Log burners

[fikel]

I love the idea of having one. If you have one would you recommend ? What type do you have? I love warmth so would want to make the most of it when it’s needed. I really feel the cold !! How expensive do you find using it?

Ours heats the whole house, It runs October-March continuously.

It costs us nothing as we clean the chimney ourselves every 4 weeks.

It will take up to 18”logs which is great as we only need to stock it 3 times a day. Wood is free for us, we get through about 5-6 trees a year all cut from our own property.

Thank you unfortunately would have to
buy most of my wood, what room do you have it in?

It’s in the dining room, which is the most central part of the house.

The going price for wood here is $250 a chord. We burn about 5 chords a year.

We are getting a Jotul installed shortly really looking forward to it! They are pricey but have good reviews only need a 5 kW for a cottage.
Be warned its not cheap to install them! We are under 4k for all the works, flue, fire and surround. Although we anticipate that we will reduce our heating bill.

We had a Morso put in a couple of years ago. It's in our upstairs sitting room so used evenings and weekends, but quite a lot as we're in a cold country.

We only burn a third of a cord a year.

It's not big but chucks out a huge amount of heat - we love it. Nothing cosier than a real fire.

To answer your original question, Ours is a Lakewood probably late 1980’s vintage.

We have two, one in each living room, one is an older stovex and came with thr house, the other wood is a Charnwood Island 2 in gunmetal, which we put in a couple of years ago.

Cost was 4K. But they needed a tower to reach the top of the chimney and we needed it repointing at the top. All the usual, from flue, insulation, etc.

We use it all the time, it just heats the room we are in, as we live in a big old house, but it throws out a heck of a lot of heat. We use a mix of bought wood and our own, I'd thoroughly recommend,

Make sure you use a hetas registered installer.

Thank you I am v keen it would probably go into the dining room too, it means we would put a sofa in there and make more use of the dining room. Or just by having it on and leaving the door open I’m hoping would heat downstairs

You should bear in mind that wood burners are incredibly polluting - even the most modern and (supposedly) efficient ones. There is a lot of concern from the WHO and environmental and other physicians about their detrimental health effects as they are responsible for more PM2.5 than motor vehicles. The volatile organic compounds (VOC) in their emissions have been shown to be 40 times more carcinogenic than those in cigarette smoke. Think carefully before subjecting your neighbours to the consequenses of your desire for what is, essentially, a fashion item.

I love walking into the house with the faint wood smell. DH installed ours himself.

I wouldn’t call it a fashion item as am sick of being ripped off by the energy suppliers, so am looking at how I can save money in the long term. I don’t like the idea of polluting the environment though, wondering if smokeless coal is better and have a duel fuel?

Rumboogie

The wood burner is our only heat source. I would love to hear your alternatives for us. We don’t have gas or mains electricity.

We had one installed in our conservatory. We leave the door open and it heats all downstairs. Last year we paid approx £200 for wood from a local farm and that was all we spent (we also get some from family as well)
Best thing we ever did. I love it and it makes the conservatory usable all winter

@Rumboogie part of the government's renewable energy numbers for electricity generation come from wood pellet burning which is shipped over from the US and Canada.....
No energy regardless of claims is clean either from what's been used to make it and the process or the combustion of it!

They are not fashion items they are used for heating homes.

Next thing you will be saying that you never have a bbq..... Or have you not considered how bbq coals are made and the combustion of them.....

Our Charnwood is duel fuel and we use smokeless coal sometimes or seasoned wood,

The issue is older stoves with wet wood or non smokeless fuel. Don't be concerned, plenty of research out there.

Some folks a bit jealous or tin foil hat wearers.

I have a dual fuel. I've used stoves for thirty years and if we had gas I'd be rid of it tomorrow. The novelty wore off sometime around 1990.

We have one in the front room, which heats that room the dining room & hallway when we leave the doors open, it has made a real difference to how warm the house is (Victorian, so high ceilings & draughty) we also are able to turn the central heating down, which is another bonus.
We get well seasoned wood, from a local farm usually get about £200.00 worth which lasts most of the really cold months, stored in a log store in the garden.
Wood burner is a harmony model.
Also I believe, the concern with VOC is due to some stupid people not burning well seasoned or kiln dried wood, ie rubbish wood with paint/metal left on it or wet/damp wood.
Wood burners installed by HETAS qualified engineers, have to adhere to very strict regulations & most woodburners are at least 80% efficient.

Posted to soon forgot to say ours is a duel fuel, we do sometimes use smokeless coal & the burner does stay warm for longer as the coal ‘banks’ overnight, but I find it quite a bit more faffy, so we usually use the wood, coal probably works out cheaper.

10% of the air pollution in London comes from wood burning stoves so yes, it's a problem. I would be very reticent in investing so much money considering this - and for those who are belittling the importance of poor air quality, it is a very real and serious threat to our health and our children's health. If you're in a rural area or have your energy source choice restricted in any way then I sympathise but if you're in a town or city, please don't consider installing it from scratch.

I had a Charnwood installed in our last house and it heated downstairs quickly. We have moved to a house with an Aga branded one and it is disappointing compared to the Charnwood.

10% of the air pollution in London comes from wood burning stoves so yes

That's not true now is it? Up to ten percent In winter months can come from wood burning, but it's open fires that are the contributor to that.

Wood burning stoves greatly reduce emissions v an open fire and a modern eco design reduce emissions by up to eighty percent on thr old stoves, and burning seasoned wood or smokeless coal reduces it again.

Sigh.

Got one last year. Love it. Kiln dried wood is expensive here, £240 for two big builders bags. But we have it on most nights and it warms the fron5 room and room above it. About £3k for fitting and stove.

@Bluntness100 it depends what you're comparing it to, if someone stops using their central heating and puts in a wood burning stove that significantly impacts the air pollution that house produces, no?

I'm not sure how research like this can be ignored. Children in cities have 90% of the the lung capacity of children in rural areas. Why is that cool just for the sake of a crackling fire?

MrsJamin

It’s the same as the diesel argument. Is it better to kill people, or the planet? Most would say the earth has to survive.