Selecting the right stove for your home

Something to think about when you are considering your choice of wood burning or multi-fuel stove, less really can be more. We often have customers who say they want a stove to ‘really throw out the heat’ as the room is long, or open plan, or opens into a kitchen. However the most important consideration should be where you are sitting in the room in relation to the stove.

Although you could obviously have a stove that will supply enough heat for a large or open plan room, if you are going to be sat in close proximity to the stove, you will not be able to sit comfortably because its output will be far too much. Wood burning stoves burn most efficiently and most effectively when there is a bit of flame present to burn off the gases and particles that would blacken the glass. So if you have a stove that is giving too high an output you will obviously turn it down, the result of this will be that you will lose the flame and the glass is more likely to blacken (damp wood can also cause the glass to blacken).

Below are guides designed to help you when choosing and installing your wood burning or multi-fuel stove. Please contact us if you need any assistance.

To calculate heat requirement for your room –

A good rule of thumb guide to calculate the heat requirement of a given room is:

HEIGHT X WIDTH X DEPTH (in feet) divided by 500

This gives you the kilowatt requirement Multiply this result by 3,400 to get the Btu’s requirement. This is based on average house insulation with room temperatures of 20c and an ambient temperature of -1c. Well-insulated houses could replace the division of 500 with 650. To find the approximate size of the radiators for any particular room, divide the Btu’s requirement total as calculated above by 160. This will give you the radiator size in square feet, taking both sides of the radiator into account.

When choosing a stove/boiler combination you should also take the following into account:

Allow 8,000 Btu’s for domestic hot water. Allow an additional 20% of the total Kilowatt or Btu’s requirement as calculated above for heat loss in the system. Regulations Governing the Fitting of Solid Fuel Appliances

All solid fuel appliances by law have to be fitted to comply with Part J of The Building Regulations, by a Hetas qualified engineer or if you fit it yourself you will need to apply to Building Control which will cost from approximately £60 – £200 subject to the cost of installation. In both cases a Certificate of Compliance will be issued which you will need if you sell the property.

We have been informed by the Insurance Industry that if the appliance is illegally fitted and it causes a fire, your insurance could be invalid.

Dean Forge has its own team of ‘in-house’ Hetas engineers. We will survey, advise and fit your appliance, and service it in the future.

Please do get in touch with the team if you still need a little help choosing the right stove for your space.