Alternative to wood burner, rural area

[PennyDiamond]

We live in a rural hamlet. No gas. Currently oil heating & hot water, but changing to air source heat pump soon (properly assessed as suitable, family member in the trade).

Planning to put a wood burner in the living room as a backup in case of power cuts, but having read the information lately about particulates and pollution am stuck on what to do.

What would you do/have you done in such a situation?

The most eco is probably to have an electric fire and make sure you have a green energy supply /your own renewably energy source. Or with ASHP, don't bother with the fire, just have under floor heating and good insulation.

Personally, we have a fire. The house came with one and when we renovate the lounge (do-er upper) we will be putting a log burner in. We will get on which is defra approved and use 'eco fuel' - not perfect but we try hard in other areas, we love a real fire and it's a reasonable compromise.

I’ve just ordered a bio ethanol stove (that is actually a proper wood burner that has been repurpose), as I too was concerned about the environmental and health effects of a wood burner (even the DEFRA approved “eco” ones..). Granted, it will not kick out anywhere near the heat of a wood burner, but I’ll get the aesthetic of a wood burner which is important to me, rather than a flimsy looking electric fire, and it’s also a real flame.

I like the idea of an electric fire, apart from when/if there’s a power cut.
I guess I’m used to having a backup/two fuel sources in case one goes down. Doesn’t happen often, but feel like I should prepare for it.

I’ll look at bioethanol thank you.

Ok, I know you’ve been assessed for the heat pump by a relative but please can I double check you live in a modern build house with mega insulation?!….

It’s a 80s house with added external insulation/render.
Upgrading to underfloor heating downstairs, bigger bore radiators upstairs and a heat recovery system.

It's not the stove/burner that's the problem, it's the fuel. So as long as you buy the right fuel for it, I'd have one as a backup. We are the same as you, rural and rely on an estate calor gas tank. Had a 9hour power cut one winter, only heat for the kids was the stove. It's really sensible to have a backup.

I’d just use the log burner and try to keep a decent stock of well seasoned hard wood.

We use open fires with coal and an oil fired Rayburn though so are at a different end of the eco spectrum.

@fakelondoner, DH has been looking at bioethanol stoves - we were after a woodburner but have been dissuaded by the pollution aspect. Do you mind me asking which stove you have and where you source the fuel?

I’ve ordered this one www.stoveworlduk.co.uk/hampton-5-bio-stove

I haven’t received it yet so have not ordered the fuel yet but I don’t think it’s hard to find.

Sorry that was to @bogeythefungusman

We live in a village with no mains gas - we have Calor gas cylinders and electric heating. Our neighbors have a heat pump and it’s only worth it because they have solar panels on the roof and a good feed in tariff - our houses are solidly built post war, with modern windows and good insulation but even then it is difficult to make a heat pump work well and cheaply.

We have electric underfloor heating in our extension but we did have to completely dig out and insulate the floor which wasn’t cheap.

There is no way I would be without the log burner - it’s an efficient way of heating most of our house, as the chimney runs up the centre, not an outside wall. We use well seasoned hardwood.

Realistically there isn’t much alternative for us.

Anything electric, like a fire, is going to cost a fortune to run (and an increasing fortune, with the way electricity bills are going) - your electric bills will also rise because of the heat pump. Seeing this government seems to be determined to make people in this country colder and poorer, I would do anything to make sure you have an adequate and reliable source of non electricity dependent heat, which would include a woodburner or multi - fuel stove.
We live rurally and get a lot of power cuts. It is also quite likely, due to this government's continued power mismanagement, we may end up have scheduled power cuts this winter. We have oil central heating, backed up by a multi fuel stove and two calor gas heaters. No way am I freezing to death.

How big? - are you expecting the heat pump to manage the radiators upstairs as well as the underfloor downstairs? If you proceed absolutely make sure you put in a solid fuel alternative….you’ll be glad you did.

If you are in a rural area I think a wood burner is OK. The smoke and particulates will disperse.

It's in towns and cities where the pollution builds up that I think it's irresponsible.

Just need to make sure you get one that burns really clean and only use really well seasoned wood.

You will probably also only use it on the coldest days, and it's a useful back up.

As the heat exchanger gives less hot water than say oil, you will have to run it longer to achieve the same warming. (Though bigger radiators might help there) - if you run it longer you need electricity to do that. So that can be expensive.
DH knows a bit about heating - he says ethanol is alcohol so you would need a booze license to have it at home
I think the Gov are saying well seasoned completely dry logs produce very little emissions. We store our logs for over a year in a shed which is open to the wind then bring them indoors for a few weeks to dry it fully before using them - but they burn away quite quickly so you need a big store.

@MamsellMarie can you elaborate on what you mean by a ‘booze licence’? Or does he mean if you are manufacturing it?

Re wood burners, worth reading the following

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/09/eco-wood-stoves-emit-pollution-hgv-ecodesign

Every time the word woodburner is mentioned on this forum someone puts that article up 😀

The best radiators are the ancient huge cast iron ones. Solar panels can help to offset the cost of a heat pump.

We had one linked to a modern oil-fired boiler and a 4 oven electric Aga. The house was 3 storey built in stone and we had double glazing and loft insulation. The walls were nearly 2ft thick. Our total bills were about 2000€/year and some years it didn't get cold enough to use oil at all. But, there was one year that it went to -15°C, we were at the end of the network with an overhead supply and the cold split the inside of the pump in 2. It cost a fortune to repair.

I've had underfloor heating in a modern rural house and that worked well, but we had tiled floors. There are firms that use reclaimed hardwood which is much nicer underfoot, especially in kitchens as it's much kinder to calf muscles.

@MamsellMarie

As the heat exchanger gives less hot water than say oil, you will have to run it longer to achieve the same warming. (Though bigger radiators might help there) - if you run it longer you need electricity to do that. So that can be expensive. DH knows a bit about heating - he says ethanol is alcohol so you would need a booze license to have it at home I think the Gov are saying well seasoned completely dry logs produce very little emissions. We store our logs for over a year in a shed which is open to the wind then bring them indoors for a few weeks to dry it fully before using them - but they burn away quite quickly so you need a big store.

In the same way I have licensed my house to keep a bottle of gin in the cupboard and meths in the shed 😂.

You could buy a hepa air filter that goes down to .01 microns to improve the internal air quality, but obviously that doesn't solve the power cut problem as it'll need power to run!

I'd get the wood burner. Any pollution concerns are not really relevant for your usage/location.

[quote fakelondoner]@MamsellMarie can you elaborate on what you mean by a ‘booze licence’? Or does he mean if you are manufacturing it?

Re wood burners, worth reading the following

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/09/eco-wood-stoves-emit-pollution-hgv-ecodesign[/quote]
That article is such hysterical agenda-driven rubbish. It's only talking about particulates, and modern trucks have exhaust particulate filters so of course that will be true.
For comparison a garden bonfire probably emits 10million times the particulates of a HGV. Meaningless statistic.

There is often a powercut in winter living rurally and a woodstove is the difference between freezing and not. You can cook on them, heat some water.

If you don't I'd look into having an independant back up generator.

@FurierTransform
Yes. Tiny particulates that are harmful to health. Not sure what your point is? Guessing you have a wood burner of your own.

If you read that article,the testing was done under laboratory conditions 🙄. The data also comes from Denmark 🤔