# House with solid fuel stove (living room) and cooker, but only latter heats water?



## RMCF (10 May 2011)

Recently moved into a house, and when I use the solid fuel range cooker it leaves me with loads of very hot water for showers, baths etc.

However when I use the stove in the living room it heats the radiators, but I notice that there isn't anywhere near the same amount of hot water, or at even half the temperature.

Is this right?


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## Trilogy 1982 (10 May 2011)

What make/model of range and stove have you got?

Its unlikely that the output of the stove is equal to that of the range. Do you know what the output of the stove is?

It just sounds like a case of the stove being too small to handle rads and hot water together.


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## Woodie (10 May 2011)

Might also depend on the way the system is plumbed.  You can get similar effect when using a burner and backboiler configuration with the latter heating water and one or two rads max.


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## RMCF (10 May 2011)

It might have been a plumbing issue tbh the more I think about it.

The range in the kitchen had an internal boiler and the hot water cylinder for the house was situated directly behind it (hotpress backed on to kitchen). Pipes went from range to tank.

As for the living room stove, its a Waterford but since I am not the original owner of the house, I do not know either the model number or the output of it. But it is a fairly big lump of a thing, maybe the older version of something like this:
[broken link removed]

Now it might be the smaller or less efficient, not 100% sure. It seems to heat up most of the radiators in the house, but not all of them to the same level, so I'm guessing its not powerful enough to heat the entire house.

So can some stoves only heat rads without heating hot water? Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but I thought that if they were making hot water for rads then they would also provide hot water for baths/showers at same time.


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## Woodie (10 May 2011)

RMCF said:


> So can some stoves only heat rads without heating hot water? Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but I thought that if they were making hot water for rads then they would also provide hot water for baths/showers at same time.


 
Simple answer is yes.  It's not rocket science each heating source will have a certain amount of output then it depends on how the original system or systems were plumbed in.   
If you only want to heat water from one of the sources then you may need to get a valve and possibly pipe directly to the tank.   A good heading plumbing engineer should be able to help.  I think there may be grants for running isolated circuits also, again the plumbing heating engineer will know.


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## RMCF (10 May 2011)

Thanks for the feedback folks. 

The idea of running another pipe from the stove to the hot water tank doesn't thrill me - I'd guess too messy and the house has been redecorated/fitted since we moved in.

It looks like the original owner was going for stove for rads, and kitchen range for water. Thing is, we have now changed the range over to a gas/electric range for cleanliness/handiness. 

Looks like we will be going with less hot water !


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## villa 1 (10 May 2011)

The range may be directly connected to your cylinder and the stove may be indirectly fitted. You may have a combination indirect/direct cylinder fitted.

As previously suggested get a qualified plumber to look at the installation and he/she can check the outputs from each heating appliance. The stove should be capable of heating at least 4/5 radiators and plenty of hot water.
Dual heating systems have to be carefully designed and installed to work effectively and efficiently.

Note: There is no such person as a plumbing /heating engineer in this country unless he/she achieved the qualification in another country.
It simply doesn't exist in crafts/trades in Ireland.


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