cooking ranges.

[robgil]

probably done to death but the mrs has her heart set on a range. i am pretty drawn to the small rayburn jobby that also runs central heating.
how efficient are these guys? i understand that they run continuous but on idle do they really consume that much oil?

also , log burning ones , are they any good , a pain , just something for the week end? and can they run radiators?

what's your opinions on ranges guys and if anyone can give me a rough running cost for an oil fired one id greatly appreciate it.

 

[JoceAndChris]

probably done to death but the mrs has her heart set on a range. i am pretty drawn to the small rayburn jobby

We have an old Rayburn that heats 9 rads. (one in most of the rooms upstairs, none downsatirs apart from the Rayburn itself) I reckon we've spent about £1200 on oil in just under a year (and we're nearly out again). We tried to be frugal, didn't have the heating on much and ended up spending £700 on electric heaters to supplement. :roll: Next year we'll just put the rads on more.

In a truly cosy cottage it must be much more effective, but this is a bit a rambling place.

I love the Rayburn (you get used to putting it on in advance for cooking), but think we'll go for a wood burning range if it ever dies, as we have access to free firewood.

 

[brackendale]

if you want an oil fired rayburn I have one you could take for free. I have no idea of the state of it - been in an out building covered in plastic for the last couple of years.

I have been meaning to take it down to the scrapmetal processors but shifting it is a major task.

may not be economicly viable to shift to kent though

 

[MdB]

If you want to get rid of a rayburn and it is in working order, shove it on Ebay. We got £460 for ours buyer collect.

 

[Flyfisher]

You beat me to it, MdB. You also got £10 more that we got for our old Rayburn, also buyer collect.

Ours was bought by a small firm to be refurbished and re-sold. Seems the parts are easily obtainable so they should definitely be worth more than just scrap.

 

[Anita]

The main drawback with a wood fired range is that it constantly needs feeding. We love our wood-burning stove - but as we are out at work all day and it mainly just goes on after 6ish, and is also an "extra" to the central heating rather than the main heating source, then this isn't a problem.

However if you are depending on your range to run the heating, then it needs a lot of dedication to keep it fuelled.

 

[JanieB]

The Aga/Rayburn co. (can't remember the name) will take old cookers if you are buying a new one from them. They recycle the old ones so you get a big discount.

 

[worms]

I guess a lot depends on how you use it. If you are around most of the day and can feed it with logs then wood fuel might be a good option, but if you want a stove that runs on an automatic timer, comes on before you get up and is ready to cook on when you get home at night then an oil one might be more appropriate.

I'm not sure what model you mean by the "small Rayburn jobby", we have an oil Rayburn 480k (double pressure jet, so separate controls for heating and cooker) and have few complaints, using about 3,000 litres a year for 7 radiators in a poorly insulated place in the north. However, if I was replacing it now, I think I would be tempted to look at an automated wood-pellet or wood-chip system for the heating.

 

[Flyfisher]

I had a brief look at automatic wood chip/pellet boiler systems, particularly as there are local suppliers to us, but was put off by the storage requirements. Wood is not particularly energy-dense so you get through a lot of it compared with fossil fuels and when it comes to deliveries of wood pellets/chips I was told that you really need a very large hopper system to make it economical. I came to the conclusion that such systems were probably better suited to large farms/small commercial premises, but I wouldn't pretend it was an in-depth look.

 

[JoceAndChris]

If you can be bothered, please explain a large hopper system.

 

[Flyfisher]

Wood chips/pellets are stored in bulk in a large hopper (big storage bin) with (I think) an auger-type arrangement at the base that feeds the chips/pellets into the boiler, hence the whole system can be run automatically pretty much the same as a gas/oil boiler and there's no worrying about throwing another log on the fire. All you need to do is keep the hopper filled up with deliveries as required, which is no more difficult than an oil tank really, except that it is physically much larger so you need more space.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks Flyfisher - I didn't understand "auger type arrangement" but never mind. That's completely different from how I imagined it - sort of shoving another log into some sort of hole.

So in order to use our own wood we'd need to buy a chipping machine and spend a few weekends a year with it- and that's after chainsawing it down and chopping it up- but that would be a damn sight cheaper than 2 k a year on oil, plus more ethical.

