People always want to know where the best position is for installing a wood burning stove while renovating a house in Portugal. We have the answer.
Firstly have you sorted out the insulation in your home or renovation project ?
Insulation is more important that you may think because instead of heating the area around the stove or wood burner and having the majority of the heat wasted a little (or a lot) of insulation will help to keep the overall space warm and will move the hot air further around your home.
Wood burning stoves and boilers are very powerful and produce a lot of heat. If you don’t insulate at least part of your home you will have too run the stove at a much higher heat output. This will make the room that its in feel very hot indeed and of course burn double or treble the amount of firewood that you would use normally. A side effect of this high temperature burning is the amount of air (taken from inside your home) that is use to make the wood burn. This is usually felt as a cold draft from the windows and under doors. Cold feet and a hot head !
To position your house so that a wood burner or two heat the whole house evenly there are a couple of fundamentals to get right first. Heat rises.
Place your stoves in the lowest usually habitable place.
Choose a ground floor hall for instance.
Preferably with an outside wall for an external fresh air source to be cut into the wall.
Run the flue tubes up through the first floor and out through the roof. This additional source of heat is free and provides excellent background heat for a bedroom.
Place your stove in the center of the house so that it becomes the “Heart” of the home on cold winter days.
If you are going to heat your entire home with the stove its better not to have it in the sitting room because the amount of heat that you need it to produce will make the stove uncomfortable to sit opposite from. A stove can make a very welcoming sight if located in the entrance hall and its easy to access the outside for more logs.
Make sure that the area around the stove has no wood and is non-flammable its amazing just how hot these stoves get.
Have a C02 alarm installed in your home. A badly operating stove can produce the same health problems as a gas boiler.
Burn wood that is two years old (split logs stored under cover for two years) This way you get high heat, a fire that’s easier to light, keeps the stove glass cleaner and won’t tar up the chimney as much.
best position is for installing a wood burning stove
