Stove reviews

If you're thinking of buying/installing a wood burning stove take a look at this site http://www.whatstove.co.uk - there are tons of stoves reviewed by people actually using them ...
Then you can pop into our showroom and talk to us, possibly even see the real thing - see http://www.hwoods.co.uk.
Alternatively, you can buy online from http://www.fabulousfireplaces.co.uk but be careful to get a HETAS installer to commission the stove, obviously for safety, but also because at some point you might need a HIP to see your house.

HETAS Registered

What does it mean when we say we are HETAS installers? This is what HETAS themselves say:

Registering with HETAS provides real benefits for installers and their customers.

Registering with HETAS demonstrates to your customers that you are competent and provides them with tangible benefits and peace of mind.


As a HETAS registered installer you provide your customers with a certificate at the end of each job indication that the work has been carried out to the relevant standards.


In England & Wales a HETAS certificate of compliance is given to your customer and a copy sent to HETAS, we then undertake the notification process to the relevant Local Authority.This provides evidence of the necessary certification, avoiding the need for your customer to seek expensive and time-consuming building notices from the Local Authority, saving up to £300 on each-and-every installation.

For this legal requirement, HETAS registered installers can charge a reasonable fee for certification to the consumer, in order to cover the administration charges; whilst saving your customers a considerable additional Local Authority building notice fee.


Installation work relating to heating appliances burning solid fuel, wood biomass and the associated systems for heating, controls, hot water etc are subject to the requirements of Building Regulations. In England & Wales the Approved Documents J, L, G, P are applicable and most work is notifiable by law to the Local Authority where you live. In other parts of UK there are variations in legislation and processes.

Please remember that details of installations carried out by installers may be required by conveyancing organisations and Solicitors as part of the house selling process and may in future be made available for the proposed Home Information Pack.

Non-registered installers cannot self-certificate so may be putting themselves and their customers at a commercial disadvantage.

The HETAS website and official guide to products and services actively promotes the use of HETAS registered installers and approved products. For a full list of current HETAS registered installers go to the find an installer pages. HETAS registered installers are encouraged to use HETAS approved appliances and products to ensure that they comply with Building Regulations and standards of safe installation.

A cautionary tale ... stove installation

Here’s a little thought, raised by a customer of ours, I hope someone has a better answer than the Insurance Companies.

I’ve just been called out to investigate the cause of a fire, from a newly installed wood burning stove. The cause was very simple to deduce - the fire started in the chimney, burning though a timber support that was incorrectly placed (too close to the flue pipe contravening Building Regulations). This then set fire to plaster board placed incorrectly to the stove (again Building Regulations) and finally the register plate collapsed, bringing combustible soot onto the top of the hot stove.

The stove was installed by a builder (a friend of the family). Unregistered with HETAS (the regulator body governing solid fuel installations, just as CORGI governs gas), and obviously incapable of installing such an appliance to governing regulatory standards.

The client is unwilling to name the builder as he had been "doing them a favour".

Whilst I was there the client had a phone call, from their insurers to discuss the fire and the damages. As I was writing my notes, trying not to listen to the client becoming more and more irate ... ...

The the conversation went something like this:

Client - "You’re HETAS registered aren’t you?"
Me - "Of course"
Client - (Demanding) "good, when you’ve checked the installation and reinstalled the stove, do I get a certificate?"
Me - "Of course, every one of our installations, or in fact REINSTALLATIONS to put right incorrect works, will be certified"
Client - "Good, you’ll backdate the certificate for me then, to, say a week or so BEFORE the fire!"
Me - "Sorry, but no."

The next is exactly what happened, no word of a lie, the client walked up to me, nose to nose, and shouted …..”You f****** moron, without a certificate I don’t have any insurance, what are you going to do about it????”

And me, the moron? My company is registered with HETAS, we follow Building Regulations. I personally know how to correctly install a stove - this is, after all, why I'm in in business.

At this stage you can imagine what advice I gave the Client.

Likewise image - what would happen if you unfortunately had a fire in your house with no accreditation for the stove or fire that you, a friend or any untrained and uncertified person has installed.

Be careful - it seems that No HETAS certificate, could possibly mean No INSURANCE.

Please check with your insurers before commencing any work yourself or with untrained "installers"

How to DIY install your solid fuel stove ...

How to install your solid fuel stove - simple answer – don’t do it yourself!!!!

Please let me explain why:

I have had two phone calls this week from customers seeking advice about why their newly installed stoves are causing concerns. In both cases they were installed by their partner, both were very similar, let me give you an indication of one:

First phone call:

Me ... "Morning, can I help?"
Client 1 ... "Yes, I hope you can. I’ve just had a stove fitted and I have smoke in my child’s bedroom above, is this normal?"
(Seriously!!! That was the exact conversation.)
Me ... "No ... how was the flue tested and who actually installed it?"
Client 1 ... "Erm ... my partner installed it last night and said since it burned OK, it was alright."
Me ... "OK, when did you notice the smoke?"
Client 1 ... "When my daughter came downstairs, probably a couple of hours after we lit it, she said her room was foggy - she was coughing quite a lot come to think about it."

Needless to say I informed the client that she was lucky her daughter was still alive!!!

Unfortunately, during my working life I have had three requests from the Police to investigate fume problems from solid fuel appliances that we later attributed to the deaths of the householders. In two cases I believe that these were self installed appliances.

As a side note a few hours later I had the very irate partner of the above client on the phone, he called me a few choice names for "causing concerns and upsetting his partner!!!"!

After he had finished his tirade I simply asked if he had ever seen a death attributed to asphyxiation? Unfortunately I have. I also informed him of the law regarding the installation of stoves and asked if he wanted ourselves to check the installation, as I had previously asked his partner.

