Cost to remove gas fire and install wood burner

[TeaChocKitKat]

I'm buying a house which used to have a coal fire (it has a chimney). There's currently an ugly gas fire there - I'd love to get rid of it and replace it with a wood burner. Assuming the chimney still works, how much do you think it will cost?

The house is from the 1960s so any suggestions on how to do it sympathetically with the house are also gratefully received!
Thanks

Yeah hysterical, if there were 750 hgvs running in my house I’d be dead within ten seconds.😶‍🌫️

Thing is, I'm really sensitive to car pollution. Like I constantly marvel at anyone who can stand near the running exhaust of a car doing stuff (like loading the boot). That exhaust is intolerable, feel like I'm suffocating. My eyes sting in response -- similar to walking into smelly (disinfectant or soap-laden) areas of some shops/public toilets, and I can feel oilseed rape pollen in my eyes, too. Much Worse when it's a big diesel bus/lorry. I see people stand in the bus fumes all the time, I cannot fathom how they tolerate it.

I have zero reaction to our wood burner. I do hold my breath when removing/piling ashes. Just like when emptying the vacuum cleaner. Maybe no reaction because we only use wood not coal. I can smell the wood burning outside sometimes. The cats would climb inside burner if safe: they show no signs of respiratory distress. One of my DC does have occasional wheezing, only when he also has a cold/worse, I will grant that. Nobody else in the house shows signs of respiratory diminishment. DH has a Vo2max off the scales anyway, I suppose, I think the wheezy kid has high Vo2max too which is why wheezy kid can't be diagnosed with intermittant asthma.

Anyway, it's a funny "just like HGV in your house!" claim when I know for sure having a log burner is nothing like having an HGV in the house. speaking as someone who can barely tolerate HGVs outside the house.

So remove ALL domestic fires and we are still left with 83% and remember that 17% also includes open fires and multi stoves.

750 HGVs is based on unit per energy produced... and most lorries and diesel engines on UK roads are not "modern"

Its an in accurate comparison.

I agree it’s not an accurate comparison, but the point the PP was making is you wouldn’t accept a HGV in your house so why a wood-burner….. when they produce the same particulates.

The reason exhausts fumes kill you is carbon monoxide, but we aren’t talking about that.

Yes vehicles also cause huge amounts of PM2.5 which is the reason for a lot of recent controls (e.g. the ULEZ in London)
But wood burners and fires also cause pollution.

Oh, and I really, really hate the term ‘hysterical’ being used on MN.

But that’s you, isn’t it?

What your particular lungs and immune system reacts to in the moment.

Other people have different triggers.

What this doesn’t show in any way is the long-term effects of the particulates you breathe in. Or their effect on others.

The 750 HGVs comparison hasn’t been made up. The fact you can’t detect the particulates in the moment doesn’t neutralise the harm they do. If anything, it makes it worse, doesn’t it? Because the lack of immediate effect is leading you to dismiss the evidence of long-term health impacts and potentially not take action.

Ah, you’re confusing the particulates with the other emissions from the HGV, like CO. Yes, that would kill you in seconds. The particulates will kill you in a few decades. Does that make them ok, then?

And some people ARE killed by particulates more quickly. Like those whose asthma is triggered immediately by them.

Op, I’ve always had wood stoves current one was ( 5 years ago ) stove £1650 Charnwood arc 5 with stand (it’s £2400 now ). Granite hearth £400 , flue and all the bits £600. It’s probably more costly now.

For a whole install with a decent stove ( clearview are excellent) your probably looking at about 4-5k

I source free wood all year so costs nothing to run in the winter and the money it’s saved on heating over the years far outweigh the installation cost.

we dry clothes in front of it too, and never get any smoke,fumes in house ( if you do your not using it correctly). I wouldn’t be without one it makes winter a lot more bearable.

plenty of doom mongers on here about how burning wood is going to bring the environment to its knees 😶‍🌫️. They should be more worried about what they are going to do when putin drops a few nukes and the gas goes off 💣

luckily I’ve got plenty of 🪵🪵🪵🪵 stored.

here’s ours.

This might not be useful either but this is what happened to me.

I thought I smelt gas and called the emergency gas leak service. They arrived promptly and after checks reported no gas leak. I mentioned I didn’t use the gas fire and they disconnected it and capped it off. No charge.

Monbiot has been debunked far too often to take seriously.

The Guardian loves eccentric opinionated folks.

We're lied to daily so stir a tablespoon of scepticism into your cuppa when dealing with the media.

No need to rely on Monbiot at all. Why not look at the research evidence? Which shows wood burning is very harmful to health.

truth is that all threads on MN about wood burners descend to hysterical scare-mongering.

