Wood burner advice

[Tertius3]

We’ve recently bought a rural house. It’s larger than we ideally needed but it ticked other boxes and it will be amazing in the spring and summer but I’m now nervous about keeping it warm enough in the winter. We have oil central heating but it’s an old house and drafty and probably very poorly insulated.

so I have decided to invest in a wood burning stove… we don’t have our own wood to season and burn (yet). We will plant a little coppice of Hazel so will have that in 15 years (!) but in the meantime what should we burn? Does anyone know of a good wood supply in East Sussex? Or anywhere that delivers to the south east?

or ideas for alternatives for burning and heating?

im not sure what else we should do. Big, cold house.

thank you in advance for any ideas

We have friends who live rurally who formed a coop with their neighbours to buy wood in bulk.

We just buy from a local merchant and store in the garage.

Try and spend some time making the house as insulated as possible.

Congratulations on the new house! I’m not in your area, I was going to suggest the same as JustJam to just pick up some locally from a ‘country store’ or a tree surgeon/landscaper (a lot round here advertise on fb).

You’re likely to get a few hysterical anti-wood burner posts on mn but I’m asthmatic with a dicky heart, and I practically sit on top of ours all through the winter without any issues.

Also, if you get a multi-fuel burner you can chuck in some phurnacite or similar to keep the fire in overnight. We have oil heating and the fire does a much better job of heating the house, especially when it’s damp outside.

Get a multifuel stove.
Even if you plan to burn wood exclusively at least you'll have options.

Thank you so much for your helpful replies. Yes, we will try and insulate as much as possible. That’s next on my list to work out.

good idea to look into cooperatives, if there are any.

will definitely bear in mind the idea of a multifuel one.

thank you all v much for ideas

If you are near Uckfield these are good www.homefarmlogssussex.co.uk/

I'm in a similar place, not big but 200 years old with oil fired boiler. I invested in a multi fuel stove with a back boiler and had it connected to the existing system. I'm now using half the oil I used to as the boiler gets everything warm then the fire keeps it warm. I turn the boiler off once the fire gets going

We are like you - rural with oil heating. Over the years we have improved the insulation as much as we can, with new windows, very thick loft insulation, cavity wall insulation etc (1970s house) and that has made a terrific difference, plus of course little things like draft excluders and thick curtains all help. Our stove is multi-fuel and the advantage of being able to burn coal is it stays in a long time. It's great to come down to a still glowing stove on a frosty morning. We buy bagged coal in bulk in the autumn, and logs you will find advertised in your local free sheet/parish newsletter or farmers/feed merchant. You will need somewhere dry to store your logs as well. Since the price of oil went crazy (don't know what it is now) we got some more logs and were relying solely on the stove (until the weather warmed up).
One thing if you are getting a stove - get one with a cooking area/hot plate on the top. I am very concerned not only about fuel costs but also the reliability of the electricity supply from this winter on. It wouldn't hurt to have somewhere extra to cook on, would It?

Great thoughts - thank you so much

During the recent storms lots of trees blew down in the park nearby. Our local council said we could help ourselves as it lightened their post-storm clear up workload.

Get a multi fuel burner and the number of a few local coal merchants. They usually offer wood also.