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Our living room dimensions suggest a stove at around 5kw will be ideal. The one I like is 6.8kw. Apart from being plenty warm, are there operational consequences of running a bigger stove at half chat rather than a smaller stove at full chat?
I know that I will need a vent that remains open.
Thanks
Potentially more condensates in the chimney - tis better to run a smaller stove flat out than a bigger one throttled back.
/not an expert/ - running it at below capacity for most of the time (as you suggest) - will generate more gunk, and at below optimum temps, that won't burn off - our stove glass gets coated in soot and stuff at first (and when on tick-over) but that burns off when it runs higher. The same may apply to residue further up the chimney too.
The clearance round a stove for flammable material (wood mantle, boards) increases greatly with increased rating (not quite square increase but it's a lot) so you may find it won't pass regs or have to shuffle stuff around. Maybe not.
Keep looking would be my advice..
If you're reasonably well insulated it just means you let it die down earlier. You do run the risk of spending the evening in your pants with the windows open.
Theoretically running a stove at less than optimum temperature (200-300 degs) runs the risk of poor combustion of the fuel leading to the flue becoming tarred up.
The reality though is that you would still run the stove at the right temperature, but you would let more heat into the house through open internal doors etc. so you'd probably be fine - it's not like you're planning on fitting a 10Kw stove.
Also don't be too tied to what the room dimensions say you should have. For instance whether you have more than one door or a staircase coming off the room makes a big difference as well as the house construction.
Personally I'd go for it.
(how big is the room BTW?)
Sharkbait - room is 6x4 ish (a little over) and I have an irrational desire for an Austroflamm Chester Compact stove! We have double doors into a dining room and one into the hall.
Pants and windows open doesn't sound too bad...
You could also buy one of those stove top eco fans to move the heat round the room better/faster?
The clearance round a stove for flammable material (wood mantle, boards) increases greatly with increased rating (not quite square increase but it's a lot)
Eh? Where did you get this little gem from? The only things that changes is that distance from a single skin flue to to flammable materials should be 3 x the diameter of the flue. But seeing as a 5Kw stove will prob have a 4" flue and a 7kw stove will have a 5" flue it's not really going to make much difference.
The distance to the back and sides of the stove remain the same.
We have double doors into a dining room and one into the hall.
just leave the door to the hall open so the heat dissipate and heat upstairs also.
6' x 4' ? tall ceilinged rooms here, getting on for double the proportions you have (so I guess 3..4 times the area/volume) -- quite happy with Hunter Hawk, rated at 4kW, if anything can get too warm. Admittedly just one doorway..
So I guess you'd be running it with some secondary heating of surrounding rooms - possibly even the room above..
dont you also need to install extra ventilation if over 5kw?
the gem was reading the documents for various stoves sharkbait - this was some while ago so I can't recall the details, it was the clearance around the stove that I noticed at the time. That's the way I read it anyway. I stand corrected if it's wrong.
kcal - 6M x 4M x 2m (ish) ceilings. We have central heating as well but I'd obviously turn that down/off downstairs in the evenings.
Guy that installed ours said that anything over 5kw would need an air brick/vent in the room somewhere to comply with regs.
I've a 5kw esse 100 in a 5x5 room with 10 foot high ceilings and I'm sitting in my pants even with the door open!
Better to get the correct size stove you want IMHO
Bigger means more to fill it as well and to keep an ember bed going - you often end with a fire in just one corner or more faffage IME.
Imagine wanting to do 15 mph on your bike and deciding he best way was to get a huge big ring and do half your usual cadence rather than choose the right gear - its not the best method but it would work basically
Whilst I'd tend to agree with Junkyard, published stove output figures are hardly as accurate as those for a conventional oil or gas boiler.
Moisture content, species and size of logs as well as how you load it can really affect the real world performance. And suitability for a given volume depends on levels of insulation etc.
The first stove we had was a hunter hawk (5 kw), which was supposed to be perfect for our size of room. In reality, the firebox with the multi fuel grate in, was too small and it didn't pump out as much heat as it should have done - I only learned later that I should have removed the grate!
So, I'd be less concerned about published figures and go for one you like the look of and learn to tweak it's firing (get a flue stat) to make it work for you.