Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our
woodburning stove.

I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day.
Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the
evening.

I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work
anyway. My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that
some hours later burns down enough to light the kindling.

Any better ideas welcomed!

"Shimshams" wrote in message
...
Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our woodburning
stove.

I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day.
Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the
evening.

I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work anyway.
My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that some hours
later burns down enough to light the kindling.

Any better ideas welcomed!

Use a fan heater on a time swtich to warm the room then light the fire when
you get in

Surely its not cold enough yet to need the fire anyway

Shimshams wrote:
Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our
woodburning stove.

I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day.
Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the
evening.

I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work
anyway. My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that
some hours later burns down enough to light the kindling.

Any better ideas welcomed!

http://www.jordansfireworks.co.uk/fwsite/remote.html

I presume you're better at laying a fire than I am: generally it takes
me several attempts to get it going.

"Shimshams" wrote in message
...
Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our woodburning
stove.

I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day.
Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the
evening.

I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work anyway.
My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that some hours
later burns down enough to light the kindling.

Any better ideas welcomed!


Time switch, battery and wire wool for the "detonator", plus suitable tinder
of course.

On Oct 6, 10:55 am, Shimshams wrote:
Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our
woodburning stove.

I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day.
Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the
evening.

I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work
anyway. My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that
some hours later burns down enough to light the kindling.

Any better ideas welcomed!

mend the central heating :)

seriously - an unattended stove will probly have gone out after 2
hours - assuming you need the dampers/airwash etc fully opened to get
it going in the first place.

On 6 Oct, 11:12, jim wrote:
On Oct 6, 10:55 am, Shimshams wrote:


seriously - an unattended stove will probly have gone out after 2
hours - assuming you need the dampers/airwash etc fully opened to get
it going in the first place.

Ours will stay in for much longer but it's a waste of fuel if the
house is unoccupied.

Our Dunsley Yorkshire takes not more than four minutes to light, the
door is fully closed with the 'dampers' fully open during that time
then they're closed, after putting some 2" logs on the flame. Larger
logs are put on later.

We're very impressed with the efficiency but I wouldn't light it
before we went out, it's not worth it, being so quick and easy to
light and give out more heat than we need.

Mary

On Oct 6, 7:11 pm, "
wrote:
On 6 Oct, 11:12, jim wrote:

On Oct 6, 10:55 am, Shimshams wrote:

seriously - an unattended stove will probly have gone out after 2
hours - assuming you need the dampers/airwash etc fully opened to get
it going in the first place.

Ours will stay in for much longer but it's a waste of fuel if the
house is unoccupied.

mmm what i meant was if it's lit by some non-human "mechanism" and
all the dampers etc are fully open ( as you & I both light ours),
then in 2 hours (with everything left wide open as no-one is at
home...) it would probly have burnt out....

JimK

Shimshams wrote:
Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our
woodburning stove.

I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day.
Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the
evening.

I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work
anyway. My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that
some hours later burns down enough to light the kindling.

Any better ideas welcomed!

Forget it.

Any better ideas welcomed!

Light it when you get home, but use a hot air paint-stripper gun to
get it going *quickly*.

RubberBiker wrote:
Any better ideas welcomed!

Light it when you get home, but use a hot air paint-stripper gun to
get it going *quickly*.

nah. Use a blowlamp.

couple of firelighters under some 1/2 x 1 lath, a few 2" sticks piled on
top with plenty of airflow, and a couple of big uns on top.

On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:04:16 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
had this to say:

RubberBiker wrote:
Any better ideas welcomed!

Light it when you get home, but use a hot air paint-stripper gun to
get it going *quickly*.

nah. Use a blowlamp.

couple of firelighters under some 1/2 x 1 lath, a few 2" sticks piled on
top with plenty of airflow, and a couple of big uns on top.

Embed a bit of nichrome wire (the sort of stuff you got on electric
fire elements) into a firelighter and power it from a transformer fed
via a timeswitch.

--
Frank Erskine

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:04:16 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
had this to say:

RubberBiker wrote:
Any better ideas welcomed!
Light it when you get home, but use a hot air paint-stripper gun to
get it going *quickly*.

nah. Use a blowlamp.

couple of firelighters under some 1/2 x 1 lath, a few 2" sticks piled on
top with plenty of airflow, and a couple of big uns on top.

Embed a bit of nichrome wire (the sort of stuff you got on electric
fire elements) into a firelighter and power it from a transformer fed
via a timeswitch.

doesn't work. Better is fusewire wrapped around match heads embedded in
a mixture of potassium or sodium chlorate and....

The Natural Philosopher
wibbled on Tuesday 06 October 2009 15:23


doesn't work. Better is fusewire wrapped around match heads embedded in
a mixture of potassium or sodium chlorate and....


Is it time to say "thermite"?


But only if you hate your stove...

--
Tim Watts

This space intentionally left blank...

The Natural Philosopher
wibbled on Tuesday 06 October 2009 14:04

RubberBiker wrote:
Any better ideas welcomed!

Light it when you get home, but use a hot air paint-stripper gun to
get it going *quickly*.

nah. Use a blowlamp.

couple of firelighters under some 1/2 x 1 lath, a few 2" sticks piled on
top with plenty of airflow, and a couple of big uns on top.

