Log Burner opposed to gas fire.

[neilyoungismyhero]

I'm wondering about the benefits (if any) of getting involved with a wood burner. It would mean the initial hefty purchase plus knocking the wall/ceiling about but after that would it be more economical? - at the moment we have a small gas fire. For the last 2 or 3 years we haven't used the CH just relied on the fire and it's been fine...I feel the cold but have been fine. We now have a small kitchen extension with a dining room and this open space was very chilly last year so we did have the CH on for a while.

The gas fire is practical and clean and no hassle and instant heat whilst a log burner would entail buying the right sort of wood to burn, cleaning it out and putting it on at the right time of time to allow it to be the right temp. during the evening...plus Im not even sure the council would allow this?
Anyone have any advice please?

If you're asthmatic put on one of those masks covid to clean out or when door is open. Modern ones are efficient and clean. They don't just heat one room either.

I have a multi fuel burner that was here when I bought the house. I have never used it every day in winter before, I tended to use it weekends or if it was exceptionally cold. I always use it Christmas Day though.

I only use seasoned or kiln dried logs usually but I do have some given to me that have been in the garage for well over a year so I will use maybe one or two of them with the other logs. I will probably use the log burner a bit more due to the increase in gas and electric so I can use the central heating a bit less.

It doesn't need cleaning out very often as I burn logs only at the moment but I am thinking of maybe using smokeless coal as I do have most of a bag I bought a while back.

I believe if you use logs, you make the fire up on a bed of ash but if using coal, you need to clean it out after each burn and re-lay it. Is that true anyone?

We had a gas fire in our old house and almost never used it. It looked lovely but gave very little actual heat and ATE gas.

We had an open fire in this house for years, which we used on and off, and plugged the chimney with a chimney balloon to reduce draughts when we weren't using it. But changed 4 years ago to a wood-burning stove. Which has been incredible - the amount of fire needed to heat the room is less than half what was needed with the open fireplace. We can find bits of wood (some thicker bits but lots of sticks to get it lighting) in the local woods to help supplies, but mostly buy logs from the eco-shop near us (we usually buy a mix of seasoned logs, and wood "bricks" made of compressed sawdust). And it is so efficient we usually need to leave the doors open to the kitchen and hall to spread the heat around the house.

The only thing I would prefer is if it wasn't set back into the fireplace - DMIL has one in her kitchen that is out in the room, so she puts a kettle on the flat top to slowly heat up for washing up/HWB's etc, and sometimes puts a stew or other slow-cooking thing on top to benefit from the heat as well. (But she lights it early in the day as she's home all day so can do slow cooking - we are mostly out at work all day).

Also, on the asthma front, I grew up in a house where the central heating was broken far more often than it worked. So we depended on the 2 open fires for heat - burning a mixture of smoky coal and whatever wood DF had managed to aquire, season and chop himself.

I find the stove better than the open fires (at home and when we had it here) as the smoke is contained, there is much more efficient burning so far less smoke once it is lit, and there is far less ash and waste at the end. I don't bother with a mask when cleaning it out (I am the fire cleaner in this house). And I don't find my asthma any worse when we have the fire lit than when we only have the central heating going.

We have had one for years, as there's no gas supply to our village. We get free seasoned wood, so it's a no brainer for us. I'm not sure they'll be made illegal to existing people; most of our 150 household village has one. If a gas supplier wants to put a supply to the village, I'll rethink-not before.

We had a multi fuel burner fitted 3 years ago. It is not cheap to use as we don’t have access to free wood, but I think it will come into its own this winter, especially if we have power outages. In the winter, I tend to light it around 4pm. It takes a good half an hour to get to the to the optimum temperature, but once there, the heat it puts out is amazing. It basically heats up the whole of the downstairs and we don’t need the ch on in the evening. The ch is on for a couple of hours in the morning just to take the chill off the house and we sometimes use little electric heaters to heat the home office’s when wfh during the day, but apart from that , the majority of the heat comes from the burner. We also cook baked potatoes in it and have a stove kettle for hot water.
A builders bag of seasoned wood is currently £75. Two builders bags usually last the winter. I also buy kiln dried wood from home bargains at £3.99 per bag (last winter price). It’s good quality wood and good to have if we can’t be arsed to go outside to the wood shed.
We wouldn’t be without one now.

…..I’ve just been to home bargains. The kiln dried logs have gone up to £5.99 this year! 😬

Aldi were selling kiln dried wood at £3.99 last week as I bought a bag. Shame about Home Bargains, I was going to go there this week and get a couple of their bags too.

