Farm House and Barn

The Overview

The Ecco Stove masonry heater is a unique source of heating as a single source solution. The following case study was for a farm house and then additionally for a barn to reduce the cost of heating. Wood was accessible on the land so using the Ecco Stove was always going to be a big saving on the heating bills but this also gave a comparison to air source heat pumps.

The Client

In October 2014 after a response from a magazine advertisement in the national press we were called to a farmhouse in the Monmouthshire countryside. A most stunning, if not exposed property nestled into the hillsides overlooking the black mountains.

Our prospective farmer client wanted a wood burning stove in his very spacious kitchen/sitting room area and had heard the Ecco Stove could heat much more than just this very large space without over heating the initial room.

The Task

The object of the exercise was to heat from the kitchen/sitting room, through into the galleried hallway, across the hallway into the dining room and of course up the stairway into at least three of the six bedrooms. The total area to heat was 240m².

The installation went ahead after a visit by our surveyor to the home and to our showrooms and workshops. The preferred colour match and the E730 oval Ecco Stove was chosen (Charcoal body with grey fittings) which we rate to a 260m² area.

The Execution

The stove was built onsite within an hour and our clients (Chris & Rachel) own Hetas engineer installed the twin wall flue on the same day. The stove was fired up and left gently running. Mild weather followed for the next two weeks with no reports back of performance or success.

The weather turned and the phone calls started – every two days. Our customer was achieving not only the heating in the areas we had quoted for 240m², but actually the conservatory, corridor and the other bedrooms. A total of 330m². This was a 37% larger area than we had quoted.

Chris & Rachel installed air source heat pumps two years prior to halve their heating costs from £3130 to £1775. Bearing in mind he initially only wanted a wood burning stove to heat their large kitchen/sitting room area, they had managed to halve the heat pump running costs as well, from £1775 to £976.

So pleased with the home heating contribution his E730 made, they have since installed our largest model, the Ecco Stove E850 in their barn/workshops. We expect the E730 stove to have paid for itself in 3 years.

The Barn

The Ecco Stove E850 masonry heater in the barn really shows off the capabilities of the stove as although we rate the area of heating as 280m² the area heated here is 440m² with high ceiling and no insulation with two shutter doors.

The E850 is equally at home in a larger area or a smaller area than those we specify - all that would change would be how often the stove is fired.