Heating, Ventilation & Services
Burning issues I
t’s a delightful focal point that provides a func- tional necessity for your house. It’s a source of indulgent pleasure that can also help fulfil a
building’s eco remit. It can make a room look like a million dollars but it doesn’t cost the earth. It’s the stove or fire you choose for your new home. Choosing the right model will be one of the
most important decisions you make when plan- ning your self build, so it’s worth investing plenty of time and effort to ensure you select the option that works best for you. There are various criteria that need to be
Matt Beckenham, marketing manager at Stovax, offers helpful advice when choosing the right stove or fire for your self build.
thought about and which one of them tops the list will vary from person to person. So here’s an overview of the main considerations to be inves- tigated when buying a fire or stove; it’s then up to you to decide which area takes priority. Remember, with a self-build you do have one
immediate advantage: all the construction work can be planned efficiently and cost-effectively at the start of your project, unlike those people who have bought existing homes and then have to face possible limitations – and increased costs – over how they can incorporate a stove or fire.
How will you use the heat from your stove? In other words: what function do you want your stove or fire to play in your new house? Do you want it to provide warmth for just one area? Or do you want it to supply heat for radiators in
other parts of the building or maybe help to power a hot water system? Many homeowners spend most of their waking
hours in their homes in just one or two rooms, and a stove or a fire can provide all the zonal heating they need for those areas. If you want a stand-alone heating appliance to work in this way, try working out the level of BTUs (British thermal units) you’d need for the space concerned and then pick a stove or fire that can deliver the right amount of heat. If you want your appliance to provide warmth
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elsewhere in your house, or to generate heat for a domestic hot water system, then an integrated boiler stove would be the best choice. An example would have a “sleeve” or “jacket” fitted to the back of a stove. Cold water would flow into the jacket and be warmed by the heat from the stove and then flow out to a hot water supply or to radiators. The boiler stove can also ‘link up’ to supp-
lement other heating systems, for instance solar panels. This form of stove arrangement is proving increasingly popular with self build enthusiasts; the solar panels providing energy when it’s bright and sunny, the wood stove taking over heating and hot water duties when it’s cold and cloudy. Using wood and solar power vastly reduces a building’s carbon footprint and also reduces a homeowner’s reliance on the big energy companies.
What fuel do you want to use? Each fuel for a stove or fire has its advantages. Wood is regarded as carbon neutral and cheap; multifuel appliances give you the ben-efit of a range of solid fuels; gas is plentiful, clean and, despite recent price hikes, still economical; elec- tricity allows for fires that are simple to install. Wood may win on environ-mental considerations, but gas and electricity can be switched on and switched off, so no time and energy are wasted as the appliance heats up or burns down. You have to consider how important the cost
of the fuel is to you, its availability, its convenience and its environmental impact. If you like the sound of wood, do you have space to keep it? Chopped wood should ideally be stored for two years and have a moisture content of less than 20 per cent before it is burnt. An outdoor area that could provide a flow of air over the wood would be the best way to do this.
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