Multi fuel burner heating

[BilliousBob]

I looked at a property today. Many pros and cons to a move so im on the fence atm.

The house had a multifuel stove which heated every radiator in the house. No gas and an immersion for water when the fire isnt lit. Im wondering if this would be a massive hassle. Will it heat the house adequately and are my visions of the fire going out at night, waking up to a cold house and then needing to glear out ashes and dust and relight the fire at the crack of dawn valid? I can see it would be a plus in these times, but also, as a single parent..a massive hassle lugging logs about and cleaning out fires everyday. What is it like? Will i be warm? Its basically an end terrace, stone cottage.

I have a log burner and I love it, however I also have central heating.
I personally wouldn't be keen if the only heat in the house was a burner.
Wood isn't cheap unless you have access to free wood and then you need space to season (we leave ours for a year normally). To keep the fire burning well, we prob put a new log on every half hour so yes it can be a lot of moving wood around.
I don't mind cleaning our stove out but that's probably because we don't use it all the time.
You also need to make sure you have plenty of space to keep the wood - we have 3 separate storage areas.
I'm not much help for you really. Sorry!

I wouldn’t do it. You will be constantly lugging logs about. If you don’t top it up every half hour, it will go out. Logs are usually delivered in a huge pile that you have to stack yourself. They aren’t cheap either. As a parent, be aware that emissions from multi fuel stoves are not healthy.

On the plus side, with practice, you can ‘damp down’ a fire so it’s still alight in the morning and if you only burn wood, it’s actually best not to clear out the ash as it burns better on a bed of ash (and the ash disappears to almost nothing so you won’t have to clean it very often). It should also heat the radiators and keep the whole house toasty - if you are around all day to top up the fire.

We have a multifuel stove but in practice we only burn wood.
As above for ashing out.
It warms two radiators and the hot water tank.
We also have an electric loop, immersion and a solar loop on the water tank so that covers us through our the year.
We also have central heating going up the other end of the house running radiators.
So we basically have a system for deep winter, everything on. Chilly evenings - wood burner. Feel lazy - central heating.

We have access to wood but it takes a huge amount of time and effort to cut, split, move and stack but is free and keeps us fit.
The the kids were tiny, I had a couple of coal deliveries. Easier to bank overnight.

I riule the fire, DH is rubbish, I don't know why, he just can't get the hang of it. I'm ace.

Thanks. I have access to plenty of logs and theres good storage for seasoning. ...but bloody hell...one every half an hour? Thats intense. For those people who's only source of heat is the radiators fired by the log burner, how is it? Does it keep the whole house warm. Also, can you burn Lime? I ve got some massive limes that need takng down. @HomeRabbit yes, i feel you! I like the whole hearth thing. I think it could get annoying though.

Thanks, this is really useful.

@reallyhatewinter no thats really helpful. Thanks. Also @Whatevergetsyouthroughthenight good to know re emmissions. Im really not down with poisioning my child.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/01/avoid-using-wood-burning-stoves-if-possible-warn-health-experts

Mines a 12kw, quite large, probably 14inch long logs max.

I set fire to it, come back ten minutes later, close bottom damper, load more logs. Get them going, close top damper, fire will keep in happily for a few hours. I don't find the actual firing takes much time. You soon get into a routine.

Modern woodburners are really controllable. If you are burning decent seasoned wood very little smoke. Easy to bank up and ignore.
Bit more dusty but not crazy. Certainly on par with living near major roads or old lime plaster cottage type.