In 2018 I purchased the Turboheat woodfire ducted heating system.
The easiest way to describe how it works is to think of a conventional ducted heating system using your wood fire heater as the heat source.
This is a link to their website turboheat.net.au
Below is a review of my personal experience with this system.
Why We Chose Turboheat As Our Main House Heating Option
When we moved into my current house, its only heating option was a freestanding woodfire heater. The woodfire would only heat the main living areas and take days of continues use to offer some heat in the bedrooms, so we needed another solution.
We considered reverse cycle ducted heating but didn’t like the dry air produced from an air-conditioning system.
We looked at ducted gas heating, but our area doesn’t have mains gas, so this wouldn’t have been very practical or cost-effective.
We also considered other systems such as hydronic heating, but the cost was too high.
I like the ambience of a fireplace, and I am lucky enough that I can get access to wood for free. As such, it made this product an attractive choice for me as the ongoing costs of using the system are low, compared to other heating options. So after a family friend recommended Turboheat we went ahead with getting a quote.
Dealing with Turboheat was very easy from receiving the quote to the completion of the installation process. The Turboheat team were very professional.
How The Turboheat Ducted Heating System Works And Our Personal Experience With It
The Turboheat product gets retrofitted to your current wood fire heater.
I will note that although they can retrofit their system onto a vast majority of fireplaces, there are some exceptions. The existing flue gets replaced with a new one specifically designed to their system. The distribution unit, ducts and outlets are installed in the roof. The system controller got installed on the wall at a place of my choice. The system is very user friendly as it is all automated; I use the wood fire heater in the same way as I did before the installation.
The fan used in this system is very efficient and doesn’t appear to consume much electricity at all. When enough hot air is present in the distribution box, the heat is distributed through the ducts. When the temperature falls below a specific value, the fan will stop (the temperature values set by the installers will depend on the system requirements). If the fire isn’t producing enough heat, the distribution fan will turn off, and once enough hot air builds up, the fan will start running again.
The system takes advantage of the heat going out the flue which would usually be wasted and redistributes it around your house.
It used to take three days to get some sort of constant warmth in my house, now it takes 30 minutes, and the whole house is warm with no cold pockets.
To keep the system running, you need to have the fireplace producing a certain amount of heat.
For example, when you go to sleep, it is not practical to have the system working throughout the night, as generally you place a night log in the heater and shut the fire down. The fan will continue to cycle on and off when enough heat reaches the distribution box. As the flue becomes colder, the distribution fan will stop.
Your house may cool down, but it won’t get cold as you still have the natural heat of the fireplace, and as mentioned above when you get the fire going in the morning, the house quickly warms up.
When we installed the system, we had an old Clean Air freestanding wood heater, since the initial installation, that heater was starting to fall apart. I contacted the team at Turboheat and asked if they could recommend a replacement that would work well with their system.
Their recommendation was the Kemlan XL freestanding wood heater. They were also able to supply and install this heater promptly, and again the whole process was very smooth.
You can read my review of the Kemlan XL here.
Final Words
In summary, I am delighted with this product. I would defiantly recommend it to anyone who is currently using their fireplace regularly.
