3 January 2018, 18:09
Agreed with both MB and Charles. I wouldn't want to rely on heating the house solely by burning wood. You're right its gruelling and challenging work, requiring an almost year-round activity.
Like you Charles, we've converted what was effectively a weekending cottage into our permanent residence.
But we have been lucky enough to be able to install modern heating and cooking while retaining the historic wood-burning stoves. We've had to sacrifice a bit of living space to do this of course, but we retain a pretty much bullet-proof fall-back system that will keep us warm, cook our food and boil water, all completely grid- independent.
Interestingly, our Aga-type wood burning stove is still in frequent use, as we're convinced that food cooked on it has a better taste. This stove is located in a reception room at the very heart of the house, and from stone cold can have that room up to comfortable living temperature ( 21 C) in 20 minutes or so. We're just planning a couple of weeks away, which means the main furnace will be off and only anti-freeze heating of the central heating circuit will be left running. Our expectation is to return home to a very cold house (5 - 10C) and in preparation I brought in wood today that will get burned to give is fast heat in the house while the main furnace gets up to speed, a process that'll take an hour or so in all probability.
Back to opening remarks: Wood burning as a backup and a prep is fine, but modern technology is far more labour saving and would be stupid not to use if its available.
Like you Charles, we've converted what was effectively a weekending cottage into our permanent residence.
But we have been lucky enough to be able to install modern heating and cooking while retaining the historic wood-burning stoves. We've had to sacrifice a bit of living space to do this of course, but we retain a pretty much bullet-proof fall-back system that will keep us warm, cook our food and boil water, all completely grid- independent.
Interestingly, our Aga-type wood burning stove is still in frequent use, as we're convinced that food cooked on it has a better taste. This stove is located in a reception room at the very heart of the house, and from stone cold can have that room up to comfortable living temperature ( 21 C) in 20 minutes or so. We're just planning a couple of weeks away, which means the main furnace will be off and only anti-freeze heating of the central heating circuit will be left running. Our expectation is to return home to a very cold house (5 - 10C) and in preparation I brought in wood today that will get burned to give is fast heat in the house while the main furnace gets up to speed, a process that'll take an hour or so in all probability.
Back to opening remarks: Wood burning as a backup and a prep is fine, but modern technology is far more labour saving and would be stupid not to use if its available.
72 de
Lightspeed
26-SUKer-17
26-TM-580
STATUS: Bugged-In at the Bug-Out
Lightspeed
26-SUKer-17
26-TM-580
STATUS: Bugged-In at the Bug-Out