Solid fuel stove and disconnected back boiler
 

An octogenarian lady who lives near me has recently had full oil-fired
central heating installed in her house for free by the local authority.
Sounds like a really generous scheme and indeed it is - but...

Before the central heating she had electric heaters and a solid fuel Raeburn
stove in the kitchen. This stove had a back boiler to give hot water. The
back boiler has been "disconnected" and she was told not to use the stove
any more. She recently experienced a 3 day power cut - we are in deepest
rural East Lothian - but these things happen often enough. During those 2
or 3 days she had NO HEATING AT ALL. Fortunately the weather was reasonable
and she is a very determined lady.

Apologies for the longish introduction. Is it not quite safe to run the
stove with a totally empty back boiler system? The metal will get hot but
will that matter? There are copper pipes leading up to the attic where,
presumably, there is an empty hot water tank. It would be a job of only a
few moments to disconnect these - there are very accessible joints just
above the stove level. Would such a system be safe to run?

Frank

In article , "Frank Stacey" f.
says...
An octogenarian lady who lives near me has recently had full oil-fired
central heating installed in her house for free by the local authority.
Sounds like a really generous scheme and indeed it is - but...

Before the central heating she had electric heaters and a solid fuel Raeburn
stove in the kitchen. This stove had a back boiler to give hot water. The
back boiler has been "disconnected" and she was told not to use the stove
any more. She recently experienced a 3 day power cut - we are in deepest
rural East Lothian - but these things happen often enough. During those 2
or 3 days she had NO HEATING AT ALL. Fortunately the weather was reasonable
and she is a very determined lady.

Apologies for the longish introduction. Is it not quite safe to run the
stove with a totally empty back boiler system? The metal will get hot but
will that matter? There are copper pipes leading up to the attic where,
presumably, there is an empty hot water tank. It would be a job of only a
few moments to disconnect these - there are very accessible joints just
above the stove level. Would such a system be safe to run?

Would it not make more sense, if the original plumbing is still in
place, to reconnect the water even though it goes to a tank that isn't
connected to anything else?

I don't think so. you need a way of connecting the back boiler into a
circuit that can safely dissipate its heat, maybe something on the
return side to the oil boiler but I'm no plumber.

A Dunsley neutraliser would work, although this might not be compatible with
the oil boiler, if it requires sealed pressurised operation. It would have
the additional advantage of actually using the solid fuel to heat the water.

An alternative, although probably too late to consider now, is to use a heat
bank in these situations. The oil/gas sealed pressurised boiler heats the
tank up through the indirect coil in the normal way. The solid fuel range
heats through direct water circulation with the heat bank water (no valves
or restrictions required) and the DHW is mains water heated off the plate
exchanger. A byproduct of this design is to provide mains pressure hot
drinking water.

Christian.

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 12:05:40 +0100, Frank Stacey wrote:

Sounds like a really generous scheme and indeed it is - but...

They didn't do a proper job. IMHO they should have left the Rayburn
still functional as a secondary heat source for HW and heating. It
should be possible to retro fit a "Dunsley Neutraliser" this allows a
oil/gas boiler and solid fuel boiler to co exist on the same system.


Is it not quite safe to run the stove with a totally empty back
boiler system?

Others have pointed out that the boiler will probably burn through or
the filling with fine dry sand. No experience, talk to Rayburn?

There are copper pipes leading up to the attic where, presumably,
there is an empty hot water tank.

What sort of system has been installed? Combie (oil combies exist but
are rare), presurised or normal open vented? Not sure if a Dunsley
Neutraliser can be fitted to anything other than open vented...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Frank Stacey wrote:

An octogenarian lady who lives near me has recently had full oil-fired
central heating installed in her house for free by the local authority.
Sounds like a really generous scheme and indeed it is - but...

Before the central heating she had electric heaters and a solid fuel Raeburn
stove in the kitchen. This stove had a back boiler to give hot water. The
back boiler has been "disconnected" and she was told not to use the stove
any more. She recently experienced a 3 day power cut - we are in deepest
rural East Lothian - but these things happen often enough. During those 2
or 3 days she had NO HEATING AT ALL. Fortunately the weather was reasonable
and she is a very determined lady.

