To think £10 per day for heating is expensive in a 3 bed bungalow??

[inmyshoos]

Just that really. Currently costing at least 10 per day to heat our house. It is well insulated in the loft although it has stone walls.
I am just desperate for spring
Can't afford for it to be so cold much longer

Other wood available is a trailer load which is £65. Again it is difficult to get. Often quite wet and would last less than a week.

The heat logs at least burn slow and hot. The wood logs if wettish just sit and hiss whilst tarring up my chimney

caronaim do you have another source of heating or just a stove? Is you house maybe newer/better insulated?

attic highlands. Honestly wood is at a premium here. You wouldnt believe how frustrating it is not being able to source decent logs at a fair price when you live surrounded by forestry and piles and piles of wood! Really!

You should be looking at about £80 per cubic meter for kiln dried wood but I can imagine you get through it very quickly by having the heating going all the time.

Apparently it's a myth that having the heating on constantly at a low heat is more effective than having it on only when you need it. Is it worth trying only heating the house for a few hours or are you there all day?

I am home most days and at the moment have no choice with the snow fall.

When I am out the stove obviously goes out if i am out more than say 3 hours so I know how quickly the house cools down. Past few days it has been -7 here and even though I wear extra layers u end up frozen in my bones and i ache. Not helped by having arthritis which is so much worse when it is cold and damp.

I am often tempted to get back into bed with the electric blanket on!!

gosh that is expensive

sounds like hard work too

what about electric radiators that you plug in. I think they would probably end up costing more :(

There's nothing worse than being cold.

The older I get, the colder I get and the more the heating stays on.

This winter it's a corker. Mine is easily on 10 hours a day.

Temps have ranged between -2 and 4 to 5 for several weeks.

We moved here from suburbia, newish well insulated bungalow with gch and a nice open fire too to this remote spot old cottage with solid fuel heating. We had no idea about wood burning. Moved in on the 27th of Dec and the temp dropped to minus 20 that winter. Had 2 dc under 3 and was pregnant with dc3. We had a small pile of wet wood!
That was a steep learning curve!

Could you buy an oil filled radiator for one or two main rooms in the house and run them 10am til 5pm, then have your stove run 5pm-10pm?

TBH I would be tempted to splurge on some kiln dried wood chopped and spilt delivered right to your door from somewhere like reservoir logs. It must work out cheaper than heat logs, those things are a couple of quid a piece. Towards the end of the day I would stop burning the wood and would add on your coal since this will burn for longer (sometimes ours will keep going all night). Also burn everything that comes through your letter box or would go into your recycling bin. We burn all paper, cardboard, tumble drier lint (makes great fire starters when stuffed into a toilet roll), pine cones work well too.

I don't think having the fires on low works. Ours can look like its burning but the temperature thermometer will show 250 degrees and that hardly heats the room at all. If you stoke it up it will pump out at 500 degrees and will heat the room quickly. If the room is then reasonably well insulated that heat will remain in the house. IMO better to have it pumping out when you need it and capturing that heat than having it low and cool all day.

I would then start gathering as much free wood as you can ready for next year. Store it indoors or in a decent wood store where it won't get wet. You would be surprised how much you can gather at this time of year when we are having strong winds and snowfall. Lots of branches are snapping and fewer people pick it up when its wet. Make it a habit to take a strong rucksack with you when you go out in case you see a decent bit. Even small wet pieces are helpful. We get the DCs collecting sticks and branches whenever they go outside. They then go into big storage bins ready for use in a few months' time once they are properly dry. Buy a moisture content meter so that you can make sure you're not burning anything with water content of over 20/22 percent since its just a waste of your effort.

The demand for wood is much greater now as more and more people get wood burners. We don't pay for ours since we have woodland but DPs are always running out more quickly than they thought they would.

Then look at your house itself. You need soft furnishings to keep you warm and hold in the heat. Lots of fluffy rugs, cushions, throws, thick curtains. Keep the curtains closed all day apart from the room(s) that you're in. Use draft excluders on all external and internal doors (hook them to the bottom of the door so that they move when the door does). Use a candle plant pot heater as an additional heat source in each room you're using. It costs pennies and does make a difference.

If it's still cold I'd buy a couple of oil filled stand alone heaters.

I am home all day in a very big, cold house. I've got it down to a fine art now. I've even trained the DSs to shut the front door immediately they step through it (which took quite some time!).

I would recommend a few things

1. buy x2 oil filled heaters. Plus oil. Use those in main rooms during the day. Plus a little electric heater you can easily move around ie have on upstairs in mornings whilst everyone's getting ready

2. drive/ walk to a woods and collect as much wood as possible for free. Repeat. Everytime you take kids for a walk, take a bag and collect fallen stuff. If you stack some indoors next to burner, it will be dry enough to burn ok within a few weeks.

3. do step 2 throughout the summer, and store outside in log store so that by next winter you have a decent ish supply of free wood. Not a huge help this year, but def for next

4. in spring buy a huge trailer of unseasoned logs and add to wood pile also for next winter.

