Selfsufficientish.com

Hello,

I am new here so I hope this is in the right place.
We are nearly ready to install a multi fuel wood burning stove into our home, we currently have a back bolier behind a gas fire which will be stripped out later this week.
I have heard conflicting information on whether we need to have a terracota chimney pot on the top of our chimney, at first I thought we could just have a metal cowl with bird mesh round it, however the guy who is coming to help fit it is now saying that we definitely need a terracota pot but they seem an unecessary expence. If our chimney is ok we are planning on not getting it lined. Can you help please?

Thanks in advance.

hi dj,

what type of pot do you have now?
i would have thought the bird mesh cowl would have done if you could bet it ti fit to your chimney as thats what they put on top flue lining,if you cant find the answer on here try "the green living forum"lots of info on installing stoves ect.
best of luck

Hi

Not sure where you are and who is installing it but the Regs in the UK with HETAS engineers do not rely on what in necessary or have regard to cost, if they say you need one, you will have to have one if you want them to do the work.

Hi folks
I hope somebody might be able to help me with my issue here, i am a self employed tree surgeon in dublin ireland so i have more wood than u can shake a stick at, i have an old 3 bedroom cottage with very poor insulation and windows, the central heating is run on an old oil fired boiler in the garage, and dhw is run from an oil fired aga in the kitchen between the 2 of them its costing me more than 4000 euro a yr in oil costs which i just cannot and do not want to afford this style of heating, i have 9 rads i need to run in the house. My plan is to take out the aga in the kitchen and directly replace it with a wood burning range cooker, i have been looking at the lincar illiria which is 22kw or something similar, the hot water cylinder is in the hot press next to the aga i would like to replace this and add on solar panals on the roof and keep the oil boiler as a back up, i have been given advice by some plumbers to get a termal store and others say i dont need one, i would be very gratefull for any advice or suggestions as i cannot afford another cold winter in this house having all the timber that i do have, oh i do have a charnwood stove in the sitting room but its just a room heater.

regards donal

Hi Donal, we have just restored an old stone farmhouse in Leitrim and super insulated it inside, so no leaching of heat now. Welcome to the forum. I can't help you with your query, it might be worth starting a new post or you could check out Green Door Leitrim for lots of green and alternative solutions and people on there.

I agree with Digger, first off you should insulate as much as you can. We had our cavity wall and 300 mm loft insulation done a few years back and the results were fantastic. Now on winter nights we only need the wood burner running for an hour (to get it hot) which we then let go out and the temperature stays at about 21c all night and is still about 20c next morning.
A large proportion of the insulation costs were paid for by an SEAI grant, and I see that you can get a sizeable grant for a new boiler and external dry lining if your walls are not cavity. http://www.seai.ie/Grants/Better_energy ... Available/
We do also had all the windows replaced which unfortunately are not covered by any grant.

Do you need to take out the Aga? They can sometimes be converted to solid fuel.

Zoe