Apologies for the longish introduction. Is it not quite safe to run the
stove with a totally empty back boiler system? The metal will get hot but
will that matter? There are copper pipes leading up to the attic where,
presumably, there is an empty hot water tank. It would be a job of only a
few moments to disconnect these - there are very accessible joints just
above the stove level. Would such a system be safe to run?


You are supposed to backfill the boiler with sand IIRC but apart from
that its OK to use. I think the danger is the boiler side will overheat
and melt, and the sand cools it and transfers the heat away.


I simply left my Highlander stove water pipes unconnected, and have used
it a few times since.

No probs to date.

Frank

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 12:05:40 +0100, "Frank Stacey"
wrote:

An octogenarian lady who lives near me has recently had full oil-fired
central heating installed in her house for free by the local authority.
Sounds like a really generous scheme and indeed it is - but...

Before the central heating she had electric heaters and a solid fuel Raeburn
stove in the kitchen. This stove had a back boiler to give hot water. The
back boiler has been "disconnected" and she was told not to use the stove
any more. She recently experienced a 3 day power cut - we are in deepest
rural East Lothian - but these things happen often enough. During those 2
or 3 days she had NO HEATING AT ALL. Fortunately the weather was reasonable
and she is a very determined lady.

Apologies for the longish introduction. Is it not quite safe to run the
stove with a totally empty back boiler system? The metal will get hot but
will that matter? There are copper pipes leading up to the attic where,
presumably, there is an empty hot water tank. It would be a job of only a
few moments to disconnect these - there are very accessible joints just
above the stove level. Would such a system be safe to run?

Hi,

Get the council to reinstate the back boiler as was, and make the new
system run in parallel with the old.

cheers,
Pete.

Apologies for the longish introduction. Is it not quite safe to run the
stove with a totally empty back boiler system? The metal will get hot but
will that matter? There are copper pipes leading up to the attic where,
presumably, there is an empty hot water tank. It would be a job of only a
few moments to disconnect these - there are very accessible joints just
above the stove level. Would such a system be safe to run?

Frank

I undersatnd that there are firebricks that can be used to replace the
boiler, it's not a technically difficult job, but if the rayburn is
'well embedded' this may not be an option. I have a single panel
radiator and a pump on my rayburn (vented to a header tank in the room
above), keeps the kitchen toasty.

I looked into a dunsley neutraliser, but the cost and PITA factors
were too much for what is, after all, a secondary heat source.

NUJ

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 21:18:34 +0100, wrote:

Fair enough if they'd done it at the same time, now it will cost a
bit to fit and 200 quid to buy. For the small amount of heat lost
couldn't the raeburn be sat like a towel rail, then little heat
would flow through it and if it was cold in the house the return
flow would dissipate the heat?

Trouble is you don't want to pump the primary without Dunsley
Neutraliser as the Rayburn really needs to be on gravity. If you pump
the primary without a Neutraliser you'll circulate water through the
Rayburn which will shift some of that heat up it's flue. And with oil
at silly prices you don't want to waste it...

I was tempted to look at this and decided it was cheaper to put a
pump and thermostat in the wood burner circuit but I am open to
correction.

So when the power goes off you have to shut down your woodburner to
stop it's boiler boiling or worse, exploding. Seems a bit silly...

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Solid fuel stove and disconnected back boiler
 

replying to The Natural Philosopher, Dani wrote:
Did you fill the boiler with sand ?


--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/uk-diy...er-113131-.htm

Solid fuel stove and disconnected back boiler
 

In message , Dani
m writes
replying to The Natural Philosopher, Dani wrote:
Did you fill the boiler with sand ?

Well, that was 16 years ago, but yes, when my Stanley stove/boiler was
disconnected from the water, I filled the water tank with dry sand, and
it was fine. The stove part was used all year, only closing down
briefly in the summer for annual cleaning.
--
Graeme

Solid fuel stove and disconnected back boiler
 

On 06/11/2018 11:44, Dani wrote:
replying to The Natural Philosopher, Dani wrote:
Did you fill the boiler with sand ?


No.

18 years later, its fine


--
Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the
gospel of envy.

Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Winston Churchill