Open fire v wood burner Cast your votes now.

[NaturalBlondeYeahRight]

I have a beautiful inglenook fireplace. Its part of the reason I bought the place, if you stand in it and look up you can see the sky. Fully lit with 5 logs it gives out as much heat as a large candle only just exaggerating
My friend has a good woodburner in hers, it doesn't look quite so lovely but my goodness the whole house is warmed by it without CH on (thinks of oil savings)

Help. What should I do??

Wood burner.

Woodburner :-) we recently had one fitted to replace a solid fuel rayburn when we had central heating fitted and its been brilliant. We also have an open fire in a living room and never ever use it.

I was very happy for having a multifuel stove with glass doors fitted to my open fire. It was safe to leave the house with the fire on for a start. Much much warmer. Used less fuel. Did not shoot sparks at the children or the carpet. Easier to light. I thoink it looks pretty good too.

Multifuel stove

We've recently ripped out a lovely open fire place and fitted a multifuel stove and the difference in heat is incredible. We have a big old, cold house (rarely gets above 12 degrees inside). With an open fire going all day long we could occasionally get our sitting room to 15/16 degrees. With the multifuel stove it is now at 22 degrees, and we burn a lot less coal and wood each day. Can't recommend it enough!

Definitely wood burner/multi fuel. Ours is the latter but we have not yet bought coal for it - it heats the sitting room and spreads heat out into (most of) the rest of the house quite happily on just wood. We also have a little one in the dining room and a huge one which we rarely light in the kitchen. Keeping all 3 going at the same time is quite hard work

We have and love both. However, the safety angle of the wood burner is great.

know this is old thread but just to add that it depends what you want out of a fire looks or to keep warm and save a lot on oil and gas heating.. if its to save impossible to really beat a multi fuel log and coal fire.. had them for years now. must have saved me thousands on heating bills..you can get small one 5k for about 500, british made with lifetime warrantee, plus maybe another 2 to 3 hundred to get it fitted, mine was about 120, but no liner was needed. recon it paid for itself in the first year...

Wood multi fuel vote, here. We upgraded an old stove, already in the house with completely new installation, cost approx £3000. But costs will vary depending on the choice of stove and work to the flue.

Had a lovely Stovex Wood Burning stove and just removed it and put in a multi-fuel stove.

The cost of trying to heat with wood is crazy and you can't leave them burning for more than an hour or so as wood no matter how hard or dry quickly burns away.
Plus you need a huge amount of storage for a few years worth of wood,

Steer clear of wood burning and go Multi-fuel stove, half the cost to run and you only have to tend to it twice a day!

The cost of heating with wood was about three times that of what the coal now costs us.

We've got a multi fuel burner but to be honest, there was such a heat difference between wood and coal that we've stuck with wood. We've had several big trees cut out of the garden over the last couple of years so we're still burning that at the moment, but on a cold day, it's just such a lovely warm mellow heat that I can't imagine being without it. And on cold nights, we stack it well, close it down and it stays on low all night meaning the lounge isn't freezing to go into the next day. There is a real art to using one however, and that's to get it roaring hot and burning well then shut it right down so it's just ticking over otherwise you go through a lot of wood. We also tried burning brickettes that were made from compressed sawdust from a local woodturner, these were amazing and really gave out some heat. A £3 bag would last 2 nights.

The single most annoying thing on a country walk in the smell of burning wood. Fucking pollutes the air, nostrils burn. I just don't get the kick people get out of burning wood.

This thread is three years old. I imagine that OP has made her decision...

Thank you for wonderful elucidation !

Valentine, smelly burners indicate burning the wrong stuff or unswept chimneys . proper usage means no smell and very little smoke.

But you may be happier in a smelly city by the sound of it...

Valentine, I'll be sure to sit in the cold so as not to disturb your walk.
Maybe when I go to the city people could be kind enough to stop the traffic?

Wood burner. I've had both and wood burner is fantastic

We have a multifuel burner which can also take over running our central heating. It's brilliant and warms 'the bones' of our house in a way that central heating doesn't. I'd rather have multifuel as when it's really cold, we can put a bit of coal on the fire and it stays in all night.

In the UK or Ireland Wood is very expensive as we do not have vast tree coverage. This makes wood very expensive in the UK and the quality is poor.
Wood is however still a reasonably priced fuel in the USA and for many the only fuel.

I have a Clearview Pioneer 5K multifuel stove and love it. I agree there is an art to it and best to use properly seasoned/kiln dried wood for best results. On really cold nights I bank mine up with smokeless fuel and the heat is kept in until the morning.
I don't have central heating but find I don't really miss it as the heat can travel throughout the ground floor...I'm in a bungalow.

Orrin
I didn't know that
others have asked me to go back to my city. I actually love where I go for a walk and it annoys me to end because I go through a lot of commute to actually be able to live in the air around my house. So thanks for the advice.
I might come across as really ignorant but I really did fancy wood burning stoves/open fires etc until I moved here. Are these the only option for some houses or is it a thing?

The single most annoying thing on a country walk in the smell of burning wood. Fucking pollutes the air, nostrils burn. I just don't get the kick people get out of burning wood. angry
*

Same here. 3 houses in close proximity around ours have them. All clever people, all "doing it right" but everywhere stinks of smoke and my cars are covered in their ash. Fucking antisocial bastards.

Oh, and not one has a chimney so they all look like Chinese fucking takeaways chugging away with silver pipes sticking up the sides of their houses.

Valentine. If you live in a place with lots of timber growing it is usually reasonable priced.

Modern wood stoves are very clean burning as long as you do not try to burn it slow or use wood that has not been properly seasoned. If a wood stove is burning efficiently there is no smoke and no smell given out from the chimney.

If you are prepared to live with the nursing needed to keep a wood stove burning,,, more wood about every hour or so,,, then get one.
My comment on wood being the only option for some is more to do with practicality of their circumstances. Wood being so readily available where they live that it makes no sense to try and use other fuels,, there are also those that live of grid or just do not have electricity to run boilers pumps and fans so they heat and cook totally with wood.