Andy Dingley wrote:
On 15 Nov 2005 11:44:16 GMT, wrote:

If one has a wood fired stove (as opposed to a dedicated boiler) how
does the hot water/CH system work?

Much the same as for a coke solid fuel stove and back boiler. There's
gravity circulation to a heat store and a permanent radiator. In
practice you need to turn the circulation pump on (even in Summer) if
you do "over-do it" on occasion and get boiling and kettling.

With wood you also have some other options to rapidly throttle output. A
quick shovelful of sawdust will cut heat output for a while (it drops
the temperature, cutting wood gasification and the secondary burn
output). The damper is also more rapid-acting than on a coke stove.

If you have a big two-box stove with wood-gas burning in the second
chamber rather than an internal baffle, then they usually have a bypass
valve for easy lighting. Opening this removes about 1/3rd of the heat
output. Although it also reduces efficiency and encourages tar buildup
in the flue, so don't make a habit of it.

Thanks for all the feedback and ideas everybody, we'll now go away and
ruminate some more! :-)

--
Chris Green