I was told categorically that he did not, that I was just looking for work and that there was nothing wrong with how he had installed the stove.

Unfortunately his phone number was withheld. What can I do? No name, address or phone number.

Building regulations and hence the law are quite clear on the installation of ALL solid fuel (yes this includes multifuel and woodburning stoves). They MUST be installed by a certified professional person; usually HETAS registered.

Failing to do so requires planning permissions to be obtained and approved. When you come to sell your house, HIPS now requires all certificates for ALL appliances installed into the fabric of the house.

• Who is going to provide a certificate for a self installation?
• Worse still ... who brings back the family member who has died from a faulty installation?

Carbon monoxide poisoning

We just had a call for a boiler service from a lady who'd just watched ITV This Morning's piece on carbon monoxide poisoning. The piece told tragic story of 10 year old Dominic Rodgers who died 5 years ago as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Sadly a set of circumstances, including wind direction and architectural design, lead to the poisonous gas seeping into Dominic’s bedroom.

Often known as the silent killer the symptoms of CO poisoning are often likened to flu or a hangover - that goes away when you leave the house.

These are the things you should look out for:

• Sooting or staining on or around your appliance
• Excessive condensation in the room where the appliance is installed
• Lazy yellow or orange coloured flames

Carbon Monoxide can be present in smoke from gas, solid fuel or oil appliances.

PREVENTION

To reduce the risk posed by Carbon Monoxide and to keep yourself and your family are safe you must have all your fuel-burning appliances safety checked annually by a qualified/registered engineer for your fuel type - either a CORGI, HETAS or OFTEC registered installer.

• Ensure that rooms and heaters are well ventilated.
• Never block vents to stop draughts or to dry clothes.
• Have your chimneys and flues checked regularly.
• Get an audible Carbon Monoxide alarm for the house - the little dots that change colour are great, but they can't wake you at night. (Wilkinson sells one for about £20.)

To arrange for one of our engineers to check out your appliances call 01623 752097 or complete our Contact us form.

See the Carbon Monoxide Consumer Awareness Alliance website.

Check out our website Woods, Stoves & Fireplaces.

DIY Fireplaces

Many of our fire surrounds and fireplaces are suitable to DIY installation, as are some of our fires - HOWEVER - you need to know that a gas fire or a stove/open fire should be installed by the right person:

• Here in the UK a gas fire should be installed by a CORGI registered engineer (http://www.trustcorgi.com/);
• A solid fuel appliance should be installed by a HETAS registered installer (http://www.hetas.co.uk/).

Once the work has been done your installer will issue you with a certificate - this will form part of your Home Information Pack (HIP - http://www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk/)should you choose to sell your house.

Stoves on Canal Boats (Narrowboats)

I've been working for a HETAS (www.hetas.co.uk) registered heating company for over 21 years now. HETAS are the regulatory body who govern, monitor and promote the installation and servicing of solid fuel appliances.
As with CORGI for gas, ALL solid fuel appliances installed within residential or business addresses within the UK, must be notified to the relevant authority (usually your local council) or certified as safe via a qualified engineer (HETAS engineer).
In previous blogs you will have seen that I have been bestowing their virtues of Green Dragon Fuels; a biomass fuel made from the co-products of biodiesel product. Completely green, completely renewable energy. Green Dragon Fuel is currently undergoing HETAS testing for their approval. We have tested it on a multitude of appliances and today we have fired and tested on an installation that really shouldn't work (More of this later).
Now, my Dad owns a Narrowboat. He loves his Narrowboat and having talked to a lot of "boaters", they all do! And I can't say I blame them. The ardent boaters, like my Dad, are out on their boats, rain or shine, wind or hail. Some may think them mad! I personally think it's a completely different lifestyle. You see parts of the world that motorways and dual carriageways thankfully haven't destroyed and at a leisurely 3-4 miles an hour travelling speed you have plenty of time to see the world gracefully pass by.
Many of these boats have heating stoves on board, fired by solid fuel, be-it wood or smokeless fuel.Which got me thinking, since we supply Green Dragon Fuel here, would it be a good idea to see if I can introduce it through chandelries throughout the UK to the inland waterway users?
This I have done, having had several very productive meetings with chandelries around ourselves, we have also contacted chandelries throughout Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire. If you happen to be reading this, and are a proud owner of a Narrowboat or any inland waterway craft that has a solid fuel stove, ask your local chandelry for Green Dragon Fuels. It will save you the postage costs and you'll be helping the environment.
But I digress, the point of this blog was to be stoves and Narrowboats.
To install a stove to regulation requirements usually requires a flue (chimney) of at least 4 mtrs high from the top of the stove to the terminal. The flue, where at all possible, if made of metal, should also be insulated.
There is every chance that if these factors aren't met, then the flue will "downdraught" i.e. smoke will come into the area where the stove is fitted.
All narrowboats that I have seen have an effective flue height of only 1.7mtr! More to the point they are uninsulated metallic flues as well.
In theory these flues will be problematic to say the least.
Yet, every narrowboat with solid fuel seems to work quite adequately.
So, I wondered how a stove would perform with reduced flue height and burn Green Dragon Fuel.
The video below shows this simply, "Heath Robinson" installation. It by no way complies with any regulations and was set up and monitored by qualified professional people. In other words DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!

You can see, not only is the flame picture wonderful with the Green Dragon Fuel, it is not smoking back through the door and more to the point, the flue terminal shows a lovely clean burn.

(I aplogise for the quality of the video, Mr. Spielberg I am not!)

So, although the installation does not comply with current HETAS residential regulations, it does work! More over, it works very well with Green Dragon Fuels.

Give it a try, I'm sure you will not be disappointed!!