Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Monday 4 October 2010

Woodburners

We are about to start on gutting the sitting room and insulating its walls and replacing the woodburner and a whole lot more stuff.  

 So today we had a trip out to look at new woodburners at the Gloucestershire Stove Centre. We currently have a rather useless metal box of a woodburner which really is so hopeless that it is not much better than an open fire...

I was certain we would be going for a Clearview to replace it but Compostman suggested a trip out, so off we went.

The shop and staff were lovely and happily lit a number of the stoves for us to see. We saw a number of makes and are now deliberating between two brands. Both are lovely ( and neither are a Clearview!) Both are more efficient than a Clearview and a lot less money as well!

here is the link to one of them



The Burley was astoundingly good in demonstration and actually cheaper that a "conventional" equivalent woodburner with air wash and cleanburn, a la Clearview...which it also has, of course

Also very clean, unfussy lines, which we liked...I was SO impressed by it...


Given that we fell, cut, split and stack all our wood, getting max efficiency from it for heating is of considerable importance!

‎89% is the 5 kW, 85 % is the 8 kW and the 12 kW The 12 kW is astonishingly hot, even in a huge industrial unit, it is hard to stand nearer than 6 ft away.....the flame pattern is amazing, think "Northern Lights" effect with sheets of burning gas dropping down from the top of the glass door to meet the gouts of flame shooting up from the wood in the grate.

I was mesmerised....

The Burley turns 100 Kg of wood into a pt beer glass of ash...

The Burley does primary, secondary combustion ( as does a Clearview) but also goes on into gasification territory to do tertiary and quaternary...as you adjust the air intake you see astonishing flame fronts.

Closest thing I have ever seen to compare it to, was looking into furnaces !

I really thought we were Clearview buyers...we have been waiting to do this room for a couple of years while we do other stuff to the house and had money put aside for a Clearview, but now we are blown away by the Burley


 

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8 comments:

  1. tpals11 October 2010 at 09:38

    Not cheap, are they? It looks very efficient and I too would be fascinated by the flames.

    ReplyDelete
  2. stayathomemummy11 October 2010 at 20:49

    Oh my dream...a woodburner. Looking forward to further posts! Am about to go read other posts on your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11 October 2010 at 22:57

    Tpals, you should see the prive of a Clearview!

    Welcome stayathomemummy to The Compostbin Hope you enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8 November 2010 at 15:05

    Have you considered a woodburner with hotplates on the top as we boil the kettle and cook on ours to save using the electric kettle and cooker?

    Best regards

    Steve In MM

    ReplyDelete
  5. Compostwoman8 November 2010 at 16:21

    Hi Steve! (waves out of west window)

    The two we are considering do have a hot plate, so yes we could boil a kettle etc, or heat stuff up if needs be.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11 November 2010 at 18:20

    Hi CPW.

    Ours has two hotplates which we have two kettles on most of the time. Over the one plate I've made a removable heavy steel box (as in thick walls 1/2") which we bake spuds and things in. Today Cathy has done a very nice casserole in it. Basically acts as a free heated oven when the burner is lit. It didn't originally have a back boiler, however I've recently added plumbing to fit a basic heat exchanger to the flue to try and capture some of the waste heat. I'll probably make another heat exchanger to fit to the fire box when we've finished our house refurb of adding loads of insulation to all the external facing parts of the house including the floors where possible.

    Best regards

    Steve in MM

    ReplyDelete
  7. Compostwoman11 November 2010 at 18:27

    Hi Steve, that sounds interesting! What make are yours?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous12 November 2010 at 19:30

    Its a SAEY. We bought it from a place in Kiddi 20 odd years a go. I've never seen another like it, though Cathy said one of our neighbours (now moved away) has the same.

    Steve in MM

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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