Brrr

We've had it. After a week with hardly any sun, and extremely low temperatures (5º at night), that everyone here says never happen, although it was like this last year's February, it's now 12-14º in the kitchen during the day, and that is not great at all.

This house is very nice and cool in summer, but in winter it's even cooler, and there are limits to that. We had expected that ventilating would make this house liveable, even in "winter", but that is not true, now. So, we need some heating.

We pondered a hot water storage, heated by solar boiler panels, that Vaillant has, but such a system always includes an extra heater, like a pellet stove. The heat is then distributed in the house with a central heating installation with radiators and water. And that for a few weeks or two months a year is a bit much.

Today discovered a very nice pellet stove, that is only 25 cm deep, and weights 100 kg: the Ravelli Olivia Steel. That can be installed in a number of places in this house. Interesting is that the exhaust flue pipe need only be 8 cm diameter, and you can just stick that through a wall. The flue may be horizontal for a fair bit too, you don't need a perfect chimney, as the gases are forced out of the stove with a ventilator.

The stove blows hot air from it's front, AND via an extra duct to another room. We plan to have the stove at the back of the kitchen, and that extra duct to go upstairs and warm up the living room. Or, install the stove in the living room, and have the extra duct heat the kitchen. Installation on the ground floor has the advantage that there already is a hole in the wall, that is currently used for the solar ventilation. That hole is fine for the exhaust.

In my heart I'd love a soapstone stove like this Attika... But it does not fit anywhere in this house, and building a new chimney is a bit too much.