EverHopefull Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 I decided to break into a new post subject to avoid diluting the other one I am observing. Has anyone here ventured in to bio ethanol fires? I have decided to rule out a wood burner/fireplace as such to eliminate punching a big hole in the planned nicely sealed house. The only real option it seems to have a flame without all the fumes and co2 worrying issues is to go down the bio ethanol route. I can see they are not cheap to run with fluid costing about £30 for 6 litres. This I read should burn upto 6 hours depending on the design you buy (read size) There are auto ignition models and the stunning "007" style long tray options so will probably have something suitable to provide back up instant "take the chill off" heat as required. Anyone have any experiences of living with these things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Not wishing to change your mind and there are plenty on here against wood stoves, but we have one and it’s room sealed, only 5Kw max so a fairly short burn will not give too much heat. We both love a real flame and have access to plenty of wood locally (I am even thinking of getting a saw bench attatchment to fit my vintage tractor ??). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EverHopefull Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 Hmmm I have always wanted a flame, call it the romantic in me maybe. I have inlaws that have a Scandia Haus and things get out of hand very quickly with the wood burner they have resulting in swimwear being worn on Christmas Day on one occasion! Whatever I go for may only be used for a few hours on a couple of nights so does not need to be very powerful. The house we are demolishing by comparison is only heated with a wood burner (12kw) in the lounge and it literally does heat two floors easily with windows that were usually left open all year and even had a couple of hot plates for cooking on! I have to compare the prospect to owning the rather fine Italian motorcycle I had. It was everything it needed to be but over performed in all areas, and only used one or two days a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Another here standing up in defence of the WBS. Like @joe90 I have a 4.5KW WBS that takes it's combustion air from outside via a duct, and by using an insulated sleeve around the flue pipe did a pretty reasonable job of sealing where that exits the building, I can't say I have noticed it being a noticable source of heat loss from the house when not in use since I installed it. For me, the No 1 reason for having the WBS is firewood is plentiful and free here. The thought of spending £30 for 6 hours fuel would put me off ever using it. That would be way more expensive than the main heating (which seems to be averaging £2 per day for the whole house so far) in fact that 6 hour burn would cost more than a weeks whole house heating for me, The equation may change if you have to buy your firewood. If you really don't want to burn wood, I would get an LCD screen "stove" instead Overheating has to be thought about. Our house basically has 2 large rooms downstairs either side of the stairwell each with double doors to the stairwell. Doors open it is pretty much one big space and heat can convect up the stairwell. Open up like this the kitchen / diner where the stove is, gets to about 25 degrees and the rest of the house warms up as well. Yes I am sure if you light the stove for too long with that room shut it probably would get far too hot. Finally I will add that we are very pleased with the stove we ended up with, a Mendip stoves Churchill convection model. It has the ability to run at a lower power while still maintaining a good flue temperature, and is the first stove I have owned where I can genuinely say it keeps the glass clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EverHopefull Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 Those were the days when old plasma tv's were better performing COP than radiators! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamiehamy Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 We had wbs in our plans but didn't bother for various reasons. Got this before Christmas and love it. Kicks out a decent heat and each side will last 6 hours. Ours has a double burner, we normally put in half a litre in each side after dinner and it lasts until 10. Lovely to look at and decent heat for the whe front of the house. We don't really need the heat but it is nice having super cosy on a cold night. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamiehamy Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 By day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EverHopefull Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 My plan was for something like this or actually to divide the lounge and dining areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recoveringbuilder Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 (edited) In our last house we had a hang on the wall smeg gas fire, we had a 55m2 kitchen/family room and really only wanted this as a back up for power cuts ( we had a wb in another room) and for chilly summer nights when we’d turned the ufh off. Hubby wasn’t keen on the idea but it proved to be great and could lift the temperature a good 2 degrees, using it only a couple of hours morning and night it only went through about 30kg of propane a year. We were told at the weekend that the government are planning a tax on wood burners Edited February 4, 2019 by Christine Walker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 If its just flames or very realistic flame effect . then go see a dimplex optimyst about 20 dif designs https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=dimplex+optimyst#id=4&vid=db83b79e1ce790b516a7b1cf316dcbb0&action=click Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EverHopefull Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 They are quite interesting although I would still hedge my bets with an alternative source of heat than electrical for peace of mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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