The Natural Philosopher coughed up some electrons that declared:

Simon wrote:
One of my relatives uses an open fireplace for heating during the winter,
using a mixture of coal and wood. The wood is effectively free. The
fireplace doesn't seem to produce a lot of heat, and I've read that a
woodburning stove might be much more effective, by virtue of drawing less
cold air into the house and sending less heat up the chimney. I have some
questions:

The regularly-swept chimney copes fine with the mixture of wood and coal
burnt in the fireplace, so is it likely be be OK with a wood stove, if
suitably connected? The house is about 20 years old.

The house is in a rural area, but there are a few houses nearby. Is the
exhaust from a woodstove likely to cause more nuisance to them than that
from the fireplace?

An ideas where I can get a cheap stove? I'm hopefully monitoring my local
Freecycle group, but I guess recent energy price rises have made wood
stoves very sought-after.

Any other things worth trying?


Stoves are more efficient really due to the longer path the flue gases
take through the structure, and the more surface area of the structu
our open fires take hours to really heat a room, because there is a mass
of about 15 tonnes of masonry and the like that needs to get warm
first..but they heat the room for about 12 hours after the fire goes out!!

Stoves, drawing less air into the flue, (can) run the flues a lot
hotter. Regulations insist that even a decent existing open fire flue be
lined..and this will cost you the bets part of a grand I am afraid.
Consult your BCO for details..

I can offer some input on this, having discussed the very same issue with
the local stove shop down the end of the village.

His opinion was that, yes, the flue must be lined as you say for the same
reasons. However, he was of the opinion that the lining may not need any
packing (eg vermiculite) around it if the chimney is good and relatively
free from tar. On this premise, I was told that DIY fitting his stainless
steel liner would be straightforward and would cost in the low 100's for 7m
of liner and top + bottom end parts. In short, he said I could get a
reasonable quality medium sized stove and liner+parts for a grand from him
and he was fairly confident the BCO (who he knew in passing) would probably
be OK with it, although of course I should check first, he added, quite
reasonably.

Proof's in the eating of course...

Cheers

Tim