Heating a small apartment

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Heating a small apartment

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boisdevie1

Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3897
Location: Lancaster

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 16 5:58 pm Post subject: Heating a small apartment

I'm in the process of converting a 40m sq annexe into a place for me. No mains gas so heating is either electric or something else. Underfloor electric is very expensive and wallheaters might take too much current (the annexe is using the same supply as the main house so I've not got too many Kw to play with. If wallheaters are no go how about a small woodburner? I know it's not fantastically controllable but not expensive. Unless anyone has a cunning idea?
The place will be very well insulated so I dont need too much heat, probably 3-4kw.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 16 7:01 pm Post subject:
Would 17 amps make a huge difference? Can you upgrade/add a new consumer unit as installing a wood burner will be costly? Do you have somewhere to store the logs etc?

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 16 10:34 pm Post subject:
https://www.chillipenguin.co.uk/product-range/stove-range/chilli-billie/

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15970

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 16 7:34 am Post subject:
A small woodburner does have advantages; you can use the top for some cooking too, but getting the flue installed is expensive these days.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46217
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 16 8:37 am Post subject:

if you have a "free" supply of wood the difference in price between paid for electricity+wall heaters vs woodburner and flue will soon swing to favour woodburner.

plus it is a more secure system in uncertain times and you can cook/heat water with wood as well.

the downside is you have to plan a wood supply,feed and control the thing,clean out ashes etc which isnt an issue with leccy

how much a flue would cost depends on the location of the burner and can be anything from low hundreds to a few grand

boisdevie1

Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3897
Location: Lancaster

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 16 1:15 pm Post subject:

vegplot wrote:

https://www.chillipenguin.co.uk/product-range/stove-range/chilli-billie/

�729! They have got to be bloody joking.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 16 2:00 pm Post subject:

An insulated flue will easily be the same again, too.

How does it balance against what a boiler might cost?

I personally wouldn't be without a woodburner, I'd rather have one than a telly. Having said that, living with no other heating it was a bit of a faff. Manageable, because I didn't have a job at the time. I had to buy wood in, so it was much more expensive than electric would have been but at least I knew what the costs were beforehand.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46217
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 16 2:21 pm Post subject:
if you are outside a smoke control area the price of woodburners reduces dramatically . flue costs very much depend on where it goes in the premises and how it is vented.ie an insulated double skin is costly but a simple pipe with a couple of swept bends and a rodding point is fairly affordable, in any case it needs to be safe so will involve some costs .

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