How long does a bag of logs from Aldi or Home bargains last?

We have a Pellet burner, complete game changer. You can turn it on or off as you like. Pellets are cheap and last a good while. The flu is tiny and the mess minimal. I only need to clean it once week and it takes 5 mins. I love it

Usually a couple of nights, once it's really got going, I usually only need to put one or two logs on then turn it down. I don't normally light the burner till about 5pm ish although that might change this year if I need to use it more.

It's not the most cost effective way of buying logs but I didn't really want to store masses of them in my garage if I ordered in bulk.

Me too. So easy and have bought a years supply of pellets in advance as someone told us to buy in the summer when it is cheaper.

I found a local kiln dried log supplier which delivers free - 5 bags for £30.
As long as you don't burn wet wood and have a modern stove it's all good.
Warms our room up beautifully

Nor log burner, bur ww have an open fire in our living room.

Logs are a lot cheaper than gas, we have stocked up for winter already, OH reckons it wil cost about £2 per night to heat the house using logs, and it generates so much warmth.

We also don't use lights when the fire is lit, as it illuminates the room softly.

Evidence of them being banned? Very doubtful as a lot of older properties only have open fire heating systems.
Law about dried logs only introduced, but that's it.
Anti social? 🙄

I have small vessel lung disease and in the winter when people have their log burners on it really makes my chest tight and I have to double my inhaler use and use ventolin , which I only use in warmer months if I walk up large hills . I wish they would ban them in any residential built up area or at least stop any new installations .

I could have written this exact same. OH is asthmatic, no effect on him at all. I have a breathing condition, no impact on me. Ours is DEFRA approved, its not dirty or a pain (what on earth are people doing?)

We have seasoned wood this year, I dont like buying kiln dried due to the cost but we usually buy seasoned and it sits under the porch in the south facing front and a woodstore we built in the front.

Swept twice a year

Where is this, sounds suspicously cheap

The price has definitely increased. We usually buy the smaller sacks that were €6 each, they went up last year to €6.50. But 10 for €60.

This year, the same sacks of logs are €8.50 each or 10 for €80. But the pressed logs (various types of sawdust compressed into hollow logs or bricks) are either €5.50, €6, or €7 per pack depending on the type, and also have a bulk deal. So I will be increasing the amount of compressed ones and reducing the solid "chucks of a tree trunk" ones we buy this year.

But our limiting factor is storage - the compressed ones MUST be kept dry or they crumble. I can get roughly 4-6 bales into the plastic coal bunker we have in the side alley, and 3-4 more into the shed until needed. But the solid logs can go under a tarp outdoors. So if I want to get a good lot initially, it will have to include a lot of solid logs.

@BiddyPop Yes, prices are definitely going up. I’ve just ordered another load for the winter. I’ll stick it round the side of the house with some cheapo tarpaulin over it. If the kiln fired logs price increase in home bargains is anything to go by, prices will be increasing as we head into winter.

Ditto.
A load of wood lasts me all winter and beyond.

For us that would be max one evening. One or two logs on low doesn’t really heat our home. Or anyones. We could eek it out to make it last a couple of days but we’d be under blankets and cold to be frank. Common sense tells you that.

we are self sufficient and a massive log basket lasts a couple of days, one day if it’s on all day. Buying logs by the grab bag or by the ton is the most effective way to do it. Traipsing to buy it at Aldi on the regular to buy expensive bags and then trying to eek them out really isn’t the way to go if you can avoid it, are on a budget, and wish to be warm.

Agree.

Wood smoke affects my chest. I don't book airbnbs with stoves or really enjoy sitting around fires or anything. In the countryside with limited gas, or reliant on expensive oil, or frequent power outages etc I can see that a wood burner would be really useful so fair play.

I don't live in the country though, I live in a big city and it really pisses me off that come the winter in certain posh areas I start getting asthma symptoms because of everyone's bloody wood stoves. No need. It's selfish, antisocial and a health hazard.

We replaced our open fire in the sitting room (never really got the room warm, had to be lit by 2pm for the evening for it to be close to warm in the room) with a Clearview log burner. I love it. The room is toasty warm, we buy logs by the cubic metre and store them in an outdoor log store so they keep us warm twice - once when stacking and once when burning ;).

@HipsterCoffeeShop it isn’t selfish if it’s the only way people can afford to heat their homes. Living in cold, damp and mouldy homes will also cause illness.