Our central heating is broken and so we're currently using our woodburning stove.
I'd like it going when we get home, but don't want to run it all day. Ideally, I want it to light a couple of hours before we get back in the evening.
I can't find any gadgets to do it, and can't think how they'd work anyway. My only idea so far is a long candle, lit in the morning, that some hours later burns down enough to light the kindling.
Any better ideas welcomed!
Use a fan heater on a time swtich to warm the room then light the fire when you get in
Surely its not cold enough yet to need the fire anyway
Time switch, battery and wire wool for the "detonator", plus suitable tinder of course.
mend the central heating :>)
seriously - an unattended stove will probly have gone out after 2 hours - assuming you need the dampers/airwash etc fully opened to get it going in the first place.
Forget it.
Light it when you get home, but use a hot air paint-stripper gun to get it going *quickly*.
If your stove is properly installed and you are using good quality dry seasoned wood then it should stay in overnight with everything closed down and then come back to life when you open the draught.
This suggests that it should also stay in at 'tickover' during the day and then come back to life when you get home.
This seems a far more sensible approach than a potentially expensive and dangerous combination of highly inflamable fire lighting substances and a timer to ignite them.
The long candle does sound a fun idea, but apart from general timing constraints you would have to have enough air flow going through the stove to keep the candle alight and also ensure that the kindling catches when the candle burns down far enough. This would probably be enough air to get the stove really roaring once the wood catches. This leads to a situation where you wouldn't want to be unexpectedly delayed on your way home.
Even a fan heater on a timer sounds potentially dangerous, if slightly more practical.
Oil filled electric radiator on a timer, to take the chill off the room?
Employ a pensioner to come in and light it for you? This could be cheaper and more reliable.
Cheers
Dave R
Agreed - I would think it possible to tend to it in the morning and have it in a state where it can be quickly brought up to temperature when arriving home, with enough heat supplied during the day to take the chill off things (and that's speking from experience of wood stoves in an area where the outside temp can easily be -30).
Yes, leaving them unattended is a little risky anyway - and unattended with some sort of homebrewed lighting mechanism sounds like a good way to end up with no house :-)
cheers
Jules
nah. Use a blowlamp.
couple of firelighters under some 1/2 x 1 lath, a few 2" sticks piled on top with plenty of airflow, and a couple of big uns on top.
On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:04:16 +0100, The Natural Philosopher had this to say:
Embed a bit of nichrome wire (the sort of stuff you got on electric fire elements) into a firelighter and power it from a transformer fed via a timeswitch.
doesn't work. Better is fusewire wrapped around match heads embedded in a mixture of potassium or sodium chlorate and....
The Natural Philosopher wibbled on Tuesday 06 October 2009 15:23
Is it time to say "thermite"?
But only if you hate your stove...
Thanks for all your replies folks - at least I now know there's no gadget on the market that will do this.
I would say I'm going to play with my candle but it's not that sort of a newsgroup, never mind the name.
And the reply below made me laugh immoderately.
- typical tough winter is 120 days
- 120 x 1kW x 2hrs =3D 480units @ 12.5p =3D =A360
Very little over a year (=A35/month). I've assumed 2hrs no thermostat (you may find 20mins is enough).
Failing that, who is for the first wood-burner-storage-heater-combo ? Heat passes up thro magnetite bricks, ok for 920-980oC? Ok, probably worse than the firelighter on a timer.
OP - You sure there aren't easier ways to burn the bank down BTW? :-) Like elect Gordon Brown for another term (or even elect him at all come to think of it).
To add to that re =A360...
- Tesco firelighter is 11.4p, 120 days is =A313.68
- 2kW out of wood is say 10p, 120 days is =A312
So that is =A326 vs =A360 for a 1kW fan heater on 100% for 2hrs. So the penalty is =A334 extra or less than =A33/month.
If the price of wood is higher, adjust accordingly.
I'll be darned if I can find a way of using an angle grinder somehow!
Arrange angle grinder on a pivoting arm, such that the blade is resting on a suitable piece of steel. Timer plug for the angle grinder. Aim so the sparks go into some suitable tinder. Easier for an open fire than a stove though.
Already been invented (back in 1767, and still available today)
Ours will stay in for much longer but it's a waste of fuel if the house is unoccupied.
Our Dunsley Yorkshire takes not more than four minutes to light, the door is fully closed with the 'dampers' fully open during that time then they're closed, after putting some 2" logs on the flame. Larger logs are put on later.
We're very impressed with the efficiency but I wouldn't light it before we went out, it's not worth it, being so quick and easy to light and give out more heat than we need.
Mary
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