new to forum and would love some advice

[dyte]

hi everyone i am new here so i shall start with a quick hello my name is dave and i live in france we have taken on a old two story house ,the house needs a fair bit of work done to it and also the heating needs sorted out, this is where you guy come in to it.

the existing system is a oil fired boiler it is located in a small building built against the chimney wall of the house there is radiators in every room except the hall way and attic and the pipework runs to the boiler room ,i want to git rid of the oil boiler all together and replace it with a stove boiler located on the other side of the wall where the current boiler is ie.inside the house,the hot water is electric and will remain untouched and completely separate.

i have done a bit of reading online but every system i have seen has hot water system on the diagram is it possible to have just the radiators run off a stove i understand i will need a header tank this is not a problem can anyone point me in the right direction to system just running radiators there is 9 radiators in the current setup any thoughts would we awesome thanks in advance
david

 

[begreen]

Welcome David. I am moving this to the boiler room for a better response.

 

[JP11]

So you are saying a wood boiler with no "storage" just radiators. It will make your burns less "convenient" and by removing the oil boiler you will have NO backup system, something which your insurance company may frown upon.

LOTS of good reading here. Spend a while reading around. Knowing the size of your boiler room, your access to good dry firewood, and the heat requirements of your home will go a long way to getting you descent answers on here.

Welcome.

JP

 

[dyte]

thanks for that yeh the house is 160m² surface 4 bed rooms stone building the boiler room is large but would only be for connections as i want the stove boiler in the living room i would loose 2 radiators in the room i am putting the stove i have access to free wood, lowest outdoor temp in the winter is around 0degree centigrade for about three months

 

[heaterman]

When you say "stove boiler" what type of equipment are you referring to? A combination unit that provides heat via convetion as well as being able to heat water for space heating needs?

 

[dyte]

yes a these are common here in Europe but i have just noticed most of you guys are on the otherside of the pond

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Welcome aboard!

And actually, YOU are from the otha' side the pond!

 

[Karl_northwind]

Here's a site that has a lot of boilerstoves, and a fair bit of information on them.

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

you'll find a lot of wood and boiler information here, but as for boilerstoves specifically, they are much more common on your side of the pond.

Do you know whether this heating system/boiler is steam or is it hot water? that will determine your course of action pretty quickly.

the mass of the stone house may do a nice job of buffering the intermittent heat output of the stove.

photos will be very helpful for all of us, as I'm guessing most of us aren't very familar with european heating standard methods, but we're a pretty smart bunch and can figure out what you have.

 

[dyte]

OK thanks for the replies im maybe not in the right place for help but i have spoken with a heating expert over here and we came up with a plan here is a drawing if anyone wants to see how we do thing very simple system but i need to incorporate the hot water for safety as the cylinder coil is gravity feed from the stove to insure safe operation in the event of a power outage on the central heating pump the stove in the poor quality photo is a boiler stove my my current home but is not plumbed its just convection

 

[Hobartian]

Hi David,

I have grave doubts as to whether coils in your wood fire would produce the amount of heat that you would need for all those radiators. I tried the same idea before building a proper heater which you can view on this forum at:- https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...-on-the-design-by-richard-c-hill.68593/page-3

My experience is that coils in a fireplace remove too much heat from the fire which means it will not burn with full efficiency. Additionally, you will get a heavy build-up of creosote on the coils which acts as insulation reducing the heat exchange that you are relying on. I was able to heat a small quantity of water with a two meter coil in the fireplace but as soon as I started circulating the water through the hydronic radiators the temperature fell to a level where it was completely ineffective.


It would appear to me that your best option is to replace your oil fired boiler with a commercially made wood fired boiler which are readily available in Europe.