Advice

[Butter]

Hi could do with a little advice. We moved into my grandparents old house about 5 years ago and have happily been using the solid fuel stove (coal) that heated the rads & hot water and never had a problem even though the system was quite old. We have since built a large extension to accommodate our expanding family. We needed a new larger stove (Stratford Arrow multi fuel). Mainly so we can burn wood as there is a ready free supply.
But we are having a few teething problems, the rads get hot but seem to cool again very quickly, the stove can be red hot and the rads just warm. We have bled the rads a few times.
We also seem to be burning flat out to get any where, is this normal when burning wood?
The wood is seasoned.
My husband is driving me mad with his rants about the boiler being the wrong choice. (My fault)
I loved the old system, but burning coal was expensive. I love the fact that we can always be warm with this new boiler and for free.
Any advice will be much appreciated,
Thank you in advance.

 

[Duetech]

Welcome to the forum Butter,
"But we are having a few teething problems, the rads get hot but seem to cool again very quickly, the stove can be red hot and the rads just warm. We have bled the rads a few times. We also seem to be burning flat out to get any where, is this normal when burning wood?"

Not a boiler pro here but it sounds like you have a plumbing/control problem since the rads get hot but cool quickly. Probably controls. If the new boiler is sized right and "red hot" there should be plenty of heat. There may be a little curiosity with the seasoning and type of wood you are burning but the problem doesn't sound like it is in the amount of heat available but more like your controls are not set correctly or are deffective.

 

[WoodNotOil]

Can you give us more specifics on how your system is plumbed together. How many heating zones? Does each zone have a pump or is there one pump and each zone has a zone valve? Are there no pumps and it is a gravity system? I agree that if you have a hot boiler and cold radiators, the problem is in deliver and not heat production. Also what is the model number of your stove and can you supply a link for details about it?