3 bed bungalow here with a ton of big windows
( warm whenever the sun shines, cold on cloudy days) We pay 188 a months d.debit all year to cover gas and electric . Home at weekend plus 2 days in the week.

Hi op you poor thing

We live in an oil house and all fine but one bedroom on the other side of the house that is part of an extension is at the end of the line radiator wise and doesn't heat up well at all.

This isn't ideal as its used for my mum and sister to stay over when DH is away - 2/3 times a month.

We bought a £32.99 Prolectrix 1.2w halogen heater. Didn't expect it to do much but it heats the room lovely.

Im not saying you could heat your whole house this way but the money you're spending on wood you could probably buy one for each room and still save money.

Might be worth a look.

Have you looked at whether you could replace your boiler with a heat pump? If you can afford the upfront cost it looks like it would pay for itself within 4-5 years at the most (prob less for an air source pump). Plus you can get an annual grant from the govt based on the amount of energy you use now - pretty sure it applies in Scotland.

And that way you would have the hassle or trying to source fuel.

Just realised my 'payback' calculation was massively dodgy as was based on the idea you have the heating on all year! Still worth looking at.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
We have an electric heater that we move from room to room and keep on in hallway overnight to keep temp up.

Our stove won't keep in overnight. It is an old thing (20+ yrs) and has been 'modified' by previous owner to be more of a wood burner than multifuel which it was originally. There is no ash pan. Wood sits directly on floor so burning coal is tricky. Too much and it just because a big bed of ash that has to be shovelled out once it cools.

We are not allowed to take wood that has fallen unless we have a foraging license. We had one once (lasts 6 months) but last few applications have been turned down. Apparently they are cutting back on them.

Lots of forestry folk live in our little hamlet. Even when the wind blew a tree down into our garden and my dh chainsawed what came into our garden there were comments made about how 'they couldnt give us permission to do that but if no one sees'. It is also very much who you know it seems with regards to getting wood here.

I'm depressed just thinking about it

Dh has in the past ordered from forestry but they wont deliver it anymore. They tell you where it is and then you have to get it home yourself. These are 3m long logs with diameters up to 40cm. And the best bit is you can't chainsaw it where it is. You can only hand saw in the forest! It is extremely time consuming. Tbh i am sick to death of it.

But the delivery companies will just rock up in a lorry and give you a pallet of wood. Just like if you'd ordered a sofa from them or a washing machine. Can't you use them?

Having to collect and chainsaw your own wood is just crazy.

Have you looked into buying an ash pan and grate? Look for parts on ebay perhaps?

It sounds incredibly frustrating. I appreciate that what applies down here may very well not apply in the highlands.

The only other things (which wont help you this winter) I can think of are:

look into internal insulation for your walls - but I don't know it that is compatible with stone walls

Is there a volunteer forestry group? One that helps out with clearing and stuff? around here, friendly rangers can point you in the direction of spare wood, especially if you help out with working parties.

Agree with the idea of looking at heat pumps, either air source or ground source (if you have lots of land). They are an expensive investment and do need electricity to work though, so wont help with your elec bill.

Maybe you need to invest in a new wood burner? It sounds like that one isnt great.

Two words: stone walls. No insulation value at all without cavities.

The only way to really get bills down is to clad the walls, or put heating off more. If latter, look at electric heating pads for if you are in and stationary.

Bit random but is there anywhere near by where the properties are very large and might sell you their excess wood? I live in a "very well to do area" (as my MIL describes it) where the houses have a lot of woodland. There are stacks of wood lying around everywhere since we seem to be the only ones who actually use it to burn (mainly because they're all considerably richer than we are ). If we walk along the boundary of our property there is the equivalent of about 6 cords of wood stacked on our neighbours land where trees have come down, been chopped up and then just left to rot down.

Long shot but might be worth a try.

I'd personally just buy from a national timber supplier (not a local one if they are sniffy and fob you off with their wet wood. When I google there are various suppliers for your area.

Immy I think my house may be the same as yours, wood burner for the central heating. For the last 10 years I had an old woodburner in my house that was just so uneconomical to run I couldn't afford to have the heating on. I had a woodburning stove in the living room and we just sat in there keeping warm. This year I've replaced both woodburners, and even though it's a stone cottage I've actually plasterboarded and insulated the whole of the downstairs because I was so sick of being freezing cold. This is the first winter I've been warm and toasty. I bought three cords of wood in October which cost around 600 euros and this will last till March.

I've replaced my central heating boiler with a Bosky Hercules - best thing I could have done, the thing is so economical - it burns both wood and coal. I've only just started to use coal in the last couple of weeks just to help keep the fire going overnight as I worry about frozen pipes if I let it go out for too long. The Bosky wasn't really that expensive and it slotted onto the existing system with no problems at all. Plus it looks so much nicer in the kitchen - I also stick my kettle on top of it so hot water is always simmering.

