Hi all,
First of all let me tell you exactly what my house is like to be warned. My family and I live in a 1961 3 bed semi at the bottom of a hill/ valley (sun only hits roof and only really warms top floor) in a city next door to a park with trees in the north eastof england. The chimney is not on the gable end but between the two semis and have been told we share it with next door. We have wooden floorboard underneath which is mud/ rubble on the bottom floor. The house is made of breeze blocks inside and out (outside rendered) with a cavity and insulation that has been recently pumped into it for the first time. The living room is a long thin living room diner with he chimney in the living room part. The room averages out at 3.4m wide x 7m long and 2.4m high and the chimney is made of bricks. The fireplace is tiny at 55cm wide by 67cm tall. The windows are huge at theist ting room end 2.8m x1.6m single glazed and at the dining end 1,8m x 1,6m single glazed.
Here's the rub, a freestanding wood burner for us is less desirable visually (We're creatives so these things matter to an extent) but we have been offers one for free measuring 45 cm wide. Since we have a small fireplace that only leaves us with a 5cm gap each side and realistically they don't come much smaller than this. I assume thus is unsafe. The good news is there are no combustibles close by. We are willing to buy an inset and don't need to heat our entire house with it but would love it if it made our long cold draughty living room cosy in the winter without the radiators on. I have read that insets might not give us the warmth we are looking for. We had an installer to check out the house and suggested a 6 or 7 kw as he liked things toasty. At this point we hadn't decided what type (freestanding or insert) we wanted. He said he doesn't insulate the flu as it's a false economy and gave me a convincing reason why which I don't remember - something about needing to see the condition, maintenance maybeand something else. He does insulate for a company he gets contract work from as they demand it but doesn't recommend. The lady at the stove shop said that was way too hot and only needed a 4/5 kw. The calculators say 4.1kw. I read to add a couple of kw's on your cubic measurement somewhere and somewhere else to divide your cubic measurement by 10 if poorly insulated and round up (that would be (5.7 to 6kw). I have found a good deal on a Fireline FPi5 with a nominal 5kw so I figure that hits the middle of everyone's opinion but am worried that this isn't going to be cosy enough when taking all things into consideration. That being, it's an inset (will this model only heat my chimney or will it convect air in to the room), large single glazed windows (one day this will change but not quickly) wooden floors withou rugs and a LNG room all sent in the chilly north. The fireline looks great feels sturdy and is on a great offer as a shop floor model. 5kw also sounds cosy to me also but have no experience of inset. Only other info is that we wouldn't be directly inserting it into the inglenook as the installer says he can go taller but not wider on the chimney so would have it raided about 30cm from the chimney base. This is for aesthetic reasons only.
First of all let me tell you exactly what my house is like to be warned. My family and I live in a 1961 3 bed semi at the bottom of a hill/ valley (sun only hits roof and only really warms top floor) in a city next door to a park with trees in the north eastof england. The chimney is not on the gable end but between the two semis and have been told we share it with next door. We have wooden floorboard underneath which is mud/ rubble on the bottom floor. The house is made of breeze blocks inside and out (outside rendered) with a cavity and insulation that has been recently pumped into it for the first time. The living room is a long thin living room diner with he chimney in the living room part. The room averages out at 3.4m wide x 7m long and 2.4m high and the chimney is made of bricks. The fireplace is tiny at 55cm wide by 67cm tall. The windows are huge at theist ting room end 2.8m x1.6m single glazed and at the dining end 1,8m x 1,6m single glazed.
Here's the rub, a freestanding wood burner for us is less desirable visually (We're creatives so these things matter to an extent) but we have been offers one for free measuring 45 cm wide. Since we have a small fireplace that only leaves us with a 5cm gap each side and realistically they don't come much smaller than this. I assume thus is unsafe. The good news is there are no combustibles close by. We are willing to buy an inset and don't need to heat our entire house with it but would love it if it made our long cold draughty living room cosy in the winter without the radiators on. I have read that insets might not give us the warmth we are looking for. We had an installer to check out the house and suggested a 6 or 7 kw as he liked things toasty. At this point we hadn't decided what type (freestanding or insert) we wanted. He said he doesn't insulate the flu as it's a false economy and gave me a convincing reason why which I don't remember - something about needing to see the condition, maintenance maybeand something else. He does insulate for a company he gets contract work from as they demand it but doesn't recommend. The lady at the stove shop said that was way too hot and only needed a 4/5 kw. The calculators say 4.1kw. I read to add a couple of kw's on your cubic measurement somewhere and somewhere else to divide your cubic measurement by 10 if poorly insulated and round up (that would be (5.7 to 6kw). I have found a good deal on a Fireline FPi5 with a nominal 5kw so I figure that hits the middle of everyone's opinion but am worried that this isn't going to be cosy enough when taking all things into consideration. That being, it's an inset (will this model only heat my chimney or will it convect air in to the room), large single glazed windows (one day this will change but not quickly) wooden floors withou rugs and a LNG room all sent in the chilly north. The fireline looks great feels sturdy and is on a great offer as a shop floor model. 5kw also sounds cosy to me also but have no experience of inset. Only other info is that we wouldn't be directly inserting it into the inglenook as the installer says he can go taller but not wider on the chimney so would have it raided about 30cm from the chimney base. This is for aesthetic reasons only.
