Wood burning stove problem - Yeoman County

[dwimorberg]

Hi there. I live in a rented house in the UK and the only form of central heating is powered by a old Yeoman County stove with a back boiler.. To say "they don't make them like this anymore" is putting it mildly. They actually do but they're a much improved design.

Anyway, getting back to the problem: my stove never seems to get warm.

I'm burning wood, roughly 12"-15" logs split and seasoned in a shed for about 15 months. The stove only has bottom vents in the doors, no top vents or airwash system. The wood seems to burn viciously at the bottom where the air's hitting it directly, but no heat is given off by the stove (I can put my hand on the top and not burn myself). The stove is meant to be 14kw, to power the 6 radiators in the house too, but they only get mild to the touch if you're lucky. In the winter, the indoor temperatures get down to the likes of 13C overnight, even with the stove running. There is a damper in the flue but this seems to restrict the smoke exiting rather than slow the burn.

My house is a single storey stone cottage, probably 150 years old so it's perpetually cold and damp, even in the summer. The chimney isn't particularly tall and is subject to the prevailing westerly winds, but then the draw on the fire is very good. I've another smaller Jotul 602 stove in the bedroom and that can happily warm the room using just 3 logs a day (using the same wood), compared to me shoveling 5 or 6 into the Yeoman stove per hour.

Yeoman were apparently taken over by Stovax a while ago and their customer services people were unable to help :(

Can anyone help with this? Is it just a rubbish stove? Am I flogging a dead horse? Any help is much appreciated! Unfortunately my landlords are just being idiots and saying "it's fine" when it's obviously not :S

Many thanks,
Michael