Have you put your heating on yet?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I lived in Aberdeen I had no central heating. I had a coal fire which pulled a strong draught from the front door which meant a coat was still necessary. Good training for now: if I feel cold during the daytime I put on my wool overcoat.

When I was a teacher in Derbyshire, the heating was allegedly controlled by County Hall, rather than by the school. So we used to freeze in November - December, but in May and June the heating would be on.

[umslopogaas]

I can confirm that if you seal your house too well, to conserve heat, you run into damp problems. The old part of this place is a solid stone walled cottage, with double glazed windows. When I first moved in I was plagued by mould growing on everything, because the sealing caused the humidity to rise. I cured it by having a fan fitted in the loft, facing down into the upstairs corridor. It gently circulates the air and prevents damp patches from building up: its too low powered to cause noise and I usually forget its there.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have a dehumidifier - essential for the piano. No mould build-up at all now.

[umslopogaas]

I thought of that - I've worked in tropical environments where they are used, and provided you remember to empty them, they work very well - but I just took advice from a damp control company and they said the fan was what I needed.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I suppose a fan may help a bit, but unless it's an extractor fan, all it does is move the damp air from one place to another.

[Richard Tarleton]

My supplier provides bags of very cheap, wet logs. I asked the sweep if they did much damage to the flue and Colin Sweep said they would make more tar and damp logs burn up three times as quickly as dry ones (less than 20% moisture). I fill up the log shelter at the end of the season so that they have more time to dry out over the summer. I found mine burn up more quickly since I made the stove legal for the Smoke Control Area - can't shut it right down.

ff you need to read this - burning wet logs a really bad idea, promotes creosote build-up, plus you use far more. Conventional sweep brushes powerless against creosote, which gradually constricts the bore of your chimney, sweeps tend not to admit this....Various anti-tar products which you burn on the fire prior to sweeping, you'll find some very mixed reviews on Amazon....

I only burn kiln-dried seasoned hardwood in log-burner, expensive but lasts much longer. I sweep my chimney three times a year - midwinter, March or April, and a final tickle in late summer, with a wire brush as well as a sweep's head.....The most effective way to clean the chimney of course is to set fire to it, which I've accidentally done a couple of times by letting the stove get too hot - works a treat, reduces the tar to a fine powder which you can sweep the next day. But I'm not recommending it.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is the way to keep warm.

[french frank]

ff you need to read this - burning wet logs a really bad idea, promotes creosote build-up, plus you use far more.

That is what the sweep said. He left me a leaflet where you can order kiln dried logs online. I used to get kiln dried ones locally, but now I don't have a car (how many bags of logs can you get in a mini? I could fit in 11: 10 + 1 free) but now have to rely on the coalman. Can't think where he stores them.

[umslopogaas]

#35 Ein Alp, I wondered about that, but the fan works. I think in a sealed house you get local stagnant areas of air where the humidity builds up high enough for mould. A fan mixes all the high and low humid patches together, and the resulting mix is dry enough to inhibit mould. Anyway, I havent had any mould problems since I had it installed.

[Richard Tarleton]

I used to get kiln dried ones locally

Used to get free logs from work, until the taxman clamped down on that sort of thing....

[MrGongGong]

Used to get free logs from work, until the taxman clamped down on that sort of thing....

Bassoons ?

[Don Petter]

#35 Ein Alp, I wondered about that, but the fan works. I think in a sealed house you get local stagnant areas of air where the humidity builds up high enough for mould. A fan mixes all the high and low humid patches together, and the resulting mix is dry enough to inhibit mould. Anyway, I havent had any mould problems since I had it installed.

If it's blowing from the loft it's probably feeding slightly dried and heated air and giving a gradual exchange of air in the house, not just moving the same air around?

I had a similar idea of gently blowing hot air from the top of the airing cupboard (which contains the hot tank) down into the bathroom at floor level to use some otherwise wasted excess heat, but I've never got round to it.

[umslopogaas]

Don, I think you are right. As a matter of possible interest, I just looked up the bill for my fan and it came to £450, including the cost of the unit and the cost of installation. That was four years ago and I havent had any problems since, so I reckon it was £450 well spent.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, my dehumidifier cost around £90, and it's nearly 10 years old.

29 years ago, I had a mould problem in the house I lived in. It even attacked my precious volumes of the Elgar Edition. Fortunately, I managed to remove it unobtrusively and no damage was done.

[gradus]

Wet logs don't burn well and anyone that says otherwise is talking through his hat.
We heated our house (12 rads) using a wood fired cooker-boiler for 15 years years and the only wood that burns adequately when freshly cut is Ash but even that will eventually tar up the chimney. As Umslopogaas says above it used to be normal for wood stove owners to bank-up the stove occasionally to convert the lacquer like tar into a crumbly soot that could be brushed out but it is a high risk policy as chimney fires can easily start and be very frightening once they get out of control - it's certainly one way of checking that the pointing in a brick or stone flue is sound!