Opinions please - log burner or gas fire

[Riddlediddle]

Hello
We are redecorating and are having a new fire. Currently its an awful electric wall mounted thing that was already here when we moved in. We like the log burner style so are going to get the chimney hollowed out for this. The big question is do we have a gas one or a wood burning one? On one hand i appreciate that gas burning ones are likely more expensive to run but the wood burning ones concern me in terms of mess and smoke and ashes etc.
Does anyone have any experience or advice they can offer please? This is the type of style that we are looking at - just want to decide gas or wood burning?
Thanks

I’ve got a multi fuel burner . I love it. Burn kiln dried wood so there’s very little ash. Occasionally smokeless fuel.

Use it most evenings and clean it out about once a fortnight. It’s easy to clean.

You need somewhere to store the wood.

I love it. It’s a modern efficient clean burn one. But....it takes 30 minutes or so to warm up room. Once it’s going though it’s a lovely heat.

Gas is probably more practical....but I like the wood and real flames.

On one hand i appreciate that gas burning ones are likely more expensive to run

When did you last buy firewood?

Cons of a wood burner: you need somewhere to store wood, you need to source good dry wood, you need to keep the supply of wood in the house topped up, you need to clean it out periodically and sweep up the ash, you need the chimney swept once a year, it can take a while to fully get the hang out.

These pale into insignificance next to the pros of a roaring fire with real flames and crackle and pops. It is so homey and comforting and wonderful. I wouldn't change it for a gas fire. No way.

Just remember to drink water when the fire is on - you can get dehydrated 🤣

We love our wood burner, use it loads, easy to light, doesn't need cleaning very often. We have two baskets next to it, one for logs and the other for kindling/newspaper. Then 3 big wood stores in the garden and a big sack of kindling in the garage. So you do need to think about where you will put those! But it's worth it, feels so cosy and heats our (smallish) room quickly.

Don't keep wood by fire as they can cause a fire. I am in an area where there are lots of wood burners. There are different ones based on the size of room. We chose one for £599. Had the wall fireboarded, chimney swept and new chimney liner put in, chimney cowl to stop rain coming down the chimney and new hearth tiled for £1875. We only use it when the whole day has been cold and you want that snuggly feeling. We built a wood store from a pallet. Do your research. We hover it out after each use and keep an eye out for spiders. We have central heating and I see the coal burner as a treat when having a relaxing evening.

Thanks everyone. We do have a garage but it isnt joined onto the house so the whole storage aspect for wood and coal is a little offputting to me. Also the spiders comment by @cabbageking has freaked me out - id never even considered spiders. I literally have the biggest phobia in the world

DH built a log store just outside the back door for convenience. Never had a spider in the wood burner. I suppose you could get them in the logs but our burner came with a huge pair of gloves for opening the door so just pop those on to handle the logs. You can calculate the size of the burner needed online as you don’t want one so large you can’t live with the heat output. Just love ours.

We’ve got our wood in a log store by the side of the house. No spiders though.

SPIDERS!!!???

We have a wood hut, the spiders are manageable it's the other various creepies
Gas is cleaner and much less hassle.
Wood you need a supply, bags from the supermarket won't do.
Coal is dirty to use, heavy and you need a store.
I'm used to real fires but idk if I'd do it just because.

Wood burner all the way. We've got central heating but mainly use the wood fire.

I live in Aus so spiders are actually worth worrying about, and I'd still choose the wood fire.

We have a similar burner set up in our living room. We live in a small village and needed a heating supply that we could rely on.
Pros are the room looks so warm and inviting, the smells are amazing, we got an ultra efficient modern stove and burn eco logs so there’s no soot (the chimney cleaner comes out every year and says we have no build up to clean but I still like them to check it out). The stove itself is set up for smoke free areas even though we aren’t in one just to be as clean as we can be.
Cons are just storing the logs. However we have a garage and a log shed so it hasn’t really bothered us too much.

Never mind the spiders, we have had hornets wake up and fly around the room.

Log burner - instant mood lifter. Absolutely worth every penny, and make long cold winter nights not just bearable but positively enjoyable.

We have a log burner in our lounge, we replaced a crappy 70s gas fire with it.

