Until recently I would never entertain having a wood-burning stove fitted but the steep rise in energy costs is causing me to have a re-think. My lounge has a conventional chimney and a living flame gas fire that I never use, it was in when we bought the bungalow in August 2020, it's old and kicks out v. little heat, it's definitely earmarked for replacement.
I plan to refurbish the lounge and replace the fire next year so I`m now considering a wood-burner, no idea what they cost to buy and fit. We spend most time in the lounge so an alternative to running 2 large radiators from the gas central heating would be worthwhile, and by leaving the doors open the heat would 'escape' to the rest of house where it would be useful. I could do the calculations for heating the lounge (heat losses, U values etc), but as a starting point it's easier to ask the wise folk on here.
All comments and advice welcome, is this a good idea or a daft one?
About to do the same.
Went to a local shop a couple of weeks back for a quote and we've got our eye on a Heta inspire 45, about £1400 to buy, then same again for installation, which incudes labour, chimney liner, cherry picker hire for fitting the liner (you may need scafolding instead, which will cost more), supply, but not fitting, of wooden mantle. That didn't include any building work needed to our inglenook once we remove the current coal fireplace to make it bigger or tart it up or anything, we'll get a builder in for that and they'll fit the mantle at the same time
We have one of these:
https://www.charnwood.com/all-stoves...series/c-four/
Our lounge and dining room are knocked through into one, but even though it's a small-ish stove it still pushes out enough heat to warm both rooms and most of the rest of the ground floor besides. You can in theory install to an existing chimney without a flue liner, but I'd take advice on that if I were you - any cracks in the chimney (or air bricks) and you'll risk filling the rooms above with smoke.
A word of caution though - public sentiment has changed massively from when we first got ours, when at the time they were regarded as the eco alternative to conventional heating. If I were thinking of investing in one now I'd have to seriously weigh up the possibility of tighter legislation in the near future - even for the so-called 'efficient' ones like ours:
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-uk-data-shows
Just revisited the thread, some interesting comments!
By coincidence the builder who built my extension and recently rebuilt the garden walls has just called, I asked his opinion and he says 'get one'! He also gave me a local contact, a firm that specialises in fires and fireplaces, so I`ll pay them a visit.
The currently fitted gas fire will get replaced anyway, so it makes sense to consider a wood-burner even if it only supplements the central heating rather than fully replace it for the room. Getting wood at reasonable cost will have to be factored in, ironically I paid good money to have a tree cut down and disposed of 2 years ago so that's an opportunity lost!
Considering the time of year it makes sense to bring this project forward and go for it, unless there are obvious drawbacks that are not so obvious!
Edit: I'm old enough to remember coal fires being banned in some areas , my area was one of the first (ca 1962), in an effort to combat smoke/fine particulate pollution so reverting to burning solid fuel has always felt counter-intuitive. The Guardian article is melodramatic, its certainly thought-provoking but as things stand it won't influence my decision.
Last edited by walkerwek1958; 1st September 2022 at 17:16.
Funny enough we still say at home installing a Log Burner was one of the best things we have done , still look forward to lighting her up it is so relaxing and the heat it kicks out is great. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending installing one we also have a Charnwood C4
If you buy a multi fuel you can burn the smokeless eggs/ovals. Very clean burning and long lasting with minimum ash. As said in the post above. It was one of the best thing we ever did as well. Ours is a Coalbrookdale Little Wenlock mk3 multi fuel.
Last edited by johny; 1st September 2022 at 21:20.
Looking to install a log burner for a new house that I just bought in London (Woolwich/Greenwich area).
Am I right in thinking that they are still legal as long as you get an ‘efficient’ one and only burn smokeless wood?
The guidance online is not very clear, especially clickbait news articles.
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Also if anyone has any recommendations for companies to source/install, it would be very much appreciated.
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HiOriginally Posted by lawler
See the link in post two. Worth a read.
Yes common sense stuff really as long as you buy a "well known make" Charnwood , Stovax etc...they will be eco ready same with Wood anything below 20% moisture is fine most Wood brought from Log Suppliers will be this , but buy a moisture reader just to be sure
Enjoy
Our current home had a gas fire in the front reception that was a) ugly and b) condemned after we has a British Gas engineer visit for an unrelated job. We replaced it with a Stovax Wood burner and we haven't regretted it. Does a great job or warming the room, plus adds a special ambience. Locally installer did a wonderful job.
I don't know the UK rules, but read your home insurer's rules. Sometimes you have to contact them when you're going up through wooden floors. Here, you'll need a certified company for the installation or at least a 'thumb's up' and documentation when it's a DIY job.
It's quite common to find asbestos in older houses, including the inside of the chimney (is that called the 'flue'?). Modern solutions here is a flexible, heat resisting 'tube' inside the asbestos flue. As long as there's no breaking and cutting involved, all will be fine.
Danish wood stoves are built according to the very strict Danish rules regarding emissions etc. Worth checking. I have a French industrial stove in my workshop. Well, that behemoth will not pass any Danish rules.
From experience (we have 3 wood stoves): a free-standing stove generates more heat than a built-in stove when using the same amount of wood. A lot of people buy a too powerful woodturner when it's a freestanding. My wife's office (4x5x3m) has a (nominal) 2kw freestanding mini Dovré 325CB woodburner. She can heat it up so far that it would not look out of place in the belly of the Titanic. Our 5 Kw semi-built-in (2 sides) Dutch brand stove warms the room nicely but doesn't get things as hot as the freestanding one. The 15Kw in my workshop is another league. It goes through complete trees in no-time. And it's too hot to come too close. I have a screen around it to make me aware that I should keep a certain distance...
