Woodburner with back boiler spec please

[XONE]

Hi, I'd like to know what sort of woodburner to go for in a house to replace the 25 year old gas boiler. The house is a 3 bedroomed 18th century mill house. It's actually reasonably small with 2 bedrooms upstairs and the third in a 1995 extension at the back of the house. There's rads already installed as well as a 100 ltr hot water tank. Any reccommendations would be muchly appreciated.

It's this^^ or an ASHP.

[Brandon]

extraflame LP20, for the easy of automation

[XONE]

extraflame LP20, for the easy of automation

5K. Seems a lot of a woodburner. Actually, it's not a wood burner, it's a pellet boiler

[martin W]

I suppose you really need to look at what boiler output you need first then look at what is out there.

I have (on a pallet in the dining room - Long story) a Charnwood country 4 which is a real dinky thing. 4kW output, 2.2 to the boiler and 1.8 to the room. 2.2 kW is around 13500BTU's so it is unlikely to be big enough to heat a home.

What about one of those stove types... you can have the boiler going and then also cook on it (I think). Don't forget you are going to have to keep loading the fuel into it all the time and also need to have a regular cheap source of fuel and somewhere to dry it out.

[dhaslam]

If you are replacing a gas boiler with a wood burner in an old house that doesn't have good insulation you need to think of having some heat stored over night or an automated boiler.      There is a lot to be said for updating your gas boiler and just using a woodstove for room heating.   

[gb484]

I came across this company whilst surfing for insert fires with a back boiler using German search engine, www.normatherm.de. These boilers are fully controlled and will put out 15-45 kw depending on model, so plenty of heat for most houses. It sounds like you have some kind of buffer tank to store heat for distribution to rads, and so in the spring /winter you don't have to run the fire 24/7, nor do you have to feed it during the night. Also, it can be used in conjunction with solar and/or heat pump.