2092 Wood Burning Range Cookers

anne2 try this link for castorama not sure of the quality but they dont have a place in le marche, i think the nearest will be abbruzzo south of you or verona north of you. ciao marco [url]www.castorama.it/cataloghi_castorama/10_2005/riscaldamento/artI957.php[/url]

[QUOTE=anne2]In an attempt to reduce the astronomical GPL bills, we are currently looking into installing a wood burning range cooker that can also be connected into the central heating system. In principle they work on an AGA/Rayburn type basis. We have done a search and come up with various companies, having contacted all the companies they are proving to be pretty slow in coming up with the details we require, ie the technical data and local stockists. We will persist. However, in the meantime, if anyone has experience of such a system we would be grateful to know how you find it and any problems experienced. Also if you know of a stockist in Le Marche we would appreciate the contact details. Thank you.[/QUOTE]

I don't know where in Le Marche you are but both Lucozzi in Amandola, Casciaroli in Ponte Maglio and the marmista at Molino on the SS210 sell them. They just don't have them on display. You have to ask and they will show you a brochure. Don't know what your Italian is like but Lucozzi speaks very good English if that helps.

We considered these too but they do not give out as much heat (in KW) as a termocamino so it probably depends on the size of your house. We will be putting in a Vulcano which has the advantage of incinerating the ash so not too much cleaning out. There is also a tax rebate of 30% of the cost (if you are an Italian tax payer) as they are considered a "green" energy. The largest (which we will be buying) will heat up to 300sqm of house and provide the hot water. One load of wood is 40KG, which should heat the house for 6 hours and provide hot water for 12 hours. We will be linking it ith a solar system for hot water in the summer.

Marco,
Many thanks for the link, we will follow it up.

Penny,
Thanks for the info. However, we were really hoping to see them in the flesh so to speak in order to check out quality and exact colours etc. Language is not an issue, but if all else fails we may be paying them all a visit, at least they have the brochures and hopefully therefore the techincal info, which is more than most of the actual manufacturers seem to want to give at present!!! And it always gives us an excuse for a day out!!
As GPL central heating is already installed, it would be to supplement that system and to specifically heat only two or three rooms in particular. We do have some details from a couple of the companies but they quote cubic metres and kW, as we are used to dealing in mq we still have to do all the sums. We have Italian friends who have a Vulcano type system (not sure of the make) but they rave about it. Our problem with that sort of system would be space.

Hello Ann,
we are living in the MArche (cupramontana) and we have a heating system on wood from Jolly-Mec. We are very satisfied about it. You can always look on [url]www.jolly-mec.it[/url] to see the different systems. We bought it in Serra San Quirico (near fabriano)
Isabelle

Isabelle,
Many thanks for the link. We will check it out.

anne2

the cubic meter bit is fairly handy becasue when you define a central heating sytem you have to know the amout of space that you need to het by volume.... therefore if you know the aprox sq meterage of the rooms you want to heat ...you then need to multiply it by the height...say 2m to give you a rough idea ....and therefore the fire of heating system has to be able to heat this volume

at the moment wood burning ranges are everywhere in the shops... even the big supemarkets seem to have them in a corner ... all our neighbours seem to have one...

in general they are the more simple types ...warm the kitchen/dining area and for cooking...these start in price from around e400... and the price just keeps rising the more sophisticated you want them to be ...

however the problem with the cooking types are that they do not often generate enough kw/calorific value for many central heating radiators or hot water supply....

you will find i think....that in general to maintain a good degree of warmth and hot water supply it is more common to use a dedicated woodburning/pellet fire ....sometimes situated in the fireplace... which has a much larger burning capacity... and generates the required heat.... these are then linked in to the central heating system with automatic solenoids to shut of the gas supplied system if it is supplying the required amount of heat....

.... the above info was supplied by our plumber/heating engeneer here in italy when we enquired about the cooking range wood burning type... and the quoted cost was around e5000....

however we do have a a large number of radiators...i think 14 or so... so in your case it would most probably be less if you are not planning to heat the whole house...

what i would say is heting with wood/pellets here is very popular ... the amount of shops...local or otherwise supplying them... unlimited... and the systems...from blown warm air off the stove which can run via tubes into other rooms or backoilers which heat up the water supple...programmable pellet stoves... which can even be linked into a computer and started by telephoning the house before you arrive so it gets warmed up before you arrive... its all here... fairly commonly used by lots of italians.... the cost...the only limitation

[QUOTE=adriatica]
at the moment wood burning ranges are everywhere in the shops... even the big supemarkets seem to have them in a corner ... all our neighbours seem to have one...

in general they are the more simple types ...warm the kitchen/dining area and for cooking...these start in price from around e400... and the price just keeps rising the more sophisticated you want them to be ...

however the problem with the cooking types are that they do not often generate enough kw/calorific value for many central heating radiators or hot water supply....

[/QUOTE]

Many thanks for the above. Yes, we have seen many simple wood burning ranges and some are very cheap, however we want one that you can run some radiators off. We have found some, most of these have a kW of 25 +, so as we are not heating the whole house, just an integral garage that we will be converting to living space and a shower room and the kitchen/dining area, we will only require a few radiators from this system, this kW should be ample (my husband has calculated a requirement of 15kW). Hot water and heating the rest of the house will remain as it is currently, ie from the existing GPL boiler, it would be too invasive and far too costly to rip out the current (fairly new) system and to change the whole system over. We have investigated most of the possibilities, but as our needs are fairly limited, I fancy having something that is multipurpose and can be used for cooking and heating. So far the costs we have been quoted are much less than yours ie all are less than E3000, even with well known makes with excellent reputations. Some of the pellet systems we looked at were horrendously expensive E6000+ and it would take a long time to recoup the costs, although having a programmable system certainly has its attractions!

Have seen relative comparisons of alternative heating systems on the forum, but wondered if people may be prepared to give examples of annual heating costs v. KW/house size. Sounds as if the cost of gas is high, but difficult to compare to what we are used to paying here in the UK. Helpful for our research into systems. Thanks.

We're thinking about one of these for next year and wondered if anybody knows if its possible to but one second hand?