Insert stoves no boiler

Ok so what does an insert stove do and why should you get one?

Alrighty then any stove is far superior to your commoner garden open fire.

The efficiency equation is literally turned on its head. From losing approx 80% of the heat your fuel is producing in an open fire with a stove you start getting 80 % of the heat and only lose 20% up your chimney.

When not in use a stove pretty much blocks up your chimney and stops the heat from your central heating flying up and out your chimney.

You can finally control your fire turn it up or turn it down by using the air controls on your stove.
More air = more heat and faster burning fuel while less air means less heat but fuels lasts longer.

A freestanding stove radiates its heat so it needs to stand fully or mostly proud into the room. They look great in Kitchens or conservatories and living rooms if thats the look you have planned for your home. When speaking of freestanding stoves they generally look like the one below but can be more modern or traditional


They need a realativly large opening in order for air changes to happen and circulate their heat around the room. Because most openings may not be big enough like the picture above people usually sit them on their existing hearth in order to get the most heat like this picture.

But can you see the problem ahead with this installation? When this person opens the door soot, ash and possibly hot coals could fall out onto the wood floor or carpet. You should have a good distance in front of your stove at least 8 or 9 inches before something that is combustible. So having decided you will install a stove this restriction may put you off. Now you could get round it by tileing around the hearth or replacing part of that floor area. However another soloution is the insert stove like the picture below.

Because the main body of the stove is recessed into the opening there is plenty of space for cleaning out or refuelling the stove without having to worry about the floor in front. Now we need to make a little leap of faith. The freestanding stoves radiate their heat but these inserts convect theirs like in the diagram below. They draw in cool air at the bottom of the stove via natural draught and it passes through the hot area at the rear of the stove. The insert stove has vents at the top of the stove and the now hot air convects out from these. All this happens naturally with no fans or electricty required.


The stoves are availble from a number of manufacturers like the Esse 350/300 or the Stovax Riva 40 or Stockton 7 inset. The heat output varies from model to model. Also some of these models go completely back to the wall of your chimney while in others like the Esse 300 utilise the existing fireback and so have a smaller firebox and therefore a correspondingly smaller heat output.

All seems straighforward so far but now we come to the installation. If you have an existing fireplace like the one below with a cast iron insert, canopy and tiles or panels down the side we may have hit a spot of bother.
The insert stoves need to fit flush againest the fireplace insert to make a good seal so while the height and width may be ok the canopy will throw things out and the same applies to cast iron arches. Its relatively easy to change your insert to a granite or marble but it will add a bit to the overall installation.

When fitting the stove there are two ways to go about connecting it to your chimney. We need to do this so that no flat spots are left for soot and ash to gather that could lead to chimney fires in years to come. We also need to make it as easy as possible to clean the chimney. How the stove is fitted will depend on the height of your lentil or flue gather. These support the chimney pots so taking them out is not to be recommended.

If the lentil or flue gather is high enough from the top of the stove it may be possible to connect the stove directly to your chimneys flue liner via an adapter and some flue pipe. The adapter has sloped sides so the soot falls back down the flue and does not gather on any flat spots. If there is not enough height in the chimney to fit this your installer may slope up the sides from the flue spigot with a sand/lime/cement mix again ensuring no flats spots are left and that the slope is steep enough so the soot falls back down and can be swept away. This area needs to filled to act as an insulator as if its left open most of the heat escapes up the chimney.

Once installed you need to leave the stove for around 48 hours then start lighting small fires to begin with. After 4-5 smalll fires you can start lighting bigger ones. On the first few fires there will be a strong smell as the paint cures and this could produce some smoke form the outer part of the stove. Make sure you have windows open when you light the stove for the first few times.

I mentioned that there was a downside to stove so here they are.

1. On some occasions in a high wind area the stove may produce a whistle. This is because some air is still sucked up through the stove even when all the external air vents are closed. As the stove settles in and some microscopic holes fill themselves the whistling will subside.

2. On all stoves if you burn rubbish or poor quality fuel this will blacken the glass on the door. If the fires you light are all small this may cause the glass to blacken also. The airwash system incorporated in these stoves needs a reasonably good fire to get it going. Once the stove is hot you can close down these vents and if the door blackens up get a good fire going again and it should clear itself. If your using seasoned wood as a fuel you can use the ashes from this to clean your door.

On a footnote don't try to get a stove to cure an inherent chimney problem. We have many people wanting stoves to stop smoke coming back down the chimney but a stove will not stop this happening. Air is taken in through the vents and is there is smoke coming down the chimney it will come out through these vents in to your room. get teh chimney sorted first then get a stove to suit.

There are other insert stoves that come with boilers to heat 8-10 radiators but thats for another post.