Hi Folks,
As that popular lil TV series says,"Winter is coming" and alas the house we bought last year has a pretty crapped out slow combustion heater (early 1980's Norseman Tile – generally needing a bunch of bits replaced & many of these are now no longer available).
My initial thoughts are for essentially steel boxes with a door on them these things are VERY overpriced. How a company can justify charging $2000+ for these is somewhat beyond me – especially when the functual design differences between them are very marginal – no real huge design advantages that any companies have that I can see.
Anyway only a few places in my area (Coffs Harbour) sell them and BBQ's Galore are the main one – but they seem to never take a dollar off the full RRP and won't budge on price (guess they don't have to worry about you buying from overseas or interstate much!).
Anyone have particular models or brands that they can recommend?
Alternatively what do folks know about the Scandia range that Bunnings seems to stock? I've heard some questionable things about them BUT a few models seem plausible at face value (e.g Supremacy 200, RRP$1800 – 67% overall efficiency, 8mm firebox, 186kg overall weight!
I was originally considering a few bigger brands e.g Nectre but in comparison they 'seem' a tad misleading as they market themselves on 'peak efficiency – rather than overall – and seem to have a lot less metal in them e.g Mark 1 LE is 120kg with only 6mm firebox. Price is similar-ish to the Scandia.
BBQ Galore also have a cheapie for ~$800 – though I suspect it'd be a piece of junk:
https://www.barbequesgalore.com.au/heating/indoor-wood-heate…
Finally, am replacing existing heater – so in installation viable as a DIY (albeit I imagine you'd need several strong friends to assist)??? I'd imagine getting it in the right spot is the hardest as the existing flue pipe just slots down into it and thats basically it on a replacement right?
Thanks in advance.
How come you're looking for a wood heater?
Wood burning is really bad for the environment and air quality. I heard on Dr Karl that an Australian Standards compliant fireplace will put out the same amount of carbon emissions in 24 hours as an average petrol powered car will put out in a year.
When Tasmania brought in measures to decrease wood heater use, winter deaths from heart diseases were reduced by 20% and winter deaths from lung diseases fell by 28%
Some reading:
http://theconversation.com/everyone-loves-a-wood-burning-hea…
http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/your-environment/air/wood-burning-…