BioEthanol Fires

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
23,514
Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
Has anyone got any experience with BioEthanol fires?

My wife sent me a link and they look fairly good. The looks of a log burner without the installation costs and easy to move between homes.

Fuel seems to be around £1 per hour which isn’t particularly cheap but not horrific providing it’s just on for a quick burn and aesthetics rather than needing it to fully heat the house.

Curious to other opinions though. Had a search but the only posts are from a few years back and unsure if they’ve got any more popular.
 
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Friend has one in his living room, warms it up remarkably quickly which wasnt expecting. I guess you know, fire, hot and all that but I had always assumed it was decorative more than functional,
 
No first hand experience I just know that they take about 40 points off an EPC score. The inference from that is they are are very inefficient and presumably expensive to run.
 
thezappa said:
No first hand experience I just know that they take about 40 points off an EPC score. The inference from that is they are are very inefficient and presumably expensive to run.
Click to expand...

So...pack it away when selling the house ? :D

From what i can gather, they shouldn't be used for a main heating source due to cost/output. But for something to inject some intense heat when coming in from a cold winter walk and relaxing with a glass of wine etc makes it sound perfect.
 
We have a couple, an original small one that gets used outside occasionally as its a table top one so great for a cooler night when eating a BBQ for example.

Our large one the other half uses in the lounge as she likes fire!

The only downside really is they smell a little. Its a curious smell, a bit like damp but not damp, thats the closest thing I can think of.
Its pretty mild but its there.

Typically people either use a scented candle at the same time or a small oil burner or something if they want to mask the smell.

As far as fuel its based on the size of the fire box itself. Our small one takes about 0.5l and lasts 1.5 or so hours. The larger one takes a full litre and lasts probably 3 hours.
It tails off towards the end as the volume of liquid is evaporating slower.

You can buy the fuel in lots of places but best is to buy like 24 bottles or so from amazon I find.


Its about 70% of the energy of petrol by volume, not insignificant at all.
 
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@Mercenary Keyboard Warrior Thanks. I'd seen a previous post of yours from a few years back and had meant to tag you in.

My wife likes the look of this one, not particularly cheap but looks nice enough. Imagin Fires then have a similar looking one that's cheaper so need to see what the differences are.

Modern Cylinder Bioethanol Stove

Contemporary bioethanol fireplace alternative to log burners
www.biofires.com www.biofires.com

From their website, it looks like they suggest adding some kind of aroma oil into the fuel to mask the smell. Although i had also seen pre-scented fuels. One had a "Winter" smell which would work for the next few months! I think when we move to Spain we'd then also look to get an outdoor version. Have already scoped out the availability of the fuel over there as that's a key factor for us.
 
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Martynt74 said:
@Mercenary Keyboard Warrior Thanks. I'd seen a previous post of yours from a few years back and had meant to tag you in.

My wife likes the look of this one, not particularly cheap but looks nice enough. Imagin Fires then have a similar looking one that's cheaper so need to see what the differences are.

Modern Cylinder Bioethanol Stove

Contemporary bioethanol fireplace alternative to log burners
www.biofires.com www.biofires.com

From their website, it looks like they suggest adding some kind of aroma oil into the fuel to mask the smell. Although i had also seen pre-scented fuels. One had a "Winter" smell which would work for the next few months! I think when we move to Spain we'd then also look to get an outdoor version. Have already scoped out the availability of the fuel over there as that's a key factor for us.
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Yeah you can buy scented and you can of course add any thing similar to the fuel itself. A scented xmas type candle is what we use, its more fire, she approves of more fire ;)

This is ours, quite similar.

The whole top gets pretty warm once its been on for a while, nice for warming your hands ;)

www.imaginfires.co.uk

Stow White

Our white option of our wonderful hassle free bio ethanol version of a wood burner stove.
www.imaginfires.co.uk www.imaginfires.co.uk
 
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