Notifications

Clear all

Interesting new product for woodburners - Recoheat

Wood Burners, Biomass, Small Scale, Biofuels & Other Heating Alternatives

Last Post by Lucia 1 year ago

10 Posts

7 Users

6 Reactions

1,544 Views

RSS

Tim441

(@tim441)

Prominent Member Contributor

Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 353

Topic starter 08/10/2024 3:47 pm

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/bills/energy/three-ways-cut-heating-bill-700-guide/

looks interesting! anyone tried it?

Claims: pumped-air heat recovery system for domestic stoves distributes the heat from a stove across far greater areas, effectively creating a mini central heating system

https://www.recoheat.co.uk/

Listed Grade 2 building with large modern extension.
LG Therma V 16kw ASHP
Underfloor heating + Rads
8kw pv solar
3 x 8.2kw GivEnergy batteries
1 x GivEnergy Gen1 hybrid 5.0kw inverter
Manual changeover EPS
MG4 EV

🤔

Quote

Topic Tags

recoheat

Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 972

08/10/2024 9:30 pm

I love the idea but the maths doesn't add up for me, unfortunately.

This season, one load of seasoned logs from my supplier is £190 and that sees me through the whole year including barbecues. If the Recoheat gadget recovers 1kW from my 7kW stove's flue and costs £300 or more before fitting, that's quite a few years before I see the payback. I love the idea of redistributing the heat - indeed I have a stove-top fan for doing exactly that - but it's something of a luxury gadget given my woodburner is only ever for occasional feel-good evenings and the very rare emergency.

105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"

👍

ReplyQuote

Tim441

(@tim441)

Prominent Member Contributor

Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 353

Topic starter 08/10/2024 10:50 pm

I can't disagree. In pure financial terms probably only stacks up if fitted during installation of woodburner... and if used as primary source of heating ...most of the time.

I can imagine it works as intended.

The noise from fan might need mitigation?

ReplyQuote

Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 3582

08/10/2024 11:09 pm

It’s not the most polished design in the world. We don’t have plugs anywhere near our wood burners either. Nice idea though.

Get a copy of The Ultimate Guide to Heat Pumps

Subscribe and follow our Homeowners’ Q&A heat pump podcast

👍

ReplyQuote

Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 972

09/10/2024 10:12 am

It would also be interesting to hear their thoughts on how a sweep should work round an installed unit.

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"

ReplyQuote

Tim441

(@tim441)

Prominent Member Contributor

Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 353

Topic starter 09/10/2024 10:29 am

@majordennisbloodnok I suppose its OK on a flue with an inspection/soot hatch...

Without one it probably needs adding during installation?

ReplyQuote

Judith

(@judith)

Noble Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 412

09/10/2024 11:36 am

We investigated this when we had our wood burner installed. We only use it for very cold/for fun/power cuts, not routinely.

Our stove is less than 5kW so doesn’t need a dedicated air vent which for occasional use isn’t efficient. But if we had had a fan distribution system put in from the chimney into the bedroom above (seemed sensible to us, using waste heat) then a dedicated extra vent would have to be fitted in the bedroom which for most of the time would just be a heat loss.

There are a lot of sites which give more information on ventilation requirements this is just one example https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/log-burner-ventilation.

A carbon monoxide detector is always a good idea if you have a stove since heat makes you sleepy anyway. It’s useful to check it’s not dangerous air quality.

2kW + Growatt & 4kW +Sunnyboy PV on south-facing roof Solar thermal. 9.5kWh Givenergy battery with AC3. MVHR. Vaillant 7kW ASHP (very pleased with it) open system operating on WC

👍

ReplyQuote

AllyFish

(@allyfish)

Noble Member Contributor

Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 503

09/10/2024 12:16 pm

Nah, not for me, it looks cheap, plastic-y, and gimmicky. Heath Robinson would be proud, the only bit that looks properly engineered is the coil inside the flue, which you need a HETAS registered installer for and you should not DIY fit.

If you want to recover heat from a flue, any flue, from a stove, a fired combustion boiler, a gas turbine, you do it with an air to fluid heat recovery exchanger not air to air. The fluid will provide 4x the heat thermal energy per unit of mass flow than air. Eg: a log burner with a built in back boiler, but the regulations on connecting these into CH systems are quite strict.

I'm with the Major on this one, the stove is secondary evening heating as a feature on winter evenings, and usually lit for the benefit of my wife and/or the cat.

This post was modified 1 year ago 2 times by AllyFish

👍

ReplyQuote

Toodles

(@toodles)

Illustrious Member Contributor

Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 2162

09/10/2024 2:58 pm

@majordennisbloodnok Oh that one is easy to answer Major - he uses his chimchimchuroo! Toodles.

Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.

😂

ReplyQuote

Lucia

(@lucia)

Prominent Member Member

Joined: 1 year ago

Posts: 325

10/10/2024 6:11 pm

There's a really interesting masonary stove that Martijn Doolard has built into his cabin in the Italian Alps.

He only has to light it once a day. It channels the heat around the house which it uses as a thermal store and it has an oven too. His project is quite fascinating - made more so by his cinematography skills and lack of words.

Here's the stove company

ReplyQuote