Sorry but I have no idea what the point of considering U Values is unless you are hellbent on being as environmentally friendly as possible, its not worth considering in the scheme of things unless you have a single skin half brick thick walled dwelling with single glazed windows and no loft insulation whatsoever. We ripped out our old flame effect gas fire and installed a Contura log burner, straight into the original chimney with no liner and all approved by LABC. Did this years ago, other than a bit of ash dust here and there, zero regrets. Do it. Don’t stress about U Values, I have studied Environmental Science in Buildings, but unless you live in a dwelling which suffers chronic heat loss it’s not worth worrying about. Given the current fuel crisis, just do it. Good luck.
We have 2 log burners, a 5kw Contura 51L and higher kw rated Dovre. The Contura is outstanding and easily the best of the two, glass stays clean, burns everything to a fine ash, and the single flame control is outstanding. It's an extremely heavy and well made Swedish burner.
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I had a British made 5kw peanut installed 2 years ago it’s a multi fuel very small leaves little ash highly recommended.
Squashy1
If I’m going to justify it on cost-saving grounds I need to work out how much heat is required to warm the room, which has 2 outside walls. Having done some homework yesterday on the cost of firewood and the heat produced on combustion of the different woods I’m coming up with some rough figures that don’t look favourable but the numbers do need checking rigorously. Efficiency factors for the stove need to be considered too. On the basis that the current useless gas fire will need replacing by ‘something’, the wood burner doesn’t need to totally justify itself on cost saving, but I’m meeting resistance from Mrs W whose brain is wired differently to mine. She has a fear/ aversion to fire and flames which stems from a childhood incident where her sister suffered burns in an accident involving an open fire, her fear is irrational but try telling her that! Ironically I got castigated several years ago for banning the practice of lighting bloody candles in the house to create a nice aroma, I saw this as an unnecessary fire risk and binned the lot after finding her daughter was placing them on an acrylic bath whilst having a relaxing soak, and burning them in her bedroom......I was branded as the bad guy for nipping this in the bud!
Cost of firewood seems to be around £160 for a big bag containing 250kg of kiln dried wood. I need to work out the cost of heating the room for 10 hrs/day and compare this to the cost of running the radiators. Clearly, assumptions will have to be made but it’ll be interesting to see how the numbers work out. Selling the idea to Mrs W will be harder! I quite like the idea of having the warm glow of burning logs on a cold winter evening.....but I was brought up in open fires and whilst I respect fire it doesn’t worry me.
Mrs W keeps chelping on about thicker clothes and setting the thermostat low on the heating, personally I’d rather enjoy the warm glow of a wood burner than sit around wearing a body warmer and gloves........we’re singing off different hymn - sheets at the moment!
Wood isn’t cheap. Some people never seem to need to buy any. They know builders and farmers and people getting rid of trees. Others pay through the nose for bags of kiln dried logs. If you’re the latter, like me, it ain’t that cheap.
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10 hours a day!
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It's called retirement!
Lounge is the main room we use (apart from my watch work room) so it's reasonable to have some heating on, albeit at a lowish level, all day in winter when someone's in (which is most of the time if the weather's crap).
This is why the sums need doing v. rigorously.
Relying on 'free wood' won't work, I`ve no doubt I could acquire some, but that's not a good basis for making a case.
I’m sure conventional heating is much more efficient, with a couple of hours of a real fire in the evening.
I do like a real fire, or a log burner, and have spent many cosy winter nights in front of one; but I’m more than happy with my current heating, oil, and as the previous house owners fitted a very nice Gazco gas flame fire I’ll continue to enjoy that on the odd colder night or when I want to see some flames. I’m not sure I could go back to a real fire, but that could be down to the style and layout of the house.
It's just a matter of time...
I realise that it's not solving the cost of fuel issue that has prompted you to look at a woodburning stove but have you considered a gas stove, given that you already have a gas supply to the fireplace? It would provide some of the flame effect you want while keeping the flames contained which might make your wife happier.
I have a Yeoman CL5 which is a 5kW stove rated at about 95% efficient & they are much better than a gas open flame fire as the whole body of the fire gets warm as does the hearth which acts a big radiator. Currently I'm paying 7.5p/kWh for gas & the fire costs about 29p an hour to run: the larger CL8 would cost about 42p/hr to run. Over a year it costs me about £300 in gas at current prices.
https://www.stovax.com/stove-fire/cl-gas-stoves/
Yes a woodburner is a really nice thing to have, but you have to buy into the whole process: building a log store, sourcing wood, storing it until it's really dry, splitting it into the right size, going out & bringing more logs in when it's cold & wet outside & then dealing with the ash & dust. Not everyone wants to go through all that.
The other advantage of gas is that it lights instantly, using a remote control. That might not seem much but on the marginal days or evenings in spring & autumn when it's debateable whether it's worth going through the palaver of lighting the fire you can just flick the gas fire on & shut it off an hour later. I use my gas fire on far more days than my neigbour who has a wood burner because it's so easy to light & shut off.
Yes gas stoves aren't cheap & if you live in the country or somewhere with easy access to wood then a wood burner might be a good choice but I'd suggest you at least have a look at a gas stove.
I've had a wood burner for about 11 years in the living room and till now I've never paid for wood. I don't run it 24/7, and some years its been lit only a handful of times during the worst of the weather. However don't underestimate how useful free wood can be, even if it only supplies enough for an occasional treat fire. I wouldn't be without it now. I also use the ash in my compost bin, so no goodness is lost.
Wood burner - Automatic watch
Gas stove - Quartz watch
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