Central heating and fireburning stove

[Almondbiscotti]

We have spent £7k on new boiler and radiators. The house gets toasty pretty quickly. I really wanted to get a log burner in our lounge as i love the heat of a fire and the aesthetics etc.

Were about to extend to back of our house to put in large open plan dining room and kitchen and our builder suggested that we may not want to get a wood burner because we have a well insulated 1960s house and the extension will need to comply to modern insulation standards. In short he said the house wont get cold enough to warrant putting fire burner on. Also if we turn central heating off to achieve coldness to put it on, it would mean the bedrooms upstairs would be very cold. Dont think burner would be large enough to service the entire house (we have 3 large double bedrooms).

Has anyone else had this conundrum? Dont know what to do. Head says no fire burner for reasons above but heart wants one!

Thanks in advance.

I had a log burner that did three radiators and hot water.......you can get some really good ones these days.

Four radiators

If you had thermostatic valves on your radiators they would only come on in the rest of the house when it was cold enough.

I have only ever had old, inclined to be cold, houses but our woodburner and fires means that our heating is switched on later in the year and switched off earlier in the year because they warm the house up.

Not that they warm the whole house as it is big but we spend our evening in a room with a fire and then go to bed.

Can't you just turn the radiators in your lounge down/off? That's what I do, I'd rather use the fire for heat when I'm home on my own than put the heating on and heat the whole house.

2 log burners! One in the sitting room and one in the extension....

Yes to Brat's suggestion. Always worth installing a back boiler that way you can either get a tank of hot water or some radiators out of it. I am not sure how compatible that is with a new system. We have always had gravity fed heating/water.

The other thing i forgot to mention is that the positioning of the air brick from the fire would be across the room so there is also possibility of there been a draft across the room. DH doesnt think wood burner is a good idea!

happy with the work of a wood burner? Only five mins cleaning a day but you need somewhere to store wood and be happy carrying it about and chopping it.

its true that there would be lots of buying wood, arranging its delivery, chopping it, storing it, blah blah, trust me its a headache.

unless your old man works at the forestry.

Get one under the limit so you won't need an air brick. We did and it warms up the house.

I don't find it a headache at all - order wood and tell them to leave it in the usual place, come home to a load of logs, cover it if it is wet or not and put it away the first time we are home in the daylight.

We burn a lot of wood, have had 6 cubic metres since September and probably have got two left so will need more before the winter is out. We have got an aga, two fires and a woodburner and barely have the heating on, an hour or two a day. We rely on the fires.

Have thermostatic valves on your radiators or have a mobile thermostat and put it upstairs.

We wouldn't be without out woodburner. It makes the house so cosy and is a real focal point.

If you can afford it why not? We got brand new gas central heating and a multifuel stove in the lounge, we don't need it for heat by any means but it is lovely and cosy and easily the best "splashing out" we did in the renovation. If you want one and can afford it then go for it, a fire adds character and cosiness, central heating is beside the point..

Thanks all. We have one thermostat for all of the heaters so would need some further adjustment.

Ruhrpott which one did you find under the limit?

Almond - fitting TRVs to our radiators was the best thing we ever did - three of us, five beds and five receptions. Those (£25 per radiator fitted), a remote thermostat and using our fires more has halved our heating bill. Before the house was tropical at times because the thermostat was in the cold hallway (whereas now it is only tropical when my mother visits).

We all prefer it how it is - not that we couldn't afford the bills, just seemed massively wasteful.

We have a contura 750a but anything under 5kw doesn't need an airvent in an older house and there are lots of stoves on the market 5kw and under.

Put thermostatic valves on the radiators, I'm surprised this wasn't done for a brand new system.

We have an open fire but if we could afford a wood burner (the cost of installation} I would have one. Though I do like the open fire and poking it and the job of keeping it going!

We never put the upstairs radiators on as we don't like hot bedrooms but you could leave the bathroom one on.

Thanks all!