I'm trying to get prepped for winter and really need some advice from people who actually know what they're on about. Unlike me, who just pretends to!
We moved "to the country" three years ago and live in a grade 2 listed cottage, with single glazed crittal windows. We renewed the boiler soon after we moved in to get off of oil and on to gas. We had a big
combi boiler fitted, relocated from the kitchen in to the boot room.
Left with a void in the kitchen, and no heat source at all, we fitted a small Carron enamelled stove where the boiler used to sit, and it's great. We were so impressed with it in fact that we decided to replace the open fire in the lounge with a bigger log burner.
I bought a secondhand Esse Turnberry II as I liked its looks, and it was local and well priced. Physically quite a bit bigger than the Carron I assumed it would kick out considerably more heat, but I later found out it was only 7kw, which in an old single glazed cottage doesn't seem to go a long way. I think we got more heat off the old open fire.
So this years task, with our second baby arriving in December, is to replace the Esse with something bigger, and get this house warm for once!!
So in my infinite wisdom, I bought a Coalbrookdale Darby, the stove that I fell in love with when browsing last time but decided was too big. It's the boiler version, which I understand can be used without utilising the boiler facility by drilling holes in the boiler and NOT capping off all of the outlets. 16kw of heat to the lounge - nice.
However, I wonder if that is the way to go. Or should I plumb it in?
When we had the new boiler a couple of years ago we quickly realised it was pretty hopeless on our old one pipe central heating system. Most of the rads get hot, some get warm, and two may as well be turned off. My boiler friend who fitted it says that this one pipe system would run better off of a raw heat source like that of the Darby. So you see my thinking...
The current heating setup is pressurised and therefore if I understand correctly, the stove can't supplement the existing system. So let's say I just use the boiler for hot water, I can use solely the stove for heating. But there's something telling me I just can't rely on having the stove alight for our central heating. Can I run two circuits? Have the majority running off the stove, and then say 4-5 rads running off the boiler? Or is it too big a job to separate the rads in to two different loops?
Or do I change the boiler again, back to a traditional boiler, and fit a hot water cylinder etc etc, then use the stove to run in conjunction with the boiler?
The potential added benefit of plumbing the stove in to the heating is that I can do away with the stove in the kitchen. It's situated right by where the plumbing for the main stove would join the heating network. So I could pop a new additional radiator in there in favour of the stove. As much as we love it, fuelling and maintaining two stoves will soon become a chore.
So on the odd chance anyone made it to the end of this thread, what do you think??
Adam
We moved "to the country" three years ago and live in a grade 2 listed cottage, with single glazed crittal windows. We renewed the boiler soon after we moved in to get off of oil and on to gas. We had a big
combi boiler fitted, relocated from the kitchen in to the boot room.
Left with a void in the kitchen, and no heat source at all, we fitted a small Carron enamelled stove where the boiler used to sit, and it's great. We were so impressed with it in fact that we decided to replace the open fire in the lounge with a bigger log burner.
I bought a secondhand Esse Turnberry II as I liked its looks, and it was local and well priced. Physically quite a bit bigger than the Carron I assumed it would kick out considerably more heat, but I later found out it was only 7kw, which in an old single glazed cottage doesn't seem to go a long way. I think we got more heat off the old open fire.
So this years task, with our second baby arriving in December, is to replace the Esse with something bigger, and get this house warm for once!!
So in my infinite wisdom, I bought a Coalbrookdale Darby, the stove that I fell in love with when browsing last time but decided was too big. It's the boiler version, which I understand can be used without utilising the boiler facility by drilling holes in the boiler and NOT capping off all of the outlets. 16kw of heat to the lounge - nice.
However, I wonder if that is the way to go. Or should I plumb it in?
When we had the new boiler a couple of years ago we quickly realised it was pretty hopeless on our old one pipe central heating system. Most of the rads get hot, some get warm, and two may as well be turned off. My boiler friend who fitted it says that this one pipe system would run better off of a raw heat source like that of the Darby. So you see my thinking...
The current heating setup is pressurised and therefore if I understand correctly, the stove can't supplement the existing system. So let's say I just use the boiler for hot water, I can use solely the stove for heating. But there's something telling me I just can't rely on having the stove alight for our central heating. Can I run two circuits? Have the majority running off the stove, and then say 4-5 rads running off the boiler? Or is it too big a job to separate the rads in to two different loops?
Or do I change the boiler again, back to a traditional boiler, and fit a hot water cylinder etc etc, then use the stove to run in conjunction with the boiler?
The potential added benefit of plumbing the stove in to the heating is that I can do away with the stove in the kitchen. It's situated right by where the plumbing for the main stove would join the heating network. So I could pop a new additional radiator in there in favour of the stove. As much as we love it, fuelling and maintaining two stoves will soon become a chore.
So on the odd chance anyone made it to the end of this thread, what do you think??
Adam
