require the 6-inch gap. The advantage of this solution is that a
larger stove can be fitted into smaller space, thereby ensuring you have a
selected a product which generates the maximum possible output.
These
products also work particularly well to give a bespoke clean look to a room.
Having
selected the style of stove, it is time to choose which fuel type is most
appropriate for you. It is also
important to consider how well insulated your house is and whether there are
any financial benefits to making some improvements to the insulation of your
home. Significant savings in fuel costs
can be expected for rooms that are well insulated.
When
it
comes to choosing a fuel for your stove there are a wide range of
choices we
can discuss with you - wood, multifuel , gas, pellets , electric,
bio-ethanol, bio-mass. Hot debate continues amongst consumers as to
which is the fuel of choice. There are a number of factors to consider
including
how green a fuel is perceived to be in addition to cost and heating
efficiency
profile. Consumers are also increasingly
concerned about maintaining more control of their own energy bills
instead of
putting another company in charge of them.
Many gas and electricity suppliers are planning to increase their
prices by over 9% over the next 12
months.
It is
also important to ensure the that size of stove you choose is adequate to warm
your room and produce the cosy ambience that you intended it to. The calculations don’t have to be complicated
- even though you may be told by some
retailers otherwise!
Here
is a simple rule of thumb. Every 1KW of
heat that a stove produces is able to heat a room volume of about 15 m3
. So all you have to do is calculate the
volume of your room………..and divide by 15 to give you the KW output you need
your stove to produce. For example if
your room measurements are : Height: 2.5 m,
Width: 7m, Length: 5m ,then your total
room volume is = 2.5m x 7m x 5m = 87.5 m3 . Divide this 87.5
by 15 and you will get to 5.8. This is
the magic number, i.e. 5.8 KW, that you need to ensure your stove is able to
generate to keep you room nice and warm.
Now that you are ‘warmed’ up and feel more confident about the
style of stove, the fuel options and the product that delivers the right energy
output for your needs, you should now feel much more confident about discussing
any aspect of your new stove purchase with any retailer or installer; and you
can demonstrate that you understand the most important points when it comes to
assessing the multitude of options, and more importantly, you will have a much
better feel as to the right questions that you need answers to.
If your money is tight you should carefully read this part of
the stove guide. If not feel free to skip
to the next paragraph!
In this part, I am going to explain how your flue system can
make your new stove more efficent. So before
you do anything else, you need to know if your chimney is lined or not? There are three main reasons why you might want to consider having your chimney lined. Firstly, having a lined chimney will assist
in getting your stove to light faster and more easily. Secondly, a lining will ensure that the
chimney doesn’t leak smoke inside your house - this can be important in old houses where
the chimney brickwork is old and possibly a little porous.
Thirdly, a flue will improve the draw of the
chimney which once again ensures no smoke escapes when you open the stove door. An improved draw also helps to reduce the
build up of condensation in the flue system and also the risk of chimney fires. the liner is and made
from steel which tar can’t easily stick to and this also helps to reduce the
possibility of chimney fires. Stoves
tend to produce gases that are cooler than the gases produced form an open
fireplace. This is because more of the
energy is used to heat the stove and surrounding air. A cooler exhaust gas means less tar being
produced which in turn mean less deposits – hence a cleaner, safer burning
process.
If you don’t have an existing chimney then you
can use twin lined stainless steel flue systems.The flue systems are often
designed by your fitter to suite your requirements and include any cleaning and
access within the design.Finally,
you need to ensure you have checked whether you are in smoke control area or
not. Under the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968,
if you are in a smoke control zone any stoves must be Approved
Exempt’ or ‘Defra Approved’. These are stoves
whichhave passed tests to confirm that they are
capable of burning an unauthorised or inherently smoky solid fuel without
emitting smoke.