Over the last two years I've managed to reduce my electricity bills from 120 euros a month to 30. I agree wood for the fire is hard to get. In the UK I think Fergusson fuels will deliver a pallet to you - they will also deliver coal. I've never used them but I was just looking the other day because here in France a bag of coal is 20 euros so I was looking for a cheaper alternative for next year. They maybe able to deliver a pallet of dry logs to you quite quickly - burning damp wood is no good, you'll get no heat and just have to pay for a chimney sweep.

Well I think you need to do some hard networking - mention the wood situation to everyone you meet and someone, somewhere will know someone who will get wood to you somehow. Do you know any builders/gardeners/other tradesmen? My builder and plumber always "know a man" and we end up - eventually - with the right person for the job. There are people with wood who want to sell it, you need it regularly - really go all out to try and make that match. So frustrating, I know, but hopefully you can solve this problem.

Also, in the past I have done exactly what Artandco recommends - I walk the dog in the woods and take one of those big blue Lidl bags, I fill them up with thick sticks and branches every time I go out and it gets flung in the back of the wood shed. That's the stuff I'm burning now to start the fire - don't have to buy kindling.

And if you order the wood in the summer, you get it for cheaper. So I always try and pick up the odd cord in July and August.

I've cut down loads of laurel hedges and apple trees in my garden and they've been lying around for the last couple of years drying out. My task this year is to get my trusty chainsaw out and chop them up for the fire.

Oh, that does sound miserable. But sounds like you need to do someting about that stove! It sounds as though its a major part of your problems.

A heat pump is one option but be warned, they work least well when its cold (yes, I know! but its thermodynamics, folks!) and I wonder how many have been tested down to -20? Very important to get really good advice. When it is that cold and your house has stone walls it might not be able to keep you warm, ideally a heat pump needs large radiators as it puts out low temperature heat - think a big warm radiator rather than a small hot one, for the same heat). Air source pumps are about £7-9k I think, and you get a repayment every year I believe, its the renewable heat incentive. Ground source work better but you need to dig up the garden and that totals about £20k. And they still need electric to drive the pump - quite a bit though about 1/2 to 1/3 amount compared to direct electric heating (they will claim more saving than that, but may not have been tested in Scotland).

Actually with the RHI you might be able to get an income back to help "bankroll" a much better efficient wood stove (though not coal) - if you are wedded to wood. I think it is dirty and more trouble than its worth myself, unless you have room to grow your own or 'know a man who does', but I know lots of people love it.

I know oil delivery and even secure storage can sometimes be tricky in remote areas, but a proper condensing oil boiler might be a better bet, look into that? Ask neighbours what the cost is and how reliable local delivery firms are? (there is also calor gas, stored in a giant gas cylinder (you know those grey things, bit like an oil tank) probably costs more? but I find oil boilers smelly, I know, I am very fussy!!)

For a similarish cost eg maybe £10-£15k I think?? you could get your stone walls insulated. External works far the best, we had it on our 2' thick stone walls and I can honestly say it has transformed our house, great with the damp/mould too, as walls are now warm inside. Ours cost £20k but it is a very big 4-bed house + annexe. You do need enough overhang from eaves as is about 6" thick (unless you also need a new roof at the smae time, we waited till the roof needed doing too). Can be done internally as well but have to be a lot more careful, you lose a bit of space, and you lose the benefit of all that warm stone. Plus the bl**dy builders come in the house) Would still make a massive difference however.

There are grants and loans for this too, I think you have warm front still in Scotland but that may be income dependent? There was supposed to be a government scheme called ECO too but that has been mesed around so there may not be anything there, done via energy companies and also some construction firms. Google ECO (energy company obligation) and your county maybe? And sometimes better offers for people currently dependent on solid fuel as you are, google that too!

Scotland better at this than England, also some local authorities run their own schemes too

Also look into what the repayment on a mortgage extension is assuming you are owners - compare the repayments to say saving half your wood bills, on a yearly basis? You might find you are breaking even and in return you will get a warmer more comfortable house, especailly if you do insulation.

RE all the draughtproofing advice etc - the stove is going to be sucking in air to burn (we have an inlet direct to stove that does not whistle past our feet!) but do take care a) that enough air is getting to the stove so it can draw properly (unlikely to be a problem, but still, carbon monoxide danger if not drawing properly). You should get a carbon monoxide monitor anyway with solid fuel. OR gas. Actually everyone should have one!!)

... and b) that you are getting enough ventilation as you don't want mould growing, can be a probelm on cold stone walls in coolish rooms.

well anyway essay over and I do hope you sort something. I will tell my kids to stop moaning that we haven't had any snow: they wouldn't last 5 minutes in your house by the sounds of it.

Could you get the stove returned to burning coal? Or is that just as expensive. Sounds awful. Any possibility of solar panels?

3 bed house here, well insulated with solar panels, gas central heating and always toasty warm for £70 a month (although that is all year round so no drop in the summer). Still reasonable I'd say.

It used to cost us around £300 a month in our old 3 bed house.No gas/poorly insulated/draughty/multi fuel stoves.
That included all electricity (inc an oil filled radiator in dc's bedroom and an immersion heater),and coal,firelighters.
However we sourced all wood for free,and most rooms were cold most of the time.