Gas poker? A great (subject to being incompatible with dangerous/stupid
sods) idea from yesteryear.

--
Tim Watts

This space intentionally left blank...

"Shimshams" wrote in message
...
Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our woodburning
stove.

I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day.
Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the
evening.

I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work anyway.
My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that some hours
later burns down enough to light the kindling.

Any better ideas welcomed!

If your stove is properly installed and you are using good quality dry
seasoned wood then it should stay in overnight with everything closed down
and then come back to life when you open the draught.

This suggests that it should also stay in at 'tickover' during the day and
then come back to life when you get home.

This seems a far more sensible approach than a potentially expensive and
dangerous combination of highly inflamable fire lighting substances and a
timer to ignite them.

The long candle does sound a fun idea, but apart from general timing
constraints you would have to have enough air flow going through the stove
to keep the candle alight and also ensure that the kindling catches when the
candle burns down far enough. This would probably be enough air to get the
stove really roaring once the wood catches. This leads to a situation where
you wouldn't want to be unexpectedly delayed on your way home.

Even a fan heater on a timer sounds potentially dangerous, if slightly more
practical.

Oil filled electric radiator on a timer, to take the chill off the room?

Employ a pensioner to come in and light it for you? This could be cheaper
and more reliable.

Cheers

Dave R

On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:25:01 +0100, David WE Roberts wrote:
If your stove is properly installed and you are using good quality dry
seasoned wood then it should stay in overnight with everything closed down
and then come back to life when you open the draught.

This suggests that it should also stay in at 'tickover' during the day and
then come back to life when you get home.

Agreed - I would think it possible to tend to it in the morning and have
it in a state where it can be quickly brought up to temperature when
arriving home, with enough heat supplied during the day to take the chill
off things (and that's speking from experience of wood stoves in an area
where the outside temp can easily be -30).

This seems a far more sensible approach than a potentially expensive and
dangerous combination of highly inflamable fire lighting substances and
a timer to ignite them.

Yes, leaving them unattended is a little risky anyway - and unattended
with some sort of homebrewed lighting mechanism sounds like a good way to
end up with no house :-)

cheers

Jules

Thanks for all your replies folks - at least I now know there's no
gadget on the market that will do this.

I would say I'm going to play with my candle but it's not that sort of a
newsgroup, never mind the name.

And the reply below made me laugh immoderately.

Yes, leaving them unattended is a little risky anyway - and unattended
with some sort of homebrewed lighting mechanism sounds like a good way to
end up with no house :-)

1kW does quite a bit of heating to a room...
- typical tough winter is 120 days
- 120 x 1kW x 2hrs = 480units @ 12.5p = £60

Very little over a year (£5/month).
I've assumed 2hrs no thermostat (you may find 20mins is enough).

Failing that, who is for the first wood-burner-storage-heater-combo ?
Heat passes up thro magnetite bricks, ok for 920-980oC?
Ok, probably worse than the firelighter on a timer.

OP - You sure there aren't easier ways to burn the bank down BTW? :-)
Like elect Gordon Brown for another term (or even elect him at all
come to think of it).

To add to that re £60...
- Tesco firelighter is 11.4p, 120 days is £13.68
- 2kW out of wood is say 10p, 120 days is £12

So that is £26 vs £60 for a 1kW fan heater on 100% for 2hrs.
So the penalty is £34 extra or less than £3/month.

If the price of wood is higher, adjust accordingly.

I'll be darned if I can find a way of using an angle grinder somehow!

"1501" wrote in message
...
I'll be darned if I can find a way of using an angle grinder somehow!

Arrange angle grinder on a pivoting arm, such that the blade is resting on a
suitable piece of steel. Timer plug for the angle grinder. Aim so the sparks
go into some suitable tinder. Easier for an open fire than a stove though.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Shimshams saying
something like:

My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that
some hours later burns down enough to set fire to the house.

nods
Good idea.

Shimshams wrote:


I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work
anyway.

It's done on some of the Kunzel stoves. Essentially they are batch loaded
cross draught gasifiers. Load them with dry wood and set the timer, come
ignition time and a 400W hot air blower ignites the load. Many pellet
burners have something similar.

AJH

"andrew" wrote in message
...
Shimshams wrote:


I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work
anyway.

It's done on some of the Kunzel stoves. Essentially they are batch loaded
cross draught gasifiers. Load them with dry wood and set the timer, come
ignition time and a 400W hot air blower ignites the load. Many pellet
burners have something similar.


If you look in junk shops you can find hot air blowers which can be used to
light fires.
Essentially an electric fire element inside a hollow ceramic tube with a
kick ass hair dryer on the far end.
These are great for open fires because they blow very very hot air through
the fuel and the combination of heat and air gets the fire going really
quickly.
However you are still left with the problem of incorporating this safely
into a stove and also managing the stove so that it has enough draught to
light but then once lit does not over heat and/or burn all the fuel.
If you were building a stove from new then this should be possible, but
cutting and welding a sheet iron stove (cast iron would be even more
difficult) is probably further than you want to go.
You would need quite a bit of space around the stove as well to be able to
fit the bulky extra bits you would require.
You would also have to cut through the fire bricks.
Hmmm....losing enthusiasm for the idea already.