Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

I purchased a property late last year and it has no heating at the moment and I'll have to say, I sure missed piped gas over the winter.

So as not to suffer another cold winter I'm looking to purchase a wood burner in the central Portugal area. I see many places mentioned in the Algarve where a purchase is possible but that's not a practical distance as I'm 30 minutes north of Tomar.

I'm not really interested in the likes of Leroy Merlin as perhaps it's ideal to source from somewhere that supplies and fits. I think a salamander wood burner would be my best bet as I have 2200 meters of my own wood supply and perhaps 3 years supply already chopped and ready to go. I have a conventional UK style fireplace but to fit something into that space, to my mind could result in lost heat from three sides.

Names, recommendations and places I can visit would be most appreciated as would suggested makes. I'm still learning where to buy basics.

I had read on another thread here of the possibility to import from the UK. One such suggestion was woodburningstoveslimited .co.uk. Here my concern would be spare parts in a hurry.

Some have written that the quality of Portuguese wood stoves is not as good as those available to other nations. Comments here would be appreciated. Cast iron to my mind would be much more durable and even if more in cost, initially, is potentially cheaper in the long term.

Thanks to all that reply.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

Do your research carefully before you buy and be sure to buy one that's big enough to keep you comfortable & the best range of good quality ones that I've seen are in Big Mat in Coimbra which is more or less next door to the Macro store.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

Hi mfesharne. Thanks for the feedback here. I understand what you mean about something big enough to be of good use. As said, all new to me is this wood heating. Cold or no cold, I'd rather be here than the UK with a better quality of life. I checked out the Big Mat but need to get to grips on their website.

Most appreciated.

Ashley

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

Have you looked at Fogo Montanha, a manufacturer near Agueda?

Catalogo

Contacts here: CONTACTOS

Salamanders here: SALAMANDRAS

"...the quality of Portuguese wood stoves is not as good as those available to other nations"

Poppycock!

We had a fire from them fitted in our old house in Lagos & were very happy with it.

They've been in business for years.

If you email them or give them a call. I am sure that they can advise who their agent is in your area.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

Some efficiency ideas to ponder:-

Think about installing the stove on an inside wall if that is possible, as it will be more efficient and stand a better chance of heating more of the house, without ducting. Running the flue in the room itself will also add to it's efficiency, there are also some heat-sink tips on Youtube, to maintain a constant output, although some of them are not pretty.

I have mine installed on the dividing wall between the lounge and kitchen and have installed a simple extract fan over the top of the doorway to the passageway, leading to the bedrooms. This will circulate the heat from the lounge ceiling to the bedrooms, without installing a ducting system.

I assume you will fit the stove in the lounge, so consider the size of the lounge when choosing a stove, as most specifications only mention house floor area. If you have small lounge and large house, fitting a larger stove may make the lounge uncomfortably hot.

Suggest you talk to the fitter before your purchase, or read up on the subject. Oh and also look at things like insulation, windows etc.

Another tip is perhaps look at installing an outside-air duct to supply the stove with oxygen, wood burners use a lot if they are supplying heat to the whole house and have to draw that from somewhere. It can get very drowsy on a cold evening, especially if you have sealed windows and the duct will also help avoid cold drafts. Be sure to fit an insect screen to this fresh air duct and a method of closing it.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

Hi,

I used a hardware store in Lousa , 'Antonio Simoes Lopes' on Rua Comercio. Really good traditional Portuguese wood burning stoves at a fair price. :thumbup:

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

'Some' are therefore quite wrong - For example, this Portuguese company manufactures fantastic wood (and other fuel) stoves - is based in Agueda Portugal and exports all over the world.

Aquecimento a Pellets e Lenha Solzaima

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

I second Solzaima, they make good back-boiler fireplaces as well.

Good quality, good price and a lot easier to deal with than someone in the Czech Republic or China should you have any issues! Almost local for those of you in the "midlands" ;) Nice town too.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

AllanB.

You make some good points. The property is long and over two floors and built in part over an original old single story that had 2 ft thick walls. That the main front elevation. To the rear side and far end the ground floor has been extended and is done so with thinner exterior walls. The upper floor of the whole is all of thinner brick like normal these days. All floors are tiled concrete. The tile is of good quality so I'd not want to rip it up. The fireplace at present is like I said before, kinda UK style and is at one end of the property. The property total covers about 380 sq metres, five bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room and living room. The fireplace is in the dining room that's about 50 cubic mtrs. Getting the heat all around is problematic.

The lounge is in fact at present, a garage that's far to good to remain a garage so will become what I said was a lounge. Attached to the main house is another house that's very serviceable with a little work and attached to that is another building that could become a garage.

The windows are very good but insulation is poor and the thick walls keep the downstairs cool in summer and freezing in winter. That said, internal wall insulation would be a good thing.

Many thanks for the input.

MrBife.

I would agree with what you say I'm sure and following your mention of Solzaima I've been to their website. It's impressive with much information. I have now tried to find reviews on their products but there are few if any.

Barlaventoexpert and nt1

Thank you for the contact information and I like the Poppycock!.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

MB, interesting. Do you know who supplies / fits these in the Algarve. I've been looking for a while to replace my Supra which is pretty useless.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

You can forget about heating the whole house with one woodburner and nothing else, even though you have a massive lounge.

Your big problem is the long thin building, meaning you have a lot of outside wall area, even worse if they are stone. I had a 300 year old stone cottage in Somerset, actually two farm worker cottages knocked into one, with a room added at each end, so very long and thin. We had a single woodburner in the lounge at one end and much of the house was always cold, but I was tougher then and on a shoestring at the time.

You need some sort of heat distribution system, either air ducting or radiators and having such a large lounge you could power it from there.

This is a difficult application and requires some considerable research, or you will end up with a very uncomfortable house.

Personally I would go for high efficiency, or your bills will be high, constantly feeding the fire. That means a stove from Scandinavia, which will also stay in all night and definitely a direct outside air feed for the stove.

If your walls are thick stone the the insulation needs to be internal, as the walls themselves are a huge heat (loss) sink.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

Wrong way around! Find someone who has good rep for fitting and tell them what you want - if the ARE good, they'll know Solzaima. My architect recommended them to me - and the local C/H specialists did the same, independently.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

'If your walls are thick stone the insulation needs to be internal, as the walls themselves are a huge heat (sink) loss'.

Not so! Thick stone walls are best externally insulated. That way, the walls heat up; the external insulation keeping the heat in. One ends up with a large amount of heated thermal mass.

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

I'd love to read you defending that with some actual mathematics!

Re: Where to buy wood burner (Central Portugal)
 

The unquantified version:

If you assume that the insulating layer is less thermally conductive than the core of the wall or the covering on the other face, it is self evident that the temperature in the middle of the wall will tend towards that of the ambient conditions on the uninsulated side.

With the insulation outside, the wall is 'protected' from the outside temperatures and will tend to be cooled less in winter and heated less in summer. The large thermal mass inside the house will provide a stabilising effect, reducing peaks and troughs in the internal ambient temperature (from day to night, week to week and from season to season, with the effect diminishing over time).

If the property is permanently occupied insulate outside and if occupation is only occasional insulate inside. Discuss.