I'm surprised that ReedRite said "that's you" because it's a concession that woodburners might only be harmful to some people's health. I thought the hysterics wanted to claim using woodburners was harmful to absolutely everyone's health.

I have asthma for many years check my peak flow now and again it's exactly the same every time, winter and summer. Pollen on the other hand has me sneezing, eyes watering. Logs I'm fine with

Asthma is more prevalent now than ever. 70 years ago there was no central heating for most of us. Open fires the norm and you burnt everything on them.

Asthma it's not about log burners is it?

Why is it "hysterical scare mongering" ?

There's plenty of research demonstrating that woodburning emits harmful particulates from respected journals.

For me, you make a personal choice as regards your own space. Either a person ignores or doesn't believe the research and suffers the consequences of that, or they do believe it. But I think it's obvious that there is scientific evidence out there that people should read in order to make an informed decision.

As regards the greater environment, I think in cities wood burning should and will be banned eventually, in the same way coal was. There is no point getting rid of all the pollution due to cars only to replace it with that from burning wood. In the countryside I think its a different issue, because the lack of population density means dispersal of the pollution is much better.

I said ‘that’s you’ because you appeared to think it was a decent argument that because you personally didn’t detect a harmful effect that there wasn’t one!

Not that I disbelieve the solid evidence that they are harmful for everyone. I don’t disbelieve it. There’s no reason to disbelieve it. I’d be a fool if I did.

The people who do disbelieve it appear to not want to face the facts that their lovely cosy wood burners are harmful. ‘I don’r want it to be true because I don’t want to give up my nice thing, so it can’t be’. <stick fingers in ears and sing ‘la la la’>.

Not sure where you think any of my posts have been ‘hysterical’, but happy to consider that point if you’d like to point me in the direction of the wording that bothers you.

You must be mad. Never in a million years would I have my wood burner if we had mains gas. They are fashionable now but in areas with no gas people have always used fires. Aside from pollution they are a lot of work, you need mountains of wood and somewhere dry to store it and they don't heat the place as quickly as flicking on a switch.
I'd just get a nicer gas fire.

We have mains gas but live rurally. If the electricity goes off we lose all heating and cooking, the gas boiler still needs electricity to turn on, so having the log burner installed and getting the range working again is sensible for us so we aren't completely reliant on electricity.

Plus wood is expensive.

Funny how things turn around. Back in the day people would probably have killed to have heat like a gas fire at the flick of a switch, rather than having to find wood, chop it get it lit, clean it out etc. Now people want it as a status symbol.

There is also the point that for the extra cost of installation of a wood burning stove, maybe as much as £2K? over a gas fire you can burn a hell of a lot of gas.

I would probably try to get a better gas fire in this instance. Be cheaper, cleaner and less hassle.

Why do you lose cooking ? I have a gas hob and it operates when the electric is down no issues.

@TiredandLate some very short memories here. Three months ago government warning us about blackouts the grid not coping. We all had to cut back on electricity and gas. The increasing energy costs being an added incentive. Many of us have. Fewer radiators on for far fewer hours. We have four on now. Three hours in the morning, four hours in the evening. Outside the sitting room with the log burner the temperature is 14c everywhere by lunchtime. Costs £300 per month.

We're double glazed throughout, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation. So we're luckier than many. I like to think we're all more energy aware this winter. I really don't want power cuts. They'll Hurt many people.

So no I'm not apologising for a log burner, when I'm saving gas and electricity for the good of all.

@TiredandLate We live rurally and have oil central heating, no gas, that's the only reason I keep the stove. It was mothballed for a few years and I used electric oil heaters for supplementary heat. I hate it with a passion even though it's useful because it has a back boiler and heats the water.
We also have frequent power cuts and no mobile signal.

No, i have a WB because without it, i would be faced with astronomical electricity and oil bills and is burning oil some sort of panacea?

As for damage to health, maybe we need to focus on the excess deaths caused by hypothermia in the elderly caused by (sorry to bang on) a terrible energy support policy that favours the rich.

Not deaths caused in decades time but within a few days of freezing temps.

Some but not all modern hobs cut the gas flow when electricity is off, we had one, had no idea it had this feature when we bought it.

BIL has one and if forever coughing.

Ours was 4k about 5 years ago. Can honestly say it was one of the best decisions we made in this house. Get one of the Defra approved new ones and also only burn seasoned wood or smokeless fuel

its not the cheap option but it’s hugely efficient heating and just lovely having it going on a cold day

That needs sorting. Ironically some people the coughing is caused by the log basket contents, that's an allergy . Your BIL needs to get his tested, stove, flue, chimney. Then get checked over at the GPs.

I hope he discovers and solves the problem.