Stove Experts needed

I made a post a while ago asking about using my fireplace, which I did over winter. It was great, house much warmer but when I had teh sweepers over they say an open fire palce is about 15% to 20% efficient so about 1.5kw of heat as most heat 10kw goes up the chimney and mentioned that a stove would be about 80% more efficient.

According to them the stove would be about £800 to £1000 and installation about £500 so I am looking at £1500 to get one in.

Looking at B&Q iron cast stoves they go between £300 for a 5kw small stove to £800.

So my question is, WHY THE HELL is it so damn expensive? I swear my gan granmother had iron cast stove and most people in villages in Eastern Europe still do… as only means of heating cooking washing… and I swear they don’t have £2000 lying around.

Saying that anyone here or know anyone into this and might be able to give me a good price… not a bike worth:) or anyone had it done and can give me some advice how to do it myself? I would assume all I need is the stove, the pipe and maybe a fuel increaser or pipe converter to match the pipe going up to the same circumference as my chimney hole. Would the pipe have to go all the way up the chimney or just to the hole?

Any advice is much appreciated:)

I know exactly what you mean, I was fireplace shopping last weekend. Came to the conclusion that the stove may save you money on wood, but wood is cheap for our infrequent use.

Do the maths, then decide?

Indeed… I am tempted to do some research and get one from somewhere abroad if they are cheaper.

machine mart do stoves

a proper company will want to line your chimney but it’s probably unnecessary…

We had a look at this, the companies want to line the chimney and fit a plate to the bottom of it that has to be made to measure and then the whole thing sealed. The plate they wanted to use was a thick chunk of metal, so I can see it would take some cutting and fitting, but a friend has a stove in his house that he fitted himself without a lining in the chimney and it works fine. He has a plate in the bottom of the chimney that he cut and it certainly isn’t as thick as the companies use. maybe 5mm thick.

Yes it’s the lining and granules they use to fill the space around the flue pipe…You can get away without it but bear in mind fitting a stove

well that’s what they did when I had one.

Stove wise you get what you pay for - I had a Clearview stove - a bit pricey but very good.

Found this on tinternet it may help

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/stove_help_and_advice.html

If it’s a pre WW2 house, do line the chimney and flue.

This is not the place to give a lesson on the history of domestic building construction but I’d advise you to line the flue for safety reasons.

You can test the flue you have with a smoke canister (any decent builders merchants) which is a good starting point to check things out, but smoke is denser then gas and tends not to leak in the same manner and the canisters do not heat up the flue.

Heat expands the masonry (stone me, who’d have thought that) and small fissures can become pretty decent cracks once heated.

As always you get what you pay for. The Machine Mart ones are basic, cheap and cheerful. While the Scandinavian made ones are better made and more efficient as well as better looking. You want one with a secondary burner/baffle that gives off extra heat.
There are legal hurdles to having one installed. It has to conform to certain rules.
Lining the chimney is expensive, you can buy the pipes from Machine Mart to do it yourself. Not sure it would be legal. (Who cares about the Clean Air Act?) That’s all you need if the chimney needs lining. The test for leaks is very basic, just a smoke bomb in the fireplace.
I had a stove put in and it is fantastic. I buy a tonne weight of wood in September and it lasts till April.
I bought the stove from a company called Embers in Queens Park.