On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:28:39 +0000, wrote:

We *were* thinking of adding a small solid fuel stove at the
other end
of the house in the breakfast room where we do spend quite a lot
of
our time but the costs are just silly - like £6000 for a fairly
small
installation (it does include some hot water with the space
heating,
but that's all).

eh???????

go on do tell - which small stove with optional boiler, flue and
associated "hot" water pipework = 6000?

We were a bit surprised by the price too! However as soon as you
start adding bits up it does start to become expensive.

One could possibly do a small, basic, space heat only, stove for £2000
or so including flue ...

That's all the other posters seem to be refering to. They seem to
have missed the ho****er and space heating by which I assume you mean
a few radiators rather than just heat from the stove heating the room
it is in.

6K does seem a lot but what does that include? Stove, hearth, flue,
thermal store, heat dump, plumbing for DHW, plumbing for radiators,
control system, making good, etc, probably several days labour. As
you say it all adds up.

Don't under estimate the cost of flue liner. The 10m length installed
here cost £200/m + VAT so an single item cost of £2,500...

As for electric storage heaters I hate the damn things but I've only
experienced the traditional type that are cold by late evening and
cook the house through the day.

If you can get ones that will hold most of their heat until you need
it in the evening and have that release vauguely automagic they might
be more acceptable. Ideally they need a room temperature sensor so
they can keep the daytime temp at no less than, say, 15C then switch
to 20C for the evening without user intervention.

--
Cheers
Dave.