Pros of log burner - it throws out A LOT of heat. It's so cosy in the winter and I love the smell. Clean the ash out maybe once a fortnight. Easy enough to get a good fire going once you get the hang of it.

Cons - getting decent firewood and storing it. I currently have 2 large builders bags of logs sitting on my drive waiting for my DH to stack them at the weekend. We have a log store near the front door, and we also have a large outbuilding to put the extra in.

It depends how much you will use it. If you're using it every night then you really need to have a bulk delivery of logs (my 2 bags just cost me £150 delivered). If you are just using it occasionally then you could probably get by just buying the sacks of firewood you see in garages/tesco but that's not a cheap way of running it. Less to store though.

I must be honest, I miss the convenience of the gas fire. Just being able to turn it on, and no faffing with logs/kindling is a real bonus.

What is the environmental impact of a log burner vs a gas fire?

What is the environmental impact of a log burner vs a gas fire?

Gas fire fossil fuel - CO2
Firewood, virtually carbon neutral (if you process it yourself) - particulates

Take your choice.

We've a large log burner, and a brick hearth extends the rest of the lounge wall on which (out of sight of the fire) we stack logs. Takes about 5 wheelbarrow worths (double size barrow). These dry out further with the heat of being indoors. Outside we have a former barn, in which we cut and stack logs, we're rural so do not need kiln dried. We have a small woodland area in which we cut a few trees down every year and there are always new ones growing, plus we have a chain saw so often go and chop fallers for neighbours (got a lovely cherry the other year, burned beautifully) and have log stacks drying out , every summer we pick the oldest stacks and cut and split them to size, and then store them for probably a year or two till they are burned. So if you can generate your own wood it's free. And growing your own is better than carbon neutral IMO.

I run a multifuel stove as my sole heating source. You need to get it swept every year and you need to store the wood. Wood can be very expensive as can smokeless fuel. Then there is the cleaning out. It is messy. And it is dangerous to young children. However my fuel costs are about £500 a year. If you are not running it as a main source this isn't an issue but leaving fuel on over the day has its risks (I have wifi smoke alarm and camera pointing at the fire) and when you come back from a few days away in the winter it takes a day to heat the house up using the warmth of the chimney stack.

We had a log burner in our last house and can't wait to put one in our new one it was just lovely. In the autumn/winter dh would light the fire in time for me coming home from work and I could smell wood smoke as I came up the drive, it was such a great welcome home after a cold commute.

We built a small log store in our back garden that held a bulk bag at a a time and that was sufficient as we used it just for cosiness in our north facing living room. I honestly can't recommend them enough.

Only ever had a few spiders in my log pile but I did once find a very dead, ery squashed, very dried out squirrel

I’ve got both. I love my log burner - there’s something special about sitting by a real fire. BUT gas is easier. We never seem to have enough wood in and there’s more cleaning than a gas fire (though to be fair, there isn’t loads of cleaning but I’m a lazy bugger!).

If you are in a city then log burners might be outlawed soon. Due to particulates. In London they need to be clean burn already.

@Bwlch

Never mind the spiders, we have had hornets wake up and fly around the room.

This has happened to us too. Must have been happily hibernating in the wood pile and was furious to find itself awake and in our lounge!

Hi all, I'm going to be a mega-downer here, forgive me! But please, PLEASE consider the particulates thing.

Wood burners leak nanoparticles inside the house:
Scholarly article here: www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1501573
Guardian write-up here: www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/22/wood-diesel-indoor-stoves-cities-pollution

Those are the same nanoparticles that enter the brain and nervous system and cause mega health problems, especially in children:
www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/06/air-pollution-particles-in-young-brains-linked-to-alzheimers-damage

They are also conclusively linked to causing strokes, heart attacks, cancer - they are super-dangerous and science is only just starting to understand the damage they do. As far as I know/understand, using smokeless fuel and modern burners does not reduce these risks.

Even if you and your immediate family miraculously dodge the dangers inside the house, the burner is still emitting all the nasties out of your chimney to settle into the air, passing on the health risks to your community.

I'm a sucker for a roaring fire and love a snuggly hygge-type evening as much as the next person, but I genuinely believe that wood burners really aren't worth the risk. (FWIW, we've just got pretty decorative tiled fireplaces and good central heating!)