 

[Flyfisher]

Auger - a bit like an Archimedes screw, but for solids rather than water. Basically, a pipe containing a rotating 'screw' that moves solid materials along it - like the grain pipe that sticks out the side of combine harvesters to dump the grain into a trailer.

I suppose you could use such a system with your own wood but I think they are really intended to be supplied by a commercial concern that processes the chips/pellets in vast quantities. I also believe that the moisture content of the chips/pellets has to be within certain limits - not sure how you'd monitor that.

For burning your own wood, I entirely agree that after all the effort with a chainsaw the last thing you'd want to face is more processing with a big chipping machine. Have you read up on 'short rotation coppicing' using hazel or willow - quite an efficient way to grow your own wood for fuel, apparently.

 

[robgil]

thank you guys ,
brackendale thats a very kind and generous offer but i am at least 2 to 3 months away from getting this sorted so i reckon e bay would be your best bet.
if you still have it closer to the time though , i would certainly be interested in buying it from you.

so , oil fired rayburns ,does anyone know what kind of heating system they can run? and how much more oil do they use than a conventional oil fired heating/dhw boiler? the reason i ask is that if it works out cheaper to put in a conventional boiler to run our heating and give us hot water then we could buy a solid fuelled rayburn to cook on with perhaps a second bottled gas cooker as an everyday cooker. but , if there is not much in the difference then a rayburn that does it all would be the way to go.

 

[worms]

robigil,

I'm afraid I can't answer the relative costs but having a single piece of kit to do it all was one of the issues that swung us. Although we left space to put in an electric cooker, we never did buy one and it has never been an issue.

With regard to wood storage, yes a large hopper is needed and possibly relocation of heating plant to the garage/shed. Pellets are more energy dense than chip (but more expensive). If chipping your own, then I guess moisture content and variability might be an issue.

 

[brackendale]

robgill well its there and I probably wont get round to shifting it in the next few months.

As stated I do not know what condition it is in so no cost - just shifting it would be good

when you are ready just pm me

 

[JoceAndChris]

I suppose you could use such a system with your own wood but I think they are really intended to be supplied by a commercial concern that processes the chips/pellets in vast quantities. I also believe that the moisture content of the chips/pellets has to be within certain limits - not sure how you'd monitor that.

For burning your own wood, I entirely agree that after all the effort with a chainsaw the last thing you'd want to face is more processing with a big chipping machine. Have you read up on 'short rotation coppicing' using hazel or willow - quite an efficient way to grow your own wood for fuel, apparently.

Thanks for your very clear explanations Flyfisher, and I'll read up on "short rotation coppicing" right away!

 

[skier-hughes]

You can buy log burning boilers as well, of all sizes. I have a couple of chaps coming round next Friday to look at our heating requirements. They'll be discussing log boilers, solar and heat pumps.
We have a rayburn, should do 9 rads, we have 17 and they run just lower than tepid, keeps the frost off the windows but that's about it.
I love it for cooking, but it's useless as a heater for our size house.
I'm thinking adding a jet system and only using the cooking side would be best for our rayburn, and run the heating off something else.
The log burners can take all types of wood, scrap, logs pallets. The more expensive ones adjust for moisture content etc as well. Fit with a large accumulator tank (spare hot water tank of say 2,000 litres) and you light the boiler once a day and stock it with wood and it'll provide enough heating for 24 hours.
I'll send details later, gotta go now.

 

[Penners]

robgil

We have an Esse oil-fired range, that's very similar to a Rayburn. It's about 5 years old. It runs the central heating, provides the domestic hot water and heats 17 radiators. Actually that's probably rather too many radiators for its nominal capacity, but it doesn't seem to have any problems.

It has two burners - one for the central heating and hot water, and the other for cooking. It has a built-in timeclock that enables us to set two cycles per day for each burner, or to run either one continuously. You can also switch off the central heating so that it only heats the water.

As a guide for you, we use around 3000 litres of oil a year. That's running the central heating from about October to May, and heating the water 12 months a year. Our heating is supplemented on winter evenings by a woodburner in the sitting room.

I hope that helps.

 

[worms]

only using the cooking side would be best for our rayburn, and run the heating off something else.

That was my thought for the day when the water boiler inevitably rusts through. The cooker would heat the kitchen and cook the food and a wood system in the garage would do the rest of the heating and the hot water. Best of both worlds but seems too good a solution to not have some fatal flaw...