Heat

With the onset of winter one of the main things on Mary's mind was how were we going to heat Misterton. It'd been on my mind too, but I was prepared to tough it out a while longer. However, the wisdom of my years made me realise I should do something sooner rather than later.

We've always intended to install a solid fuel stove, as well as a boiler system, and we had found a model that we quite liked. However, in doing some internet research, I found that there are some new British standards about to be created to do with the installation of solid fuel stoves into boats (there are currently no official standards. I contacted the Boat Safety Scheme head office and had a very useful chat with one of their advisors. He said that until the new standards are out, a common sense approach would be fine. He also made the comment that many people install a bigger stove than they need (which our choice probably was...).

With this in mind, and with the half term week approaching, I made a sideways leap and bought a small stove from canvas and cast. The reasoning behind this choice was this: the stove is designed to be used in tents so can be assembled and disassembled without too much trouble. It will also operate quite happily with a flue length of about 2m - most domestic solid fuel stoves need about 4m. And its cute, very cute.

It was installed temporarily at half term and proved quite a success, Mary loved it. However, the wall behind it was plywood, and as these models have no firebricks it did get quite warm, so we only had it on when we were there working.

I've since installed it a bit more permanently. First of all the plywood wall was replaced with cement board (the grey bit in the middle).

Then I fastened some copper sheet to the surface of this for looks and heat reflection. This was more work than I thought and involved drilling many small holes for the tiny nails I used. With the stove installed it looks quite good though, so it was worth it.

You can see from the bucket in the picture above how small the stove is, thats a standard 600x600mm paving slab used as a hearth. When its lit, it does put out the heat and with a door fitted it actually got quite snug in the main area of the boat. We're still experimenting with fuel, I need to find a coal that doesn't produce so much ash, as being small it gets full after a day. We also burnt some bits of wood from an old pallet, but this clogged up the spark arrestor in the chimney.

In addition to the stove, I also installed a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector. Sensible to the last.

You can see that the flue doesn't stick up that much, that's 2m from the back of the stove.

I know the deck fitting doesn't quite fit. I should also know by now that nothing is ever as straightforward as I'd like. :)

Comments

[Q]

Neat! Can you get paletised wood? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_pellet

[Dave W]

My stove top coffee maker is bigger than that, but not as blue, or as pretty.

[D.man]

Starts to look good man..