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sooo.....
if i'm honest i've been a little green seeing all the various pics and threads coming up on wood burners of late. it has always been a [s]dream goal desire[/s] want of mine to have a proper stove.
the GF and i have finally after six months of looking found a flat in town. it's a nice "altbau" (old build) place with massively high cielings and chunky old rads.
now through their wondows i've seen that the neighbours have stoves installed so i know it is possible to have one too....
fuel isn't a problem as i can get lots of wood for free from the various workshops i work in. there's a nice big ledge outside the loounge windows where i can store the wood (ground floor flat).
but what size stove do i need? the main room (actually two, but knocked into one) to be heated has a floor space of ~27sqm (13sqm + 14sqm) with a cieling height of 2.9m.
am i right in thinking that to heat this room we will need a 6kw stove? or should i look at something a bit bigger, say 8kw so that it can heat the rest of the flat (although to be fair i can't see us being able to heat the whole place using just the oven or wanting to leave all the doors open all the time).
buit, i also read that it is better to have a lower kw stove buring at or near max than it is to have a larger kw stove burning at around 50% - something to do with the flue :/
Just consider how close you want to sit to it.
In laws have an 8kw in a room to small and it can get a bit much.
Anything bigger than 5KW will require additional ventilation being installed if not present already. 8KW is a huge fire and I doubt you'd run it at full whack very often!
You don't really want to have a stove that you 'have' to run at full blast all the time. What you do want though is to get your stove up to an efficient operating temperature 4-500f) and keep it there.
This does not mean running a stove flat out.
ok, here is the layout of the flat....
[img][url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8176435564_e4c7f365eb.jp g" target="_blank">
the two pair of holes in the wall are our chimneys (there is another in the bedroom, but i'm not even considering having a stove in there). was thinking the stove would go against either the right-hand wall in "Zimmer 2" or against the bottom wall in "Zimmer 1".
so a 5-6Kw stove is the better option for heating the lounge/dining area...?
Put the stove in whichever room would be your lounge 1 or 2, dont think you'd need as much of the heat in the dining room.
We're mid terrace so ours is a relatively 'warm' house anyway. We've noticed that having double glazing fitted a few months before having the stove fitted already also made the rooms a tad warmer. Our lounge is about 4x3x2.5m and we have got a 4kw stove, the dining room is approx the same and if we took the wall down to make a lounge/diner the stove would be 'enough' for the one room.
Not sure if that helps you decide on size or not but as hc said above 5 kw you need an air brick/vent.
It's probably worth checking if there are any local regs etc (I assume you're not in the UK).
The over 5kw needs an external vent may not apply.
hmmm... we're not mid terrace. nor do/will we have anyone heating us from beneath.
there is no door, just a large, wide arch, between the lounge and dining room (that sounds so middle-class; my mum would be proud :)) so air flows pretty well around that space. more a question of which chimney can be used and if both are good to go then which is more asthetically pleasing.
no, i'm in Munich. not sure about regs but as said at least two of the neighbours have stoves installed. need to speak to the chimney sweep about installation and i'm sure he will be aware of the regs.
i'm childishly excited about this.... :/
Are you reasonably bright alpin?
well, that's relative i guess.... who's doing the grading?
My stove fitter told me the rule-of-thumb is volume in cubic M / 14
e.g. 70/14 = 5kW
Lots of other factors to take into account though such as effectiveness of insulation, ambient temp.
Not me...anyway, if you are, have a read of this, then do some sums.
[url= http://www.backwoodsman-stoves.co.uk/MAINMENUS/HeatlossMenu.html ]http://www.backwoodsman-stoves.co.uk/MAINMENUS/HeatlossMenu.html[/url]
(Shite looking website, but really good people and while they won't come out to you to look round your flat and do the sums for you - assuming you're still in Germany - that's what they do round here).
You do need to put the stove in the sitting room area to get the most out of it tho so if that works out with the usable chimney all the better
Alpin, another option (which I'd be giving serious consideration) is that you could knock through the fireplace between zimmer 1 and 2 and fit the stove in the gap between the two so it would heat both.
[img] 
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You could also put an eco fan (or similar) on top pointing into whichever room you wanted more heat on that particular day.
nice idea sharkbait, but not sure what the landlord would think when we start removing that much brick work... besides, the door open onto that wall and the opening between the two rooms is large as it is...
yup... according to stuartie's fitter we need a 5.5kw stove.... so six should be fine.
time to get on the bay.
It's probably worth checking if there are any local regs etc (I assume you're not in the UK).The over 5kw needs an external vent may not apply.
I am in UK (Scotland). I have a 5.9kw stove and dont have an external vent.
What laws/regulations am I breaking and more importantly will I die?
If there's a choice, go for the smaller stove. You will be burning it hotter so it will burn cleaner. A big stove shut down will get sooted up and the chimney will need more cleaning.
Organic:
Here - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Building/Building-standards/publications/pubtech
Section 3 - Environment
[i]3.21.2 Supply of air for combustion to solid fuel appliances
A solid fuel appliance installed in a room or space should have a supply of air for combustion by way of permanent ventilation either direct to the open air or to an adjoining space (including a sub-floor space) that is itself permanently ventilated direct to the open air. An air supply should be provided in accordance with the following table:
Supply of air for combustion
??Type of appliance
Open appliance without a throat [1]
Open appliance with a throat [1]
Any other solid fuel appliance
Minimum ventilation opening sizes [2]
A permanent air entry opening or openings with a total free area of 50% of the cross-sectional area of the flue.
a permanent air entry opening or openings with a total free area of 50% of the throat opening area.
[b]a permanent air entry opening or openings with a total free area of least 500 mm2 for each kW of combustion appliance rated output more than 5 kW [/b](A combustion appliance with an output rating of not more than 5 kW has no minimum requirement, unless stated by the appliance manufacturer).
??????????????Notes:
1. THROAT means the contracted part of the flue lying between the
fireplace opening and the main flue.
2. Where a draught stabiliser is fitted to a solid fuel appliance, or to a
chimney or flue-pipe in the same room as a solid fuel appliance, additional ventilation opening should be provided with a free area of at least 300 mm2/kW of solid fuel appliance rated output.
3. Nominal fire size is related to the free opening width at the front of the fireplace opening.[/i]
so will i die?
eventually.
Wedge the letter box open to be sure.
your fitting a stove to a house you dont own ??
yeah... but we've cleared it with the landlord. and this being munich you can pass on the stove for the same price it cost to buy and install to the next tennents. munich's housing market is somewhat insane. i've seen placed being rented out on the fifth floor with no central heating or bath/shower in the flat for over 800€.