Comparing Multi Fuel Stoves
Now if your reading this you've probably been thinking about the benefits of having a multi-fuel stove in your home or workspace. So you'll know they look great, save you hundreds of pounds if used as part of your central heating system and help in small way in battling global warming, all fantastic and worthy things.Well I'll say it, isn't it amazing the name variants you can have,for what is in effect a box with a fire in it?
Lets clear up a couple of the easy ones, a log burner is designed for the burning of wood. Multifuel or Multi-fuel? this one just comes down to your education, they mean the same thing, but, as with most things people like to stick with what they know, so either/or. A multifuel stove will burn, coal wood, smokeless coal, coke,biomass fuel (solid) and brickets. A wood burning stove is confusingly used a an industry standard term, so please ask your retailer to clarify. This brings me on to a few words of caution.If you live in a large urban area you should be subject to the clean air act. You cant use coal or wood in these areas unless you have purchased a DEfRA approved stove, these are expensive, but have been modified to allow you to burn wood in urban areas.
Well lets get started. A free standing stove is the traditional style,its designed so that heat can radiate from the front and two sides. Heat will come out of the back,but your HETAS fitter will position this correctly for you.
This stove can be positioned in an existing chimney breast or anywhere in a room,where the flue has an outside wall to release the smoke through.(I'll come to flues later)
Now the built in, this is designed to slot into the wall cavity, so that,usually the glass front and/or sides are visible,think how a flat screen TV looks on a wall. The heat will come into the room via the glass.
I hear a lot of people being pro cast iron or pro rolled steel. Lets cut right to the chase, cast iron is the traditional way, now I'm not saying that makes it either better, because its the tried and tested way, or worse, because its old hat. The differences are slight and depend on what you want. Basically, the rolled steel version heats up quicker than the cast iron stove. The cast iron stove will retain heat for long after the fire has gone out. Other minor things to look out for before you make your decision, very rarely the cast iron stove can crack, I stress this is very rare and the rolled steel with again rarely warp. So you pays your money you makes your choice. What its really down to is the "look" you want for your room and sometimes the sales mans own preference.
Multifuel stoves with boilers, these are one of the best things on the market right now. You can heat the room the stove is in as well your radiators throughout your home or workspace. As long as its fitted by a HETAS fitter and attached by a CORGI approved plumber you will save hundreds of pounds over a year. There are even gizmo's that can have but your gas and stove generated boilers working in unison.
Flues, very straight forward they connect to the pipe at the back, but generally the top of your multi-fuel stove they release the smoke either up the chimney via flexi flues or via a hole in the wall which is lagged.
Always check with your district/borough/city/county council for available grants, some times,if your a business, you will find info on development agency site. This can be time consuming , but, very worth while financially.
So best of luck hope this helped, please feel free to visit my